Fear was apparently as great a factor in Comstock’s make-up as his vigor. He seemed to have little trust in the self-reliant virtue of people of any age and almost none at all in young people. Here is another bit from the “Traps”: “Drop into the fountain of moral purity in our youth the poison of much of the literature of the day, and you place in their lives an all pervading power of evil. A perpetual panorama of vile forms will keep moving to and fro before the mind, to the exclusion of the good. _Evil influences burn themselves in._ Vile books and papers are branding irons heated in the fires of hell, and used by Satan to sear the highest life of the soul. The world is the devil’s hunting ground, and children are his choicest game.” The Chapter headings which Comstock chose for the “Trap” book are indicative of his mental trend. This is the list: I. Household Traps (light literature) II. Household Traps continued (newspapers) III. Half-dime Novels and Story Papers IV. Advertisement Traps V. Gambling Traps VI. Gambling Traps continued VII. Gambling Traps continued VIII. Death Traps by Mail (Obscenity) IX. Quack Traps X. Free Love Traps XI. Artistic and Classical Traps XII. Infidel and Liberal Traps XIII. More Infidel and Liberal Traps In a letter read on the fortieth anniversary of his Society, Comstock said, “Let me emphasize one fact, supported by my nearly forty-two years of public life in fighting this particular foe. My experience leads me to the conviction that once these matters (obscenity) enter through the eye and ear into the chamber of imagery in the heart of a child, nothing but the grace of God can ever blot it out.” One wonders how lively Comstock’s faith in the grace of God may have been, inasmuch as he was willing to give it so few chances to function. His own words and his actions seem to invite the conclusion that his fear was considerably larger than his faith. In an interview with Comstock by Mary Alden Hopkins in Harper’s Weekly of May 22, 1915, he asserted that the “existing laws are a necessity in order to prevent the downfall of youth of both sexes.... To repeal the present laws would be a crime against society and especially a crime against young women.” Apparently he felt that young women were especially weak in their power of resistance to obscenity. In the same interview, speaking of the Federal law, Miss Hopkins asked, “Does it not allow the judge considerable leeway in deciding whether or not a book or a picture is immoral?” “No,” replied Mr. Comstock, “the highest courts in Great Britain and the United States have laid down the test in all such matters. What he has to decide is whether or not it might rouse in young and inexperienced minds, lewd or libidinous thought.”