Essay · 1918
The Comstockian Premiss
by H. L. Mencken · from Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918)
From Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918): H. L. Mencken’s The Comstockian Premiss, complete and free to read. Among the things it takes aim at: organized religion, fundamentalism, American democracy.
It is argued against certain books, by virtuosi of moral alarm, that they depict vice as attractive. This recalls the king who hanged a judge for deciding that an archbishop was a mammal.
From Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918). Public-domain text, sourced from Project Gutenberg.