{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:tribute-to-george-jacob-holyoake",
  "slug": "tribute-to-george-jacob-holyoake",
  "title": "A Tribute to George Jacob Holyoake",
  "subtitle": "English freethinker and coiner of the word \\\"secularism.\\\"",
  "excerpt": "Tribute to George Jacob Holyoake — the English freethinker, cooperator, and the man who coined the word 'secularism.'",
  "year": 1884,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Tribute",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/tribute-to-george-jacob-holyoake/",
  "wordCount": 1186,
  "body": "A Tribute to George Jacob Holyoake\n\nTWO articles have recently appeared attacking the motives of George\nJacob Holyoake. He is spoken of as a man governed by a desire to please\nthe rich and powerful, as one afraid of public opinion and who in the\nperilous hour denies or conceals his convictions.\n\nIn these attacks there is not one word of truth. They are based upon\nmistakes and misconceptions.\n\nThere is not in this world a nobler, braver man. In England he has done\nmore for the great cause of intellectual liberty than any other man\nof this generation. He has done more for the poor, for the children of\ntoil, for the homeless and wretched than any other living man. He has\nattacked all abuses, all tyranny and all forms of hypocrisy. His weapons\nhave been reason, logic, facts, kindness, and above all, example. He has\nlived his creed. He has won the admiration and respect of his bitterest\nantagonists. He has the simplicity of childhood, the enthusiasm of\nyouth and the wisdom of age. He is not abusive, but he is clear and\nconclusive.. He is intense without violence—firm without anger. He has\nthe strength of perfect kindness. He does not hate—he pities. He does\nnot attack men and women, but dogmas and creeds. And he does not attack\nthem to get the better of people, but to enable people to get the better\nof them. He gives the light he has. He shares his intellectual wealth\nwith the orthodox poor. He assists without insulting, guides without\narrogance, and enlightens without outrage. Besides, he is eminent for\nthe exercise of plain common sense. He knows that there are wrongs\nbesides those born of superstition—that people are not necessarily\nhappy because they have renounced the Thirty-nine Articles—and that\nthe priest is not the only enemy of mankind. He has for forty years been\npreaching and practicing industry, economy, self-reliance, and kindness.\nHe has done all within his power to give the workingman a better home,\nbetter food, better wages, and better opportunities for the education\nof his children. He has demonstrated the success of co-operation—of\nintelligent combination for the common good. As a rule, his methods have\nbeen perfectly legal. In some instances he has knowingly violated the\nlaw, and did so with the intention to take the consequences. He would\nneither ask nor accept a pardon, because to receive a pardon carries\nwith it the implied promise to keep the law, and an admission that\nyou were in the wrong. He would not agree to desist from doing what he\nbelieved ought to be done, neither would he stain his past to brighten\nhis future, nor imprison his soul to free his body. He has that happy\nmingling of gentleness and firmness found only in the highest type of\nmoral heroes. He is an absolutely just man, and will never do an act\nthat he would condemn in another. He admits that the most bigoted\nchurchman has a perfect right to express his opinions not only, but\nthat he must be met with argument couched in kind and candid terms. Mr.\nHolyoake is not only the enemy of a theological hierarchy, but he is\nalso opposed to mental mobs. He will not use the bludgeon of epithet.\n\nPerfect fairness is regarded by many as weakness. Some people have\naltogether more confidence in their beliefs than in their own arguments.\nThey resort to assertion. If what they assert be denied, the \"debate\"\nbecomes a question of veracity. On both sides of most questions there\nare plenty of persons who imagine that logic dwells only in adjectives,\nand that to speak kindly of an opponent is a virtual surrender.\n\nMr. Holyoake attacks the church because it has been, is, and ever will\nbe the enemy of mental freedom, but he does not wish to deprive the\nchurch even of its freedom to express its opinion against freedom. He\nis true to his own creed, knowing that when we have freedom we can take\ncare of all its enemies.\n\nIn one of the articles to which I have referred it is charged that Mr.\nHolyoake refused to sign a petition for the pardon of persons convicted\nof blasphemy. If this is true, he undoubtedly had a reason satisfactory\nto himself. You will find that his action, or his refusal to act, rests\nupon a principle that he would not violate in his own behalf.\n\nWhy should we suspect the motives of this man who has given his life\nfor the good of others? I know of no one who is his mental or moral\nsuperior. He is the most disinterested of men. His name is a synonym\nof candor. He is a natural logician—an intellectual marksman. Like an\nunerring arrow his thought flies to the heart and center. He is\ngoverned by principle, and makes no exception in his own favor. He is\nintellectually honest. He shows you the cracks and flaws in his own\nwares. He calls attention to the open joints and to the weakest links.\nHe does not want a victory for himself, but for truth. He wishes to\nexpose and oppose, not men, but error. He is blessed with that cloudless\nmental vision that appearances cannot deceive, that interest cannot\ndarken, and that even ingratitude cannot blur. Friends cannot induce\nand enemies cannot drive this man to do an act that his heart and brain\nwould not applaud. That such a character was formed without the aid\nof the church, without the hope of harp or fear of flame, is a\ndemonstration against the necessity of superstition.\n\nWhoever is opposed to mental bondage, to the shackles wrought by cruelty\nand worn by fear, should be the friend of this heroic and unselfish man.\n\nI know something of his life—something of what he has suffered—of what\nhe has accomplished for his fellow-men. He has been maligned, imprisoned\nand impoverished. \"He bore the heat and burden of the unregarded day\"\nand \"remembered the misery of the many.\" For years his only recompense\nwas ingratitude. At last he was understood. He was recognized as an\nearnest, honest, gifted, generous, sterling man, loving his country,\nsympathizing with the poor, honoring the useful, and holding in supreme\nabhorrence tyranny and falsehood in all their forms. The idea that this\nman could for a moment be controlled by any selfish motive, by the\nhope of preferment, by the fear of losing a supposed annuity, is\nsimply absurd. The authors of these attacks are not acquainted with Mr.\nHolyoake. Whoever dislikes him does not know him.\n\nRead his \"Trial of Theism\"—his history of \"Co-operation in England\"—if\nyou wish to know his heart—to discover the motives of his life—the\ndepth and tenderness of his sympathy—the nobleness of his nature—the\nsubtlety of his thought—the beauty of his spirit—the force and volume\nof his brain—the extent of his information—his candor, his kindness,\nhis genius, and the perfect integrity of his stainless soul.\n\nThere is no man for whom I have greater respect, greater reverence,\ngreater love, than George Jacob Holyoake.—\n\nAugust 8, 1883.\n"
}