this book is a study of supernaturalism from a new point of view—as a source of income and a shield to privilege. i have searched the libraries through, and no one has done it before. if you read it, you will see that it needed to be done. it has meant twenty-five years of thought and a year of investigation. it contains the facts.

i publish the book myself, so that it may be available at the lowest possible price. i am giving my time and energy, in return for one thing which you may give me—the joy of speaking a true word and getting it heard.

the present volume is the first of a series, which will do for education, journalism and literature what has here been done for the church: the four volumes making a work of revolutionary criticism, an economic interpretation of culture under the general title of "the dead hand."