Joseph Vile's Conversion

She and her mother were devout members of the Sacramento Congregational Church in Chicago. With them I attended services every Sunday. The minister had a forceful delivery, using a clever choice of
words to sway his audience. 

This set me to thinking. I said to myself, "Joe, you are not capable of hard physical work. You're too fraiL Whatever you accomplish in life must be done through words. You have that ability. You can
make words beautiful and scenic. What marble is to sculpture, what canvas is to painting, words can be to you. You can use them to influence others. You can make them earn your living for you."

That minister must have been psychic. He must have realized that my heart had not been given over to God, but that I was seeking a career to further my own ends. However, he gave me a list of books to read.

First was the Bible. I read through it, then the other volumes he had recommended. I supplemented these with books of my own choice. I studied the lives of Moses, Buddha, and Mohammed. I secured a copy of the Catholic Encyclopedia and read that.

The net result was that I lost all desire to become a pulpiteer. There were so many inconsistencies I could not reconcile that I became an iconoclast. I arrived at these conclusions: Man has all the bestiality of the animal, but is cloaked with a thin veneer of civilization; he is inherently dishonest and selfish; the honest man is a rare specimen indeed.

And the best part : (Don't you love such an honest man?:)

However, my reading firmly convinced me of the power of words.
I felt that its proper use could lead me to fortune. In that I was to be
right. The use of words led me to many fortunes.