Col. Ingersoll begins his lectures on famous people as follows: "It is hard to overstate the debt we owe to the men and women of genius. Take from our world what they have given, and all the niches would be empty, all the walls naked—meaning and connection would fall from words of poetry and fiction, music would go back to common air, and all the forms of subtle and enchanting Art would lose proportion and become the unmeaning waste and shattered spoil of thoughtless Chance." One of the most famous orators of his day, a contemporary and personal friend of Mark Twain and General Grant, Ingersoll's lectures on famous people in this series include: SHAKESPEARE, ROBERT BURNS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VOLTAIRE, WALT WHITMAN; followed by inspiring speeches on THE GREAT INFIDELS; WHICH WAY? (science or superstition); and ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. Each lecture in Volume 3, plus 2 lectures on HUMBOLDT and THOMAS PAINE from Volume 1, and an essay on ERNEST RENAN from Volume 11 (of the 12 volume Dresden Edition), are presented on Librivox as a separate audiobook in the series called Ingersoll Lectures, Famous People. ( Michele Fry)
