[FN#451] It appears to me that our measures, remedial and punitive, against “pornographic publications” result mainly in creating “vested interests” (that English abomination) and thus in fostering the work.  The French printer, who now must give name and address, stamps upon the cover Avis aux Libraires under Edition privee and adds Ce volume ne doit pas etre mis en vente ou expose dans les lieux publics (Loi du 29 Juillet, 1881).  He also prints upon the back the number of copies for sale We treat “pornology” as we handle prostitution, unwisely ignore it, well knowing the while that it is a natural and universal demand of civilised humanity; and whereas continental peoples regulate it and limit its abuses we pass it by, Pharisee-like, with nez en-l’air.  Our laws upon the subject are made only to be broken, and the authorities are unwilling to persecute, because by so doing they advertise what they condemn.  Thus they offer a premium to the greedy and unscrupulous publisher and immensely enhance the value of productions ("Fanny Hill” by Richard Cleland for instance) which, if allowed free publication, would fetch pence instead of pounds.  With due diffidence, I suggest that the police be directed to remove from booksellers’ windows and to confiscate all indecent pictures, prints and photographs; I would forbid them under penalty of heavy fines to expose immoral books for sale, and I would leave “cheap and nasty” literature to the good taste of the publisher and the public.  Thus we should also abate the scandal of providing the secretaries and officers of the various anti-vice societies with libraries of pornological works which, supposed to be escheated or burned, find their way into the virtuous hands of those who are supposed to destroy them.

[FN#452] “Quand aux manuscrits de la redaction egyptienne, l’omission de cet episode parait devoir etre attribuee a la tendance qui les caracterise generalement, d’abreger et de condenser la narrative " (loc. cit. p. 7:  see also p. 14).

[FN#453] Here I would by no means assert that the subject matter of The Nights is exhausted:  much has been left for future labourers.  It would be easy indeed to add another five volumes to my sixteen as every complete manuscript contains more or less of novelty.  Dr. Pertsch, the learned librarian of Saxe-Gotha, informs me that no less than two volumes are taken up by a variant of Judar the Egyptian (in my vol. vi. 213) and by the History of Zahir and Ali.  For the Turkish version in the Bibliotheque Nationale see M. Zotenberg (pp. 21-23).  The Rich Ms. in the British Museum abounds in novelties, of which a specimen was given in my Prospectus to the Supplemental Volumes.

In the French Scholar’s “Ala al-Din” (p. 45) we find the MSS. of The Nights divided into three groups.  No. i. or the Asian (a total of ten specified) are mostly incomplete and usually end before the half of the text.  The second is the Egyptian of modern date, characterised by an especial style and condensed narration and by the nature and ordinance of the tales, by the number of fables and historiettes, and generally by the long chivalrous Romance of Omar bin al-Nu’uman.  The third group, also Egyptian, differs only in the distribution of the stories.]