Bartlett opens by equating the Christian god with the pagan Moloch, citing Gerald Massey and Hebrew etymology to argue that 'Jehovah' is a derivative of sun-worship. The first chapter, 'The Divine Moloch,' sets a combative tone: capitalized terms like 'God' and 'Christ' are reserved for Christian deities, while pagan gods are given lowercase treatment. This typographical distinction is a recurring structural device, signaling the author's intent to demote Christian figures to the level of mythological constructs.

Typographic Warfare and Scholarly Citation

Bartlett uses capitalization as a rhetorical weapon. In the opening note, he declares that 'where in this book the words God, Lord, Christ, Messiah and Lamb are capitalized they refer to Christian deities, otherwise to pagan gods.' This binary forces the reader to constantly assess which tradition is being elevated or diminished. The text is dense with references to works like the Book of Enoch, Krinsky's First Lessons in Hebrew, and Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled, but the citations are often used to support sweeping claims rather than to engage in nuanced debate. The author's voice is that of a compiler who has gathered evidence from disparate sources—Egyptian, Hindu, Persian, and Christian—to construct a unified argument about religious borrowing.

The Ghostly Repertoire: From Demons to Blessed Buddhas

Later chapters shift from comparative theology to practical demonology. Bartlett recounts anecdotes about ghosts that can be stabbed with swords (though they reattach limbs) and spirits that throw stones. He advises readers to distribute 'holy medallions' that have been 'blessed or magnetized' to repel mischievous entities. In a striking personal aside, he notes, 'I have a blessed idol of Buddha on my desk to keep the ghosts out of the office.' This blend of the scholarly and the superstitious is characteristic of the work's uneven tone. The narrative moves from high-flown mythological parallels to folkloric instructions, often without transition, creating a patchwork effect that mirrors the author's eclectic source material.

Pace and the Polemical Accumulation

The book's pace is driven by accumulation rather than argument. Bartlett piles example upon example: the Persian bull christ, the Hindu bull Nandi, the Egyptian Apis, all equated with Moloch. The prose is declarative and repetitive, hammering home the idea that Christian rituals are stolen from pagan predecessors. When discussing St. Dominic's devils, he quotes Blavatsky to claim that 'the numerous theological truths uttered by St. Dominic’s devils were embodied in so many articles of faith.' This method—citing a theosophical source to undermine Catholic doctrine—is typical. The effect is dizzying: the reader is swept through centuries and cultures in a single paragraph, with little pause for reflection. The pace only slows when Bartlett inserts personal anecdotes, such as his Buddha idol, which momentarily ground the abstract polemic in a concrete, if sardonic, detail.

Bartlett's work is best approached as a period piece of freethought polemic, where the goal is provocation rather than persuasion. Readers may find the relentless equating of Christian and pagan symbols exhausting, but the book rewards attention to its rhetorical strategies: the capitalization rules, the sudden shifts from scholarly citation to folk remedy, and the author's wry self-awareness. Treat the citations as clues to Bartlett's intellectual milieu rather than as definitive proof of his claims.