{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30210/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30210","id":"gutenberg_30210","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30210","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Caricatures and cartoons","Category: Humour","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Free thought"],"text":"COMIC BIBLE SKETCHES\n\nReprinted From \"The Freethinker\"\n\n\nBy G. W. Foote\n\n\nPart I.\n\nLondon:\n\nProgressive Publishing Company\n\n28 Stonecutter Street, E.C.\n\n1885.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\n\nEnglish literature has its Comic Histories, its Comic Grammars, its\nComic Geographies, and its Comic Law-Books, and Carlyle once prophesied\nthat it would some day boast its Comic Bible. Tough as the fine old\nSage of Chelsea was, he predicted this monstrosity with something of the\nhorror a barbarian might feel at the thought of some irreverent fellow\ndeliberately laughing at the tribal fetish. But what shocked our\nlatter-day prophet so greatly in mere anticipation has partially come to\npass. \"La Bible Amusante\" has had an extensive sale in France, and the\ninfectious irreverence has extended itself to England. Notwithstanding\nthat Mr. G. R. Sims, when he saw the first numbers of that abominable\npublication, piously turned up the whites of his eyes, and declared his\nopinion that no English Freethinker, however extreme, would think of\nreproducing or imitating them, there were found persons so utterly\nabandoned as not to scruple at this unparalleled profanity. Several\nof the French drawings were copied with more or less fidelity in the\n_Freethinker_, a scandalous print, as the Christians love to describe\nit, which has been prosecuted twice for Blasphemy, and whose editor,\nproprietor and publisher, have been punished respectively with twelve,\nnine and three months' imprisonment like common felons, all for the\nglory and honor of God, for the satisfaction of his dear Son, and for\nthe vindication of the Holy Spirit. In many cases the French originals\ncould not be reproduced in England, owing to their Gallic flavor. A\nParisian artist, disporting himself among those highly moral histories\nin the Bible which our youths and maidens discover with unerring\ninstinct, was not a spectacle which one could dare to exhibit before\nthe pious and chaste British public; any more than an English poet could\nfollow the lead of Evariste Parny in his \"Guerre des Dieux\" and \"Les\nAmours de la Bible.\" But many others were free from this objection, and\na selection of them served as a basis for the Freethinker artist to work\non. A few were copied pretty closely; some were elaborated and adapted\nto our national taste; while others furnished a central suggestion,\nwhich was treated in an independent manner. By-and-bye, as the insular\ndiffidence wore off, and the minds of the Freethinker staff played\nfreely on the subject, a new departure was taken; novel ideas were\nworked out, and Holy Writ was ransacked for fresh comicalities. Dullards\nprophesied a speedy exhaustion of Bible topics, but they did not know\nhow inexhaustible it is in absurdities. Properly read, it is the most\ncomical book in the world; and one might say of it, as Enobarbus says\nof Cleopatra, that Age cannot wither it, nor custom stale; it's infinite\nvariety.\n\nThe following Comic Bible Sketches, which will be succeeded in due\ncourse by others, comprise all those worth preserving that appeared\nin the Freethinker before its editor, proprietor and publisher were\nimprisoned, including the drawings they were prosecuted for by that\npious guinea: pig, Sir Henry Tyler, who had his dirty fingers severely\nrapped by Lord Coleridge, after spending several hundred pounds of\nsomebody's money in an unsuccessful Blasphemy prosecution, in order to\npatch up his threadbare reputation, and perhaps also with a faint hope\nof cheating the Almighty into reserving him a front-seat ticket for the\ndress-circle in heaven.\n\nThe French Comic Bible prints under each illustration a few crisp lines\nof satiric narrative. This plan has its advantages; it allows, for\ninstance, the writer's pen to curvet as well as the artist's pencil. But\nit is after all less effective than the plan we have adopted. We merely\ngive each picture a comprehensive and striking title, and print beneath\nit the Bible text which is illustrated. By this means the satire is\ngreatly heightened. Not even the sentences of a Voltaire could so\nilluminate and emphasise the grotesqueness of each topic as this\njuxtaposition of the solemnly absurd Scripture with the gaily absurd\nillustration.\n\nThe same spirit has animated us in designing the pictures. Our object\nhas been to take the Bible text always as our basis, to include\nno feature which is contradicted by it, and to introduce as many\ncomicalities and anachronisms as possible consistently with this rule.\nWe are therefore able to defy criticism. Bibliolators may vituperate us,\npersecute us, or imprison us, but they cannot refute us.. We can safely\nchallenge them to prove that a single incident happened otherwise than\nwe have depicted it. We can candidly say to them--\"The thing must have\nhappened in some way, as to which the Divine Word is silent; this is our\nview,--What is yours?\" And we humbly submit that our speculations are\nas valid as our neighbors'. Nothing but the insanest bigotry in favor of\ntheir own conjectures could lead them to quarrel with us for expounding\nours. If they can shame us with explicit disproofs from Holy Writ, let\nthem do so; but what right have they to set up their carnal imaginings\nand uninspired theories as the ultimate criteria of truth?\n\nThose who object to any employment of satire on \"sacred\" subjects should\nnot go beyond the Preface of this book. It is not for them, nor are they\nfor it; and they are warned in the hall of what they must expect in the\nvarious chambers. But if they neglect the warning they should take the\nresponsibility. It will be simply indecent if they turn round afterwards\nand assail us with unmerited abuse.\n\nFor the sake of those who proceed in a spirit of impartial candor and\nhonest inquiry, we beg to offer a little further explanation.\n\nWe honestly admit that our purpose is to discredit the Bible as\nthe infallible word of God. Believing as we do, with Voltaire, that\ndespotism can never be abolished without destroying the dogmas on which\nit rests, and that the Bible is the grand source and sanction of them\nall, we are profoundly anxious to expose its pretentions. The educated\nclasses already see through them, and the upper classes credit them\njust as little, although they dare not openly profess a scepticism which\nwould imperil their privileges. But the multitude are still left to the\nmanipulation of priests, credulous victims of the Black Army everywhere\narrayed against freedom and progress. It is to liberate these from\nthraldom that we labor, sacrifice and suffer. Without being indifferent\nto what the world calls success, we acknowledge the sovereignty of\nloftier aims. Compared with the advancement of Freethought everything\nelse is to us of trivial moment. It may interest, and perhaps surprise,\nsome to learn that for the famous Christmas Number of the Freethinker\nwhich was successfully prosecuted, the editor received absolutely\nnothing for his work except twelve months' imprisonment, while the\nthen registered proprietor, who suffered nine months of the same fate,\nactually shared with him a pecuniary loss of five pounds. We are really\nin deadly earnest, like all the greater soldiers of freedom who preceded\nus; and we employ our smaller resources of satire, as such giants as\nLucian, Rabelais, Erasmus, Voltaire and Heine used theirs, for ends\nthat reach far forward into the mighty future, and affect the welfare of\nunimagined generations of mankind.\n\nNow the masses do not read learned disquisitions; they have no leisure\nto make themselves adequately acquainted with the history of the Bible\ndocuments; nor can they study comparative religion, trace out the\nanalogies between Christianity and older faiths, and realise how all\nthe elaborate developments of doctrine and ritual in modern creeds have\nsprung from a few simple beliefs and practices of savage superstition.\nBut they are conversant with one or two cardinal ideas of science, and\nthey know the principles which underlie our daily life. What is called\ncommon sense (the logic of common experience) is their philosophy, and\nwhoever seeks to move them must appeal to them through that. Strange as\nit may appear, it is that very common sense which the clergy dread far\nmore than all the disclosures of learning and all the revelations of\nscience; the reason being, that learning and science are the privilege\nof a few, while common sense is the possession of all, and affects the\nvery foundations of spiritual and political tyranny.\n\nRidicule is a most potent form of common-sense logic. What is the\n_reductio ad absurdum_ but an appeal to admitted truths against\nplausible falsehoods? Reducing a thing to an absurdity is simply showing\nits inconsistency with what is common to both sides in a dispute; and it\nfrequently means the exposure of a gross contradiction to the principles\nof sanity. Laughter, too, as Hobbes pointed out, has always an element\nof pride or contempt; being invariably accompanied by a feeling of\nsuperiority to its object. Whoever laughs at an absurdity is above it.\nHe looks down on it from a loftier altitude than argument can reach.\nThe man who laughs is safe. He can never more be in danger, unless he\nsuffers fatty degeneration of the heart or fattier degeneration of the\nhead. Priestcraft nourishes hope in the scientific laboratory, and feels\nonly faint misgivings in academic halls; but it pales and withers at the\nsmile of scepticism, and hears in a low laugh the note of the trump of\ndoom.\n\nRidicule can never injure truth. What it hurts must be false. Laugh at\nthe multiplication-table as much as you please, and twice two will still\nmake four.\n\nPictorial ridicule has the immense advantage of visualising absurdities.\nLazy minds, or those accustomed to regard a subject with the reverence\nof prejudice, read without realising. But the picture supplies the\ndeficiency of their imagination, translates words into things, and\nenables them to see what had else been only a vague sound.\n\nChristians read the Bible without realising its wonders, allowing\nthemselves to be cheated with words. Mr. Herbert Spencer has remarked\nthat the image of the Almighty hand launching worlds into space is very\nfine until you try to form a mental picture of it, when it is found to\nbe utterly irrealisable. In the same way, the Creation Story is passable\nuntil you image the Lord making a clay man and blowing up his nose;\nor the story of Samson until you picture him slaying file after file of\nwell-armed soldiers with the jaw-bone of a costermonger's pony.\n\nLet it be observed that these Comic Bible Sketches ridicule nothing but\nmiracles. Mr. Mathew Arnold has said that the Bible miracles are only\nfairy tales (very poor ones, by the way) and their reign is doomed. We\nonly seek to hasten their deposition. Whatever the Bible contains of\ntruth, goodness and beauty, we prize as well as its blindest devotees.\nBut this valuable deposit of antiquity would be more useful if cleared\nof the rubbish of superstition. It is not the good, but the evil parts\nof the Bible, that are supported by its supernaturalism. Why should\ncivilised Englishmen go walking about in Hebrew Old-Clothes? Let us heed\nCarlyle's stern monition:--\"The Jew old-clothes having now grown fairly\npestilential, a poisonous incumbrance in the path of of men, burn them\nup with revolutionary fire.\"\n\nA word in conclusion. The editor of the \"Manchester Examiner,\" writing\nover the well-Known signature of \"Verax,\" recently published a long\narticle, censuring the policy of aggressive Freethought, and declaring\nthat to laugh at the absurdities of the Bible was to insult the human\nrace. We might as well, he said, laugh at our poor ancestors, the\nancient Britons, for all their mistakes and follies. Well, when the\nancient Jews are not only dead, but buried like the ancient Britons;\nwhen their mistakes and follies are no longer palmed off on unsuspecting\nchildren, and imposed on grown-up men and women, as divine immortal\ntruths; we will cease ridiculing them, and devote our attention to\nworthier objects. What, would \"Verax\" say if an ancient Briton, dressed\nin a full suit of war-paint, were to walk through the Manchester\nstreets, boasting himself the pink of fashion, and insulting peaceable\ncitizens who refused to patronise his tailor? Would he not write a racy\narticle on the absurd phenomenon, and ask why the police tolerated such\na nuisance? In like manner we publish our Comic Bible Sketches, and\nsummon the police of thought to remove those ancient Jews who still\ninfest our mental thoroughfares.\n\nApril, 1885.\n\nG. W. FOOTE","title":"Comic Bible Sketches, Reprinted from \"The Freethinker\"","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2082}