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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 1

Preface by the Author to First Edition

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Preface by the Author to First Edition.

So long as fear rules the heart; so long as superstition controls men's actions; so long as imagination creates a god of horror who rules with despotic tyranny; so long as ignorance can be made to believe that the preacher or priest is in someway a go-between or agent between man and the powers in the clouds, that he is a sky pilot, directly commissioned by deity to attend to god's affairs on earth; and that the priest's person and office are sacred; just so long and no longer will such a useless class of men be possible as the modern priesthood.

If, then, it is made to appear that the preachers as a class are more criminal than any other class of people; that they are so without the excuse of want or ignorance; without reason other than because of their lazy lives and false creeds; then their dupes cannot learn that fact too soon.

These data are drawn almost entirely from the report as the same was published in some newspaper, the article having been clipped out and preserved in a scrap-book duly indexed. The author will be grateful to anyone who will cut out and send him any such, sending name of paper and date, as this interesting record will be continued, unless Anthony Comstock shall prohibit it as "obscene."

Waverly, Iowa.