I Forbid the Banns! — page 162: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

152 “7 FORBID THE BANNS!” ‘‘Money—intelligence’’—he shook his head. ‘‘Intelli- gence—money’’—reversed it seemed equally puzzling to him. ‘‘T fear I did not make myself plain to you,’’ said he. ‘We want intelligence—that is, life members; any man who becomes a member proves himself to be thoroughly intelligent, just as the man who joins the Church to which you belong proves himself to be orthodox. I’m sorry to say that there are few really intelligent men in London. I thought I had secured fiveafortnight ago. Iwas mistaken: they did not pay their subscriptions. Butchers are not gen- erally regarded by the rest of mankind as among the most intelligent of persons, and yet the Carnisolist Society has established the fact that there are no more intelligent men than butchers and stock raisers. Nearly all our members belong to these classes. I cannot understand how anyone can doubt that we have Scripture on our side. A careful study of the sacred word reveals that there are countless texts in favor of our principles. If you only read with the object of proving your point, it’s wonderful how much evi- dence you can find in the Bible to back you up. It’s a won- derful book, Mr. Charlton. If there is one injunction that it lays down as more incumbent on mankind than another, it is on the subject of eating animal food Our members— the butchers and the stock raisers—are strongly impressed with this truth; they conscientiously believe that all other forms of food are delusive, not to say unscriptural. You have heard of the Beast, Mr. Charlton?’’ ‘“Several,’’ said Charlton. ‘“‘What particular animal do you allude to?’’ ‘St. John’s Beast, the Beast in Revelation—well, that, we are assured, typifies Vegetarianism.’’ “The Beast—Vegetarianism? The Beast seems rather an unfortunate type of the principles of Vegetarianism, Mr: Hardy.”’ ‘It seems so at first, Mr. Charlton. But a little study of (EMMI LOOKS (EC)