Batman predecessors in pulp fiction, comic strips, newspaper headlines, and autobiographical details referring to Kane himself. As an aristocratic hero with a double identity, Batman had predecessors in the Scarlet Pimpernel (created by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, 1903) and Zorro (created by Johnston McCulley, 1919). Like them, Batman performed his heroic deeds in secret, averted suspicion by playing aloof in public, and marked his work with a signature symbol. Kane noted the influence of the films "The Mark of Zorro" (1920) and "The Bat Whispers" (1930) in the creation of the character's iconography. Finger, drawing inspiration from pulp heroes like Doc Savage,
A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World is a work by Christian theologian, reformer, author, and pastor Jonathan Edwards that was started in the mid-1750s but not finally published until after his death in 1765. This dissertation was published concurrently with "The Nature of True Virtue", and the two works have much in common, specifically the assertion that God's aim in creating the world was not human happiness but his own glory. Edwards argues against the people of his day that claimed that human happiness