Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-05-04
A Crime Against Chrfstianfty.

he did not forget the lesson.
O>O
A Crime Against Christianity.
once there was book. 1t was most Won
derful book. 1t contained history and biog-
raphy, and poetry, and letters, and essays.
and drama-in short. it was many books in
one. think it was the greatest and best book
that ever was written.
Scarcely had this book come into general
notice, when great conspiracy against its
life was formed. This conspiracy involved
men OF various nationalities, and has entenled
through several centuries. Strange To say the
conSplfatorS were mostly scholars. and large
numbers OF them were apparently upright and
CONSCIENTIOUS men: from whom you wo iii
nave expected nothing bui the ftireSt de llng
toward their fellow men. or toward any theory
or doctrine or publication; no matter how
muG a th ts mlght be opposed to it. or how per
A few OF the more violent conSpiratOrS
wanted to suppress the book by burning every
copy of it that could be reached, and to SOM
extent they carried out this plan But thai
was gross and Intellectual process, compared
with the one adopted by The great majority
These, while professingto be friendly to the
book, to hold it in the highest esteem and to
desire that all men should become acquainted
with i, went to work to prevent the reading
Of it by making it unreadable. To this end
hey expended vast amount of ingenuity
and the success which has attended their eff
for is one of the saddest calamites thatever
hefel mankind.
One of the cOnspiratOrS went through the
entire book, and broke it into little para
graphs, from one to ten lines long often
making the break where there was no more
division than comma: and then these little
paragraphs were OStentatiouSly numbered,
giving 1t, to an exaggerated degree, the re
ruslVe appearance OF school reader. With
very few recent exceptions, this preposter-
every edition for three hundred years: and
even In the exceptional ones it is indi-
Gated by hgureS in the margin, SO strong is
the power of precedent, though it be mani
feStly wrong
The conspirators then caused large mum,
Der OF the words, for no sufficient reason. to
IS spotted and defaced with them. NeXf they
pioughed lane down through the middle of
each page, and filled it with microscopic
figures and authorizations, and at the same
time peppered the entire text with letters and
figures and daggers and double daggers and
parallels and section marks. all referring to
hose little eye-trylng affairs in the lane. Then
they loaded down the ,ble old book with a
pOnderous mass of fOOt-nOtes, many of them
valuable but many OF them the merest tru-
iSms: and this gave them an opportunity to
pepper the text with more figures and letters
and daggers and double daggers and parallels
and section marks.
-, With all this they passed an unwri,tel law
that tile book should always be printed in one
VOume-a law which has been transgressed
in but few instances. But as it contains alb 1ut
as much matter after as Macau!ay's History, of
Volumes, this law makes 1t necessary either to
have the book so large as to be unwieldy. or
the type so small that it cannot be read with
'| The conseonanoo &c uho+ r,;o,. hoo ,ox
expected. Though more copies of this book
have been circulated than OF any other, COM
fsmisr With NV peUpe ftao IL SO as 10 become
so doing. 1t contains some of the most i'm
POI caht niEstoIy ever Written: yet there are
eager ledueIs OF history VINO know almost
nolHing dD0ut II. one OF It's contributors was
the finest philosophical essayists that ever put
pen 70 paper; yet there are readers of Bacon
anu AM Lamp y, an ana montague VINO are Wofully
ignorant OF his writings: There are deyourers
OF poetry who do not know what lyrics are
1nIleq mere ana play-gOers and students of
rnsed nna h,e f VINO have never pc
,hI r thousand years old: because it is secured
behind the typographical cheuduc-de.frise
"n n,i nave described.
splracy than the loss to literature. 1t happens
that from the book which is the victim of it
comes me ihignest fnstractlon to millions Of
| hope in death-the history of the origin of our
| race, and, the prophecy of lis destiny-the
| promise OF peace and contentment in this life,
| and OF happiness in the hereafter. Out of ali
| who firmly believe this those who examine the
| record for themselves are exceedingly few.
| They listen to fragmentary readings of the
| scholars and teachers who draw various and
sometimes conflicting doctrines therefrom,
and they adopt one or another Of these without
its conventional form. the book has come to
have different look to them from any Other
| book Not only are they unable to read il with
essay or poetry, but when they do read it they
| hnd 1t impossible to appreciate it. and judge
OF 1t as they would OF any other printed mat
Ter; mere IS an atmosphere OF taboo about it,
TONS in the teeth of the unanimous testimony
OF scholars, the most manifest errors of copy
| If one book must be singled out and doomed
never to receive decent typographical treat
ment, it should have been any other, rather
| the effect of giving it fair chance. believe
| it would be read if it were made readable.
| We ought to have one edition of it without
| marginal references and without foot notes
unless in the rare cases where these are ahso