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Essay · 1918

Off Again, on Again

by H. L. Mencken · from Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918)

The ostensible object of the Reformation, which lately reached its fourth centenary, was to purge the Church of imbecilities. That object was accomplished; the Church shook them off. But imbecilities make an irresistible appeal to man; he inevitably tries to preserve them by cloaking them with religious sanctions. The result is Protestantism.

From Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918). Public-domain text, sourced from Project Gutenberg.

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