Читать книгу The Essential Works of Robert G. Ingersoll - Robert Green Ingersoll - Страница 152

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He was in every fibre of his being a sincere democrat. He was a believer in the people—in the sacred rights of man. He believed that honest peasants were superior to titled parasites. He knew the so-called "gentrv" of his time.

In one of his letters to Dr. Moore is this passage: "It takes a few dashes into the world to give the young great man that proper, decent, unnoticing disregard for the poor, insignificant, stupid devils—the mechanics and peasantry around him—who were born in the same village."

He knew the infinitely cruel spirit of caste—a spirit that despises the useful—the children of toil—those who bear the burdens of the world.

"If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave,

By nature's law design'd,

Why was an independent wish

E'er planted in my mind?

If not, why am I subject to .

His cruelty, or scorn?

Or why has man the will and pow'r

To make his fellow mourn?"

Against the political injustice of his time—against the artificial distinctions among men by which the lowest were regarded as the highest—he protested in the great poem, "A man's a man for a' that," every line of which came like lava from his heart.

"Is there, for honest poverty,

That hangs his head, and a' that?

The coward-slave, we pass him by,

We dare be poor for a' that!

For a' that, and a' that,

Our toils obscure, and a' that;

The rank is but the guinea stamp;

The man's the gowd for a' that."

"What tho' on hamely fare we dine,

Wear hodden-gray, and a' that;

Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,

A man's a man for a' that.

For a' that, and a' that,

Their tinsel show, and a' that;

The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,

Is king o' men for a' that."

"Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,

Wha struts, and stares, and a' that;

Tho' hundreds worship at his word,

He's but a coof for a' that;

For a' that, and a' that,

His riband, star, and a' that,

The man' o' independent mind,

He looks and laughs at a' that."

"A prince can mak' a belted knight,

A marquis, duke, and a' that;

But an honest man's aboon his might,

Guid faith he mauna fa' that!

For a' that, and a' that,

Their dignities, and a' that,

The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth,

Are higher ranks than a' that.

"Then let us pray that come it may,

As come it will for a' that;

That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,

May bear the gree and a' that.

For a' that, and a' that;

It's cornin' yet for a' that

That man to man, the warld o'er,

Shall brithers be for a' that."

No grander declaration of independence was ever uttered. It stirs the blood like a declaration of war. It is the apotheosis of honesty, independence, sense and worth. And it is a prophecy of that better day when men will be brothers the world over.