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��THE PUBLICATION
OF
THE NEW KORAN.
A FEW WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR.
In the autumn of 1861,1 published a didactic poem, in Scriptural
style and arrangement, called the New Koran.
It was my
original intention to carry out the whole edition to Constanti
nople, and distribute it among the English and American
residents there, with the view of making it the banner of an
ambitious reformation movement. Finally, on getting it through
the press, circumstances compelled me to relinquish this plan,
and risk its publication in London, where it sold badly, and even
so far as it did sell, failed altogether to kindle any enthusiasm,
or lead to any organic action among religious reformers. Last
summer, when I had neither seen nor heard anything of the
book for a year and a-half, it was brought under the notice of
the Rev. C. Voysey, by one of the members of his congregation
at St. George’s Hall. No person who had hitherto read it could
so well understand and appreciate its aim: the story of the
Jewish reformer (Jaido Morata), struggling with difficulties, con
tending against superstitions, gathering followers from all sects,
and carrying on the same catholic and cosmopolitan work in Pales
tine which he was himself endeavouring to accomplish in London,
naturally afforded him the highest interest and pleasure, not
withstanding minor differences of doctrine appearing in a few of
the chapters, and it is through calling attention to it in some of
his sermons that it has recently sold well, and the whole of the
copies being at length disposed of, inquiries are now made for
a new edition.
So far as the literary part of the task goes, there will be no
difficulty in supplying a second edition, since I have already
carefully revised the book and added to it several important
�2
chapters. In order, however, that no prospective reader may
be disappointed as to the nature and extent of the alterations
which have been made, it may be well here briefly to specify
them. The first edition, having for its secondary title, “ TextBook of Turkish Reformers,” was intended for export to the East;
the second, in which Turkish affairs will hold a more subordi
nate place, is intended for home consumption. The former was
issued with the aim of its becoming a veritable Bible in the
midst of a small colony; the latter, if it appears, will only be
expected to take the rank of a religious poem, such as that of
the Pilgrim’s Progress, among the reformers of a great
nation. So far, and with respect to certain doctrinal corrections
and developments which friendly criticism, a riper experience,
and further research after truth have enabled me to make, most
people who have seen the old edition will probably like the new
better. It must not, however, be supposed that in any of the
alterations and adaptations which have been made in the book,
I have sacrificed my convictions and pandered to popular passion
and class prejudice, like the editor of a newspaper, in order to
increase the number of my readers. Several people have
objected to the New Koran for no other reason than because
it is many-sided, and they would greatly prefer it to be one
sided. Those, who contend that it has not done justice to
Christianity, would, probably, be as little disposed as the old
Crusaders to render justice to the long-persecuted Jews.
Christianity is too high seated and domineering to be in danger
of suffering wrong from anything which is said in my book; it
is not the flourishing cause, with many friends, but the cause
which is down and kicked, and has but very few friends, that is
always in danger of suffering injustice. Journalists are for the
most part nothing better than literary advocates, engaged to
take the side of their clients through thick and thin, and daring
not to assume the position of a judge, because impartiality will
not pay. Let a paper be started as the one-eyed mouth-piece of
some trade, interest, class, party, or sect, and it will not want
subscribers; but if it attempts to speak honestly and fairly in
behalf of all people, as God himself would speak, it will get the
support of none. Authors, as well as journalists, must be partial
if they intend to please a partial selfish community; but this is
what I never set out to do when I commenced to write the
New Koran, neither have I had any such aim in revising it;
I shall continue in the second edition, as in the first, to be true
�3
to my view, and say just what I see, without fear and without
flattery, whether in the presence of King Christ, or King Caste,
or King Mob.
It must thus, I think, be evident that if a second edition of my
book should be actually published, notwithstanding the advan
tages which it will have over the preceding one, it cannot, from
the very nature of its teaching, and the host of prejudices arrayed
against it, be expected to command a very ready and brisk sale.
And this brings me to the consideration of another point, namely,
the cost of printing and publishing a Second Thousand copies
of the work, and the price at which they can be reasonably
offered to the public, with the view of nearly defraying that
cost. It is a well-known axiom of commercial economy, that
just in proportion as the demand for any article of consumption
is small, the cost of its distribution will be great. The keeper of
a clothing or furniture shop may do very well with a profit of
from ten to twenty per cent, on the selling price of his goods,
but a publisher of books must have fifty per cent., and even at
this high charge, if he has a good business, he will not care to
encumber his shelves 'with literature of an unpopular character,
and in little request. And consequently some heterodox books,
among others, which respectable publishers refuse, are generally
taken in hand by a class of adventurers, whose honesty and
solvency are not to be depended on, and their authors thereby
have frequently to make still heavier sacrifices in endeavouring
to get them into the hands of the public. Let me here briefly
place before my prospective readers the extent of the losses
which I have had to bear on the first edition of the New
Koran.
The printing of the book, by Messrs. Saville and Edwards,
came to £141 15s. 67. Manwaring, the first publisher, estimated
the binding of the Thousand at from £20 to £24, making the
whole cost of production about 3s. 3d. per copy; and in order
that the sale, if successful, should pretty nearly defray this cost,
with that of advertising, he fixed the price at 7s. 6d. In a few
months’ time, when only eleven copies had been sold, he became
bankrupt, and so far from having anything to receive from his
assignees, I had a very crooked bill of £31 11 s. 6d. to pay for ad
vertising, andforbinding250 copies, &c., making,with the printers’
bill, my total expenditure by the summer of 1862, £173 7s., a
sum of no small consideration to me, as the whole had been
saved out of earnings which hardly amounted to £1 a week.
�4
The unsold stock, being refused by Triibner and other publishers,
was at length taken by a poor publishing company in Fleet
street, who agreed to offer it at the reduced price of 5s. per copy,
and out of this give me one-half. Soon after, at my direction,
fifty bound copies were transferred by the company to the hands
of a third publisher, to be sold on the same terms, and I found
this man exceptionally honest; he disposed of about twenty-five
copies in the course of a year, and gave me half the sale price,
as agreed on; and as there was nothing to pay for advertising,
the small sum I received from him was an actual return. He
told me, however, that the business of selling heterodox books
had been to him a very unremunerative one, and gave it up at
the end of 1863, transferring what copies remained of the New
Koran, with his other unsold stock, to an adventure publisher,
with small means, then newly established in a neighbouring
street. Hearing a very fair account of this man, and a bad
account of the publishing company, I directed them to transfer
the whole of their unsold New Koran stock to him early in
1864, which they at length did reluctantly, after they had been
threatened with legal force. They proved, however, in the end,
more honest than I had been led to expect; they fairly accounted
to me, as the retiring publisher had done, for all that they had
sold—nearly twenty copies, and the whole return from both
these parties came to about £5, and not a farthing have I
received since. Even this small sum, which came to me from
the sale of the book, was soon more than swallowed up in further
expenses attending it, namely, the cost of binding a second 250
copies, and the printing of 2,000 descriptive handbills, to assist
the fourth publisher in getting it into circulation. This man agreed
to sell the book at the further reduced price of 2s. 6cl. a copy,
and divide the proceeds with me; but his notions of equity not
being satisfied with the fifty per cent, allowed him for selling, he
made up his mind to keep all. Moreover, he not only withheld
from me what money was due on the sale of the book, but the
sympathy and moral encouragement of a number of readers, by
refusing to give them my address, under the pretence that he
had never had or known it; thus, evidently hoping that I, living’
far away in the country, and hearing nothing of my literary
enterprise, should in time forget all about it, and be myself
forgotten, just as every kidnapper endeavours to cut off all com
munication and draw a curtain of obliviousness between parent
and child, the better to accomplish his nefarious design. When
�5
Mr. Voysey, with considerable difficulty, discovered my address
in August, 1872, he could get no information through the pub
lisher, either of my whereabouts or existence; and had there
been no other means of tracing me out, I might have been to this
moment regarded as a myth. A few friends, who knew that I
had been shamefully defrauded, advised me to seek redress
before a court of justice, and I took the requisite preliminary
steps to do so; but on learning that there was a possibility, or
rather a probability, of the suit costing more than the debt was
worth, I felt that offering justice to a poor man by way of our
expensive and uncertain law administration was a sham, and
that I had better remain content with my present wrong than
run the risk of aggravating it with further mockery and dis
appointment.
I now wish to direct the attention of my readers to something
far better than the punishment of roguery, and that is, the
effecting, by a more economical system of trade, its prevention.
My esteemed friend, William Ellis, from whom I have learnt
much, and always differ with reluctance, has, among his other
valuable contributions to the elucidation of social science
from a commercial view-point, written an able little tract to
prove, against the co-operators, the advantages which society
derives from competition. In the recent revision of my book I
have endeavoured to present the reverse side of the picture, and
show that unregulated competition is a great evil to society, very
nearly approaching that of civil war. Wherever we see industry
effectively organised, there is true economy; no farmer, builder,
or manufacturer would think of putting two men to do the
labour of one ; but where ignorant people set themselves to work
with no other guidance but blind inclination, and the ill-under
stood law of supply and demand, there is a great deal of carrying
coals to Newcastle, and the business of one person may often be
seen divided among three. Many ill-trained human beings (of
whom the Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Yankees are notable
examples) have a great dislike to earning their bread slowly and
surely by any kind of productive industry, and prefer embarking
in the adventures of commerce, and consequently all our cities
are overcrowded with traders; there are far more people engaged
in the distribution of wealth than are really needed by the
exigencies of society. One necessary result of this overcrowding
and immense waste of power among distributors is, that their
operations are thereby rendered very costly ; they want a much
�6
larger percentage of profits, on sales effected, to enable them to
live, than would be required if the whole business of distribu
tion were regulated and conducted with strict economy. Another
consequence is, that the weaker tradesmen, in order to maintain
their ground in the face of stronger rivals, are driven to all sorts
of fraudulent practices, such as adulteration, colouring, false
measuring, swindling, and embezzlement; indeed, thousands of
needy adventurers who go unprepared into the fierce arena of
competition, soon find themselves in such straits, that they are
just as much necessitated to choose between fraud and bank
ruptcy as the City Arab is often compelled to choose between
theft and starvation. What we really ought to do, then, is to
discourage rash speculation, to check unwise competition, to
prevent, as much as possible, two rivals from wasting their
energies in contending for a sphere of labour which only affords
occupation for one. In some instances, where large interests
are concerned, the duty of restraining wanton and dishonest
competitors is already effected by the Government. Hundreds
of railways are projected by scheming adventurers, where they
are not really needed, and there is no reasonable prospect of
their being remunerative ; but any such line will serve the pur
pose of the schemers if it can only allure shareholders for its
construction, or be worked in such a way as to annoy some other
company, and force it to buy up the annoyance. The Govern
ment, therefore, though sometimes imposed upon, generally
refuses to sanction such ill-planned enterprises; it agrees to
protect the really useful companies from injurious competition,
on the condition that the public shall receive from them liberal
treatment, and fairly share their advantages. The same legis
lative restraint, which prevents railways, board schools, and
post-offices from cutting each other’s throats, might justly be
extended to ordinary shops; the Government, for instance, might
very reasonably refuse to allow any person to start a publishing
business in London, until he should first show that he had got
a sufficient capital for the undertaking, and the promise of a
certain number of commissions, as a fair guarantee for his
honesty and success. By this regulation, a host of needy and
unscrupulous adventurers would be kept out of the trade, and
compelled to earn their living as printers, shopmen, and clerks,
or to emigrate ; while the Government, in return for protecting
and economising the labour of genuine publishers, might require
them, as they could well afford, to distribute books at reduced
�7
charges. But such a vast extension of Board-of-Trade inter
ference in behalf of the public, though perfectly legitimate .and
reasonable, is, at the present day, very far from practicable, and
people, who suffer for the want of it, must seek a remedy at their
own hands; the business of distribution, as now wastefully
conducted by the shop-keeping world, can only be gradually
economised and reformed by establishing co-operative societies.
Co-operative publishing has been successfully carried on for a
very long period by a number of societies in connection with
the Church of England, and we heterodox people, who are
endeavouring to organise a church outside the pale of
Christianity, may with good profit study their example. See
how well, for instance, the Religious Tract Society has been
made to work for the diffusion of religious knowledge of the
Evangelical pattern, among the poorer population of this coun
try. Some Cumberland curate, or Cornish schoolmaster, or
Methodist preacher in Kent, writes an instructive tale, which
he has no means of publishing at his own expense, or, even if
he can accomplish this end, will not be able to sell more than
fifty copies ; but he sends it to the Repository, Paternoster Row,
it goes before the Committee, is approved and published, and in
less than half-a-dozen years will be read in almost every town
and village of the kingdom. The books and tracts, which the
Society thus puts into the hands of the people, are not only
cheaper, but better, than those of the same class which are ordi
narily distributed by private houses; for the labour of their
publication is strictly economised, and they are selected by an
impartial and competent literary tribunal, who are resolved that
the shelves of the Repository shall not be encumbered with
trash. The Jews and Unitarians have each a similar co-operative
society for the diffusion of the select and standard literature
of their respective faiths; and to show that we constructive
Theists, Theofederans, or whatever, we are called, have very
great need of such an organisation for the dissemination of our
views, it will suffice to state some of the difficulties which I had
to encounter, years ago, both in seeking light, and imparting it
to others.
It was my lot to be born behind the plough, and to labour in
the fields from the age of eleven to twenty-five as a farm
servant, and, had it not been for the National Society establish
ing a school in the neighbouring parish, and the Christian
Knowledge Society publishing the Saturday Magazine, which my
�self-taught father regularly purchased, I should probably have
remained, at the present day, an almost illiterate clown. I owe
an especial debt of gratitude to the charming little illustrated
periodical of 1832-44 ; the variety of useful information, which
I acquired from it, set me craving for more, and, having no
educated friends to assist me, I left my home clandestinely at
the age of sixteen and started off to London for the purpose of
consulting the editor as to how and where I could obtain better
means of self-culture. On arriving at the publisher’s office in
West Strand, my rustic garb and singular errand occasioned
some surprise, but I was kindly told that “ the editor was not
to be seen,” and advised to apply to the London Mechanics’
Institute, Southampton Buildings. I went thither, but, possess
ing only two shillings and being without employment, found its
advantages inaccessible to me, and thenceforth began to wander
about London for a fortnight, visiting coffee-house libraries, pick
ing up information from book-stalls, and sleeping in a suburban
stable, till hunger compelled me to return to my native fields.
The rich intellectual feast which I gathered from studying in
the streets so amply compensated for all my physical privations,
that I was tempted in the following year to repeat my runaway
adventure, when I acquired much enlargement of mind, not only
from books, but from visiting a Catholic chapel, a Jews’ syna
gogue, and the British Museum. Such a spirit of inquiry and
reflection was now awakened within me that at the age of
eighteen I completely shook off the trammels of the orthodox
creed and began to take up the position of a religious reformer.
Early in 1849, I again tramped up to London to gather more
light, and being now much better provided, having for the first
time the sum of £3 15s. in my pocket, I determined to purchase
a good selection of what Emerson would perhaps call Repre
sentative Books, to study at my leisure in the country. I
obtained from the stalls, in the first place, Josephus, the Koran
of Mohammed, and the Dictionary of Voltaire ; and afterwards
picked out and added to my literary wallet, the Apology of
Grotius, Butler’s Analogy, and Paley’s Evidences. I greatly
admired Paley’s calm philosophical spirit and masterly special
pleading, while perceiving the unsoundness of his reasoning at
every step, and imagined that there must surely exist the work
of some modern scholar who had refuted him. So indeed there
did (Jlennell’s Inquiry, at the shop of T. Allman, Holborn), but,
such is our present defective system of distributing the light of
�9
advanced thought, that I was quite unable to find it out. A
much better known heterodox publisher, James Watson, of
Queen’s Head Passage, I discovered with little difficulty, and
asked him to show me the very best modern works which his
shop contained, and above all a good refutation of Paley. He
laid several books before me, with the merits of which I was by
no means prepossessed, yet purchased five from his recommenda
tion and they all disappointed me, especially Taylor’s Diegesis,
in which the most extravagant of mythical theories was advo
cated with a sad mixture of ribaldry and rant. Having
■exhausted my funds, and being unable to make further research,
I returned with my pack of theological books to the country,
and, under the impression that the learned champions of
Christian orthodoxy had never been effectually answered, set
about in leisure hours to controvert their arguments myself. In
the course of a year and a-half I had written with this view a
treatise of considerable length, and in the summer of 1850 again
left my plough and went to London for the double purpose of
getting it published there, and obtaining some new sphere of
■employment. I succeeded in neither object: no London pub/ lisher could be induced even to read my rough manuscript, much
less risk the expense of its publication. Just as I was about
to return in despair to my native parish, I happened, by the
merest chance, to see in the heretical Leader, but recently started
by G. Lewes, a notice of Professor Newman’s new work, Phases
of Faith, which was then causing some excitement in religious
circles. Had I seen it noticed by any orthodox reviewers, these
defenders of Christian miracles are such genuine spiritual
descendants of the old miracle workers, they go to such lengths
in pious frauds to keep up the original illusion, and their skill
in sham-sampling and misrepresentation is so great, that I
should probably have been led to imagine it a lame and despic
able production unworthy of being sought after as a gift. But
the new journal of free thought did justice to the book, and I
was so charmed by the powerful reasoning and high moral tone
■of one or two extracts from it, that I hastened to the publisher,
obtained the author’s address, and immediately wrote to him
expressing the pleasure which I experienced from meeting
unexpectedly an abler controversialist in the same field of refor
mation in which I was labouring myself. Professor Newman,
on receiving this letter, directly came to visit me at my humble
lodging, and after some friendly conversation on my special
�10
views and aims, agreed to take a portion of my manuscript
home with him and give me his candid opinion of it. In
a few days it was returned to me with an accompanying
critical letter, commenting on the weak and strong points of
my treatise, and disapproving of my attempts to connect the
early Christians with the Essenes, and reconstruct the
Gospel story* in a manner similar to that of Charles Hennell,
* It may be well to say here, in reference to a portion of my prepared Second
Edition, that Professor Newman classed my dramatic theory of explaining the
Gospels with those which are called by German scholars Rationalistic, and
declared his own preference for the Mythical Theory of Strauss. From what
he said, I was led on the first opportunity to study very carefully the writings
of Strauss, R. W. Mackay, Niebuhr, and Grote, together with his own Hebrew
Monarchy and Regal Rome, and my opinions were in consequence consider
ably modified with respect to the general credibility of ancient records, but in
the main I was still forced to cling to my original view, and consequently re
stated it in the New Koran. Within the last ten years I have found the
hypothesis set forth in Questions xxxviii.—xliv., strongly confirmed by further
historical research, and have developed it in another work, and in a series of
articles contributed to the Jewish Chronicle. What I maintain is simply
this :—
I. That it is useless to insist on the late origin of our present Gospels as an
evidence of their being unauthentic, because even if they were all written in the
second century, it is no proof that they were not derived from earlier contempo
rary records. Several minor contradictions by no means convict the writers of
myth-making, but only furnish a clear proof of their fallibility. So, too, the
fact of their adding some undoubted legendary matter, such as the prefatory
stories of Matthew and Luke, affords no better ground for rejecting their testi
mony in the mass, than for treating in a similar manner the Life of St. Bernard
or the Book of Maccabees.
II. That Christianity, if we rationally interpret the testimony of the Evange
lists, was from the very first of a composite character, originating from a small
religious confederacy, and not from the spontaneous action of one reformer of
extraordinary genius as Strauss, Renan and others have represented.
III. That Jesus resembled the monk Jetzer of Berne, rather than the founder
of the Dominican or Franciscan brotherhood, being evidently a poor Galilean
devotee, tutored by apparitions to act the part of a suffering Messiah, and
acquiring the whole of his mighty influence, not from his actual teaching and
labours, but from his supposed conquest of death.
IV. That the crucifixion of Jesus, like many child-crucifixions which were
turned against the poor Jews in the middle ages, was a masked drama got up to
excite strong feeling and move the multitude, while his Resurrection also was
as clearly dramatic as the annual Easter miracle exhibited in his pretended
sepulchre.
V. That the faith and enthusiasm which moved the peasant followers of
Jesus after his death, was started wholly by dramatic illusions, similar to that
miraculous performance before shepherds, which in our own times has established
the Confraternity of Our Lady of La Salette.
As I have not a greater love for my own opinion than for truth, I shall feel
thankful to any reader who still believes with Strauss, that Christianity arose
�11
who had thus exposed his otherwise unanswerable argument
to the attack of orthodox reviewers. “ Hennell’s Inquiry,” he
continued, “ is a very able, temperate, well written book, yet I
am told that it sells badly, and does not satisfy the publisher.” On
the strength of this disinterested and competent judgment I
bought the fine work of Henn ell with the first 12s. 6d. which
could be spared from my poor means, and only regretted that
I had not seen it earlier, when a number of greatly inferior
books were thrust into my hands. German scholars may well
express their surprise that Hennell, in his own country, the
country which produced Chubb, Collins, Toland, Tyndal,
Bolingbroke and Gibbon, should still continue to be so little
appreciated and comparatively unknown. Now that the poor
hubbub of a Government prosecution no longer serves to make
a lay heretic notorious in England, such is the general stupidity
and prejudice of our literary tribunals, and such is our want of
organised distribution that more than half the soldiers of the
Rationalist camp may be seen going forth to combat with old
rusty muskets, pitchforks, and clubs, when they might be all
furnished with arms of precision. Even the powerful attacks
on orthodoxy by Professor Newman, W. R. Greg, Lecky,
Matthew Arnold, Miss Cobbe, and a few other writers who have
acquired, apart from these works, a high literary reputation,
remain unread and unheard of by thousands of their country
people, who are struggling hard to free themselves from the
oppressive bonds of Christian superstition, and would greatly
rejoice at their aid. One gentleman, Thomas Scott, Esq., now of
Norwood, author of The English Life of Jesus, has been so
strongly impressed with the present imperfect means of publi
cation afforded to controversial writers of his class, that he has
formed, by his own individual efforts, a Society for the Diffusion
of Rational Knowledge. The many good things which he has
among the peasants of a superstitious thaumaturgic country without any appeal
to miracles, to point, as he has not done, to some other adequate power for pro
ducing the primitive Nazarene excitement, and also explain how it was that
dramatic wonder-working was so early and extensively resorted to in the
Christian Church as a legitimate means of kindling religious fervour, and has
continued to be so employed till discredited by the rise of the spirit of Ration
alism, when nothing similar can be pointed to in the history of the Mahometan
Church. We plain, honest truth-seekers, who are not writing for Christians,
have no need to care about conciliating their prejudices, or study to furnish
such an explanation of the Gospel narrative as shall give the least offence to
their absurd idolatry.
�12
"both written himself, and reprinted from other authors in behalf
of our New Reformation, if he were to depend on the ordinary
commercial channels of distribution afforded by London publish
ers would never be got into circulation, even by expending a
fortune. Therefore, rather than incur a heavy loss in this way,
to no good purpose, he has chosen to distribute his books and
pamphlets gratuitously through the post, among just those people
who are likely to appreciate them, and aid in effecting their fur
ther dissemination. Two years ago when I found him busily
engaged in his Repository, at Ramsgate, he told me that his mis
sion work was steadily increasing, and that the bread which he
had perseveringly cast on the waters was beginning to be found
again after many days. Lor awhile he was heavily burdened
with his benevolent enterprise, and could not count with cer
tainty on being able to continue it, but sympathising helpers
wrote to him one after another, till at length he had a good
number of regular subscribers, and friendly contributions and
correspondence were flowing in upon him from all parts of the
kingdom. In proportion as help came, his publishing, under
the most economical management of himself and wife, grew and
extended, and I see at the end of one of his recent pamphlets, a
well selected catalogue of upwards of a hundred modern hetero
dox works which vrould do credit to the Index Expurgatorius.
Those people, who object to Mr. Scott’s mission, as a mischievous
proselytising work, should bear in mind that it has never pro
voked any Belfast riots, or Indian mutinies, or Chinese insur
rections and massacres. It is not his plan to distribute his
publications indiscriminately in the parks, or thrust them into
the hands of the congregants at orthodox churches, or even
advertise them in orthodox journals, or offend the susceptibilities
of their editors by obtruding them under their notice. He has
wisely avoided stirring up angry passions and encountering the
blind hostility of Christian bigots, and has proceeded in a quiet,
judicious manner to diffuse a higher religious light among his
countrymen only just where it will receive a welcome, and be
productive of good. Perhaps, even Lord Shaftesbury and a few
other Exeter Hall magnates may derive a considerable amount
of spiritual benefit from this new missionary enterprise, however
much they may be disposed to condemn it; while they are mov
ing heaven and earth to convert other nations from idolatry, it
may prove a wholesome check to their intemperate zeal to know
that a band of philanthropic men are labouring, with equal
�13
earnestness, to deliver our own “land from error’s chain,” and
are regarding them as idolaters themselves. Those who now fre
quently procure Mr. Scott’s publications through the post,
esteem him not only as a religious reformer, but as a commercial
economist; “he has worked himself,” as a late Judge of the
High Court of Madras observes, “into a position of considerable
notoriety, and for years has been the centre of a wide circle of
readers and writers,” * and the success which has attended his
labours, proves the existence of a vast amount of co-operative
illuminating power in the world of free inquiry, which, if well
organised, would accomplish much greater results. I hope the
time is not far off when we shall see in this country a regularly
constituted League of Light, under the direction of an able
committee, and that authors who write to impart a higher
religious knowledge, and readers who seek it, may, with a little
more exertion, so contrive to stretch forth and join hands as to
avoid altogether the losses and disappointments which are now
occasioned by the intervention of those rascally “ Carry your
parcel, sir ? ” boys, the needy adventure publishers.
After the somewhat discursive explanation which I have found
it necessary to make, will those of my readers who desire to see
a second edition of the New Koran, be willing to co-operate
with me for the purpose of lessening the expense of its distri
bution ? My direct pecuniary loss on the first edition, is at the
very least £250 ; if I reckon four per cent, interest, which might
have been obtained from a safe investment of the money which
I expended in 1861-2 to produce no return. I know too well
that I cannot afford to lose another such sum, nor even half of
it, and should not expect to do so, even by the ordinary means
of publication, because the book has a decidedly better prospect
of selling now than at first, and would probably be accepted by
a respectable and honest publisher. But even in this case, it
could only be placed in the hands of the reader at such a price
as must tend in no small degree to limit and retard its circula
tion. As the second edition will contain about thirty new
chapters, the cost of production cannot, with the most rigid
economy, be estimated at less than four shillings per copy. To
defray this expense and satisfy the publisher, and pay for adver
tising, it could not be offered to the public for a less price than
ten shillings; but if a sufficient number of readers can be got to
order the book directly of me, or my friends, it shall be sent to
* T. Lumsden Strange, Esq.: “ The Christian Evidence Society,” p. 4.
�14
them through the post for five. “ ’Spoke-work is a deal better
than spec’-work,” a village cobbler, who was weary of serving
the town shops, once said in my hearing, and I am disposed to
say the same to my readers. It so happens, however, that since
the invention of printing, books can no longer be made singly
to order like boots, but must of necessity be produced in great
batches, and therefore a prudent scribe who wishes to work
economically, and avoid risk, should receive a large number of
orders before he can feel warranted in going to the press. It
will not be safe for me to venture on printing a second thousand
copies of the New Koran, and offering them at the price named,
till I can be assured of effecting an immediate sale of one half.
I may have to wait several years to obtain this guarantee
against a heavy loss, and it may never be obtained, but a very
bitter experience determines me not to spend another penny on
publishing my hitherto burdensome book without it.
Even if 500 copies of the second edition should be ordered,
as I cannot afford to advertise, I must ask for the further
co-operation of my readers to aid me with their recommenda
tions in selling the rest. Nearly the whole of the first edition
was got into circulation by such means, after advertising had
proved an entire failure. One person, who had read and appre
ciated the book, presented it to a friend, or induced a neighbour
of kindred spirit to purchase it, who, in turn, spoke favourably
of it to some one else, till it at length reached the hands of an
eloquent religious reformer, who has well fulfilled the duty of
passing on to others every lamp of light which he receives, and
he speedily diffused it among hundreds. Some judgment and
discrimination must, of course, be used in introducing a book of
this kind to individuals, in order that it may not be as seed
scattered among thorns and in stony places, and unproductive
of good. It is by no means desirable that it should get into the
hands of a class of idle, luxurious drawing-room readers, who
would enjoy it for about nine days as a sort of literary novelty,
and then cast it aside. I should be sorry for any people to be
bored with it, or induced to buy it, when they are not likely to
devote a single hour to its perusal. It would also be a great
mistake to obtrude it on quiet, orthodox Christians, or use it in
any way as an instrument of proselytism. I have half-a-dozen
brothers and sisters of this class, who have never seen the New
Koran, nor will ever see it from me, so long as they are not
educated up to it, but remain contented and happy in the bonds
�15
of their childhood’s belief. Years ago, Professor Newman, in a
letter from which I have already quoted, after advising me not
to seek employment in London, nor think of separating from
my parents and friends, without good reason, continued—“ Do
not imagine that any book of yours will ever soothe or convince
them. Dutiful and affectionate conduct, a manifestly pious and
conscientious mind in you, are what will most soothe and most
convince them. ..... Men will never be converted from a
religion which has much moral excellence in it, until they see a
higher moral excellence in those who impugn it. The inveterate
belief that all who reject Christianity are immoral, or unspiritual,
is the strength of the existing creed, as indeed the strength of
Trinitarianism lies in the prevalent want of spirituality in
Unitarians. Argument is important, yet argument of itself is
useless. Trinitarianism has been argued down a thousand times,
yet no impression is made on it commensurate with the strength
of the refutation. Beligious creeds were not originated by the
pure intellect, nor will they be ever overthrown by it. See how,
even in France, Popery has budded and renewed its strength in
the last fifty years ! That is because no higher spiritual move
ment followed on its prostration.’'’
The longer I live the more strongly do I find the truth of
these sentiments confirmed, and if they were more generally
entertained and acted on by religious reformers, it were well for
human progress. In order to benefit our fellow men, who are
contented slaves of superstition, we should be more anxious to
improve their character than to reform their creed; it is
desirable, before all things, to elevate them, and they will in
due time liberate themselves. The opposite unwise course,
of destroying reverential feeling in people who are morally
weak and ill-trained, and unprepared to make a good use of the
intellectual freedom which is forced upon them, has ever been
attended with mischievous results; it has produced nothing
better than religious rowdyism, bear-garden debates, and
French revolutions. Then, there are many thoughtful and pure
minds who, after slowly working their way towards a safe
emancipation from orthodox thraldom, turnback at last, appalled
on beholding the utter anarchy which prevails outside the pale
of Christianity, and believe Bationalism to be condemned by
its fruits. Other more courageous reformers having ventured
further and entirely got away from the old dominion of false
hood, on finding in the world of free-thought no new fellowship
�16
or religious communion to aid and cheer them in the path of
duty, nothing but cold, cavilling, self-reliant criticism, also
retrace their wandering steps at length, and, thoroughly broken
hearted and weary of spirit, re-enter their nursery fold as pro
digals, under the conviction that the bondage of its erratic
creed, with sympathy and love, is more easily to be borne than
liberty without. It is abundantly clear from such cases and
from the revolutionary history of the last hundred years, that
our mere destructive preaching and writing will avail little to
overthrow superstitions of twenty centuries’ growth; we must
contrive somehow and somewhere to setup the light of a higher
example. The world is not to be reformed by argument but by
action.
As the immediate object of this paper is a simple matter of
business, I must not unnecessarily complicate it, or allow my pen
to wander further in the discussion of principles which may be
more appropriately treated of elsewhere. The difficulties and
losses attending the publication of my book by the ordinary
commercial channel, and the circumstances which have compel
led me to think of some more safe and economical arrangement,
required a full and candid explanation. There is nothing more
to add; I will merely ask those of my readers who are in favour
of co-operative publishing, where exceptionally needed, and who
wish to see the second edition, which I have prepared, brought
out partly or wholly in this way, and are willing to purchase
copies on the terms mentioned, to kindly notify the same to—
John Vickers,
Sarness, Waltham,
Canterbury,
or
Rev. Charles Voysey,
Camden House,
Dulwich, S.E.
June 1st, 1873.
Wertheimer, Lea & Co., Printers, Finsbury Circus.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The publication of the new Koran: a few words from the author
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Vickers, John
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London?]
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Presented in Memory of Dr. Moncure D. Conway by his children, July Nineteen hundred & eight. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Wertheimer, Lea & Co., Finsbury Circus, London. Author attribution from Virginia Clark's catalogue. Includes bibliographical reference.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[Thomas Scott?]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1873
Identifier
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CT1
G5752
Subject
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Islam
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (</span>The publication of the new Koran: a few words from the author<span>), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Islam
Koran