Black Beetles in Amber

I've sometimes wished that Ingersoll were wise

To hold his tongue, nor rail against the skies;

For when he's made a point some pious dunce

Like Bartlett of the Bulletin "replies."

I brandish no iconoclastic fist,

Nor enter the debate an atheist;

But when they say there is a God I ask

Why Bartlett, then, is suffered to exist.

Even infidels that logic might resent,

Saying: "There's no place for his punishment

That's worse than earth." But humbly I submit

That he would make a hell wherever sent.