Excerpt from A Book of Calumny The title borne by this little boo was not my invention, and got my imprimatur only rather grudgingly and at the last moment. I consented to it, in fact, simply to avoid a long and costly telegraphic debate with the publisher, from whom I was separated by 200 miles. The Damn part seemed to me to be too heavily dev ilish and sforzando - a fit label for a book by a sensational gentleman of God or a wicked college professor. As for the Book of Calumny part, it plainly mis represented the work itself, which is chicfiy devoted, not to calumniating things, but to defending and praising them. Thus, I even go so far as to speak for alcohol, war and the Jews, all of which are usually execrated: Still more, I argue that 99 per cent. Of the married men of America are faithful to their wives: a doc trine absolutely novel, and so much atodds with current superstition as to appear almost ironical. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.