uthlessly condemned.[66] Nor is it an
admissible defence to argue that the book was not generally circulated,
and that the copy in evidence was obtained by an _agent provocateur_,
and by false representations.[67] Finally, all the decisions deny the
defendant the right to introduce any testimony, whether expert or
otherwise, that a book is of artistic value and not pornographic, and
that its effect upon normal persons is not pernicious. Upon this point
the jury is the sole judge, and it cannot be helped to its decision by
taking other opinions, or by hearing evidence as to what is the general
opinion.

Occasionally, as I have said, a judge has revolted against this
intolerable state of the court-and Comstock-made law, and directed a
jury to disregard these astounding decisions.[68] In a recent New York
case Judge Samuel Seabury actually ruled that "it is no part of the duty
of courts to exercise a censorship over literary productions."[69] But
in general the judiciary has been curiously complaisant, and more than
once a Puritan on the bench has delighted the Comstocks by prosecuting
their case for them.[70] With such decisions in their hands and such aid
from the other side of the bar, it is no wonder that they enter upon
their campaigns with impudence and assurance. All the odds are in their
favour from the start. They have statutes deliberately designed to make
the defence onerous; they are familiar by long experience with all the
tricks and surprises of the game; they are sheltered behind
organizations, incorporated without capital and liberally chartered by
trembling legislatures, which make reprisals impossible in case of
failure; above all, they have perfected the business of playing upon the
cowardice and vanity of judges and prosecuting officers. The newspapers,
with very few exceptions, give them ready aid. Theoretically, perhaps,
many newspaper editors are opposed to comstockery, and sometimes they
denounce it with great eloquence, but when a good show is offered they
are always in favour of the showman[71]--and the Comstocks are showmen
of undoubted skill. They know how to make a victim jump and writhe in
the ring; they have a talent for finding victims who are prominent
enough to arrest attention; they shrewdly capitalize the fact that the
pursuer appears more heroic than the prey, and the further fact that the
newspaper reader is impatient of artistic pretensions and glad to see an
artist made ridiculous. A