,,comic ,,bible ,,sketches ,reprinted ,from ,the ,freethinker ,by ,g4 ,w4 ,foote ,part ,i4 ,london3 ,progressive ,publishing ,company #bh ,stonecutter ,street1 ,e4,c4 #ahhe4 ,,introduction4 ,english literature has its ,comic ,histories1 its ,comic ,grammars1 its ,comic ,geographies1 and its ,comic ,law-,books1 and ,carlyle once prophesied that it would some day boast its ,comic ,bible4 ,tough as the fine old ,sage of ,chelsea was1 he predicted this monstrosity with something of the horror a barbarian might feel at the thought of some irreverent fellow deliberately laughing at the tribal fetish4 ,but what shocked our latter-day prophet so greatly in mere anticipation has partially come to pass4 ,la ,bible ,amusante has had an extensive sale in ,france1 and the infectious irreverence has extended itself to ,england4 ,notwithstanding that ,mr4 ,g4 ,r4 ,sims1 when he saw the first numbers of that abominable publication1 piously turned up the whites of his eyes1 and declared his opinion that no ,english ,freethinker1 however extreme1 would think of reproducing or imitating them1 there were found persons so utterly abandoned as not to scruple at this unparalleled profanity4 ,several of the ,french drawings were copied with more or less fidelity in the ,freethinker1 a scandalous print1 as the ,christians love to describe it1 which has been prosecuted twice for ,blasphemy1 and whose editor1 proprietor and publisher1 have been punished respectively with twelve1 nine and three months' imprisonment like common felons1 all for the glory and honor of ,god1 for the satisfaction of his dear ,son1 and for the vindication of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,in many cases the ,french originals could not be reproduced in ,england1 owing to their ,gallic flavor4 ,a ,parisian artist1 disporting himself among those highly moral histories in the ,bible which our youths and maidens discover with unerring instinct1 was not a spectacle which one could dare to exhibit before the pious and chaste ,british public2 any more than an ,english poet could follow the lead of ,evariste ,parny in his ,guerre des ,dieux and ,les ,amours de la ,bible4 ,but many others were free from this objection1 and a selection of them served as a basis for the ,freethinker artist to work on4 ,a few were copied pretty closely2 some were elaborated and adapted to our national taste2 while others furnished a central suggestion1 which was treated in an independent manner4 ,by-and-bye1 as the insular diffidence wore off1 and the minds of the ,freethinker staff played freely on the subject1 a new departure was taken2 novel ideas were worked out1 and ,holy ,writ was ransacked for fresh comicalities4 ,dullards prophesied a speedy exhaustion of ,bible topics1 but they did not know how inexhaustible it is in absurdities4 ,properly read1 it is the most comical book in the world2 and one might say of it1 as ,enobarbus says of ,cleopatra1 that ,age cannot wither it1 nor custom stale2 it's infinite variety4 ,the following ,comic ,bible ,sketches1 which will be succeeded in due course by others1 comprise all those worth preserving that appeared in the ,freethinker before its editor1 proprietor and publisher were imprisoned1 including the drawings they were prosecuted for by that pious guinea3 pig1 ,sir ,henry ,tyler1 who had his dirty fingers severely rapped by ,lord ,coleridge1 after spending several hundred pounds of somebody's money in an unsuccessful ,blasphemy prosecution1 in order to patch up his threadbare reputation1 and perhaps also with a faint hope of cheating the ,almighty into reserving him a front-seat ticket for the dress-circle in heaven4 ,the ,french ,comic ,bible prints under each illustration a few crisp lines of satiric narrative4 ,this plan has its advantages2 it allows1 for instance1 the writer's pen to curvet as well as the artist's pencil4 ,but it is after all less effective than the plan we have adopted4 ,we merely give each picture a comprehensive and striking title1 and print beneath it the ,bible text which is illustrated4 ,by this means the satire is greatly heightened4 ,not even the sentences of a ,voltaire could so illuminate and emphasise the grotesqueness of each topic as this juxtaposition of the solemnly absurd ,scripture with the gaily absurd illustration4 ,the same spirit has animated us in designing the pictures4 ,our object has been to take the ,bible text always as our basis1 to include no feature which is contradicted by it1 and to introduce as many comicalities and anachronisms as possible consistently with this rule4 ,we are therefore able to defy criticism4 ,bibliolators may vituperate us1 persecute us1 or imprison us1 but they cannot refute us44 ,we can safely challenge them to prove that a single incident happened otherwise than we have depicted it4 ,we can candidly say to them--,the thing must have happened in some way1 as to which the ,divine ,word is silent2 this is our view1--,what is yours8 ,and we humbly submit that our speculations are as valid as our neighbors'4 ,nothing but the insanest bigotry in favor of their own conjectures could lead them to quarrel with us for expounding ours4 ,if they can shame us with explicit disproofs from ,holy ,writ1 let them do so2 but what right have they to set up their carnal imaginings and uninspired theories as the ultimate criteria of truth8 ,those who object to any employment of satire on sacred subjects should not go beyond the ,preface of this book4 ,it is not for them1 nor are they for it2 and they are warned in the hall of what they must expect in the various chambers4 ,but if they neglect the warning they should take the responsibility4 ,it will be simply indecent if they turn round afterwards and assail us with unmerited abuse4 ,for the sake of those who proceed in a spirit of impartial candor and honest inquiry1 we beg to offer a little further explanation4 ,we honestly admit that our purpose is to discredit the ,bible as the infallible word of ,god4 ,believing as we do1 with ,voltaire1 that despotism can never be abolished without destroying the dogmas on which it rests1 and that the ,bible is the grand source and sanction of them all1 we are profoundly anxious to expose its pretentions4 ,the educated classes already see through them1 and the upper classes credit them just as little1 although they dare not openly profess a scepticism which would imperil their privileges4 ,but the multitude are still left to the manipulation of priests1 credulous victims of the ,black ,army everywhere arrayed against freedom and progress4 ,it is to liberate these from thraldom that we labor1 sacrifice and suffer4 ,without being indifferent to what the world calls success1 we acknowledge the sovereignty of loftier aims4 ,compared with the advancement of ,freethought everything else is to us of trivial moment4 ,it may interest1 and perhaps surprise1 some to learn that for the famous ,christmas ,number of the ,freethinker which was successfully prosecuted1 the editor received absolutely nothing for his work except twelve months' imprisonment1 while the then registered proprietor1 who suffered nine months of the same fate1 actually shared with him a pecuniary loss of five pounds4 ,we are really in deadly earnest1 like all the greater soldiers of freedom who preceded us2 and we employ our smaller resources of satire1 as such giants as ,lucian1 ,rabelais1 ,erasmus1 ,voltaire and ,heine used theirs1 for ends that reach far forward into the mighty future1 and affect the welfare of unimagined generations of mankind4 ,now the masses do not read learned disquisitions2 they have no leisure to make themselves adequately acquainted with the history of the ,bible documents2 nor can they study comparative religion1 trace out the analogies between ,christianity and older faiths1 and realise how all the elaborate developments of doctrine and ritual in modern creeds have sprung from a few simple beliefs and practices of savage superstition4 ,but they are conversant with one or two cardinal ideas of science1 and they know the principles which underlie our daily life4 ,what is called common sense 7the logic of common experience7 is their philosophy1 and whoever seeks to move them must appeal to them through that4 ,strange as it may appear1 it is that very common sense which the clergy dread far more than all the disclosures of learning and all the revelations of science2 the reason being1 that learning and science are the privilege of a few1 while common sense is the possession of all1 and affects the very foundations of spiritual and political tyranny4 ,ridicule is a most potent form of common-sense logic4 ,what is the reductio ad absurdum but an appeal to admitted truths against plausible falsehoods8 ,reducing a thing to an absurdity is simply showing its inconsistency with what is common to both sides in a dispute2 and it frequently means the exposure of a gross contradiction to the principles of sanity4 ,laughter1 too1 as ,hobbes pointed out1 has always an element of pride or contempt2 being invariably accompanied by a feeling of superiority to its object4 ,whoever laughs at an absurdity is above it4 ,he looks down on it from a loftier altitude than argument can reach4 ,the man who laughs is safe4 ,he can never more be in danger1 unless he suffers fatty degeneration of the heart or fattier degeneration of the head4 ,priestcraft nourishes hope in the scientific laboratory1 and feels only faint misgivings in academic halls2 but it pales and withers at the smile of scepticism1 and hears in a low laugh the note of the trump of doom4 ,ridicule can never injure truth4 ,what it hurts must be false4 ,laugh at the multiplication-table as much as you please1 and twice two will still make four4 ,pictorial ridicule has the immense advantage of visualising absurdities4 ,lazy minds1 or those accustomed to regard a subject with the reverence of prejudice1 read without realising4 ,but the picture supplies the deficiency of their imagination1 translates words into things1 and enables them to see what had else been only a vague sound4 ,christians read the ,bible without realising its wonders1 allowing themselves to be cheated with words4 ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer has remarked that the image of the ,almighty hand launching worlds into space is very fine until you try to form a mental picture of it1 when it is found to be utterly irrealisable4 ,in the same way1 the ,creation ,story is passable until you image the ,lord making a clay man and blowing up his nose2 or the story of ,samson until you picture him slaying file after file of well-armed soldiers with the jaw-bone of a costermonger's pony4 ,let it be observed that these ,comic ,bible ,sketches ridicule nothing but miracles4 ,mr4 ,mathew ,arnold has said that the ,bible miracles are only fairy tales 7very poor ones1 by the way7 and their reign is doomed4 ,we only seek to hasten their deposition4 ,whatever the ,bible contains of truth1 goodness and beauty1 we prize as well as its blindest devotees4 ,but this valuable deposit of antiquity would be more useful if cleared of the rubbish of superstition4 ,it is not the good1 but the evil parts of the ,bible1 that are supported by its supernaturalism4 ,why should civilised ,englishmen go walking about in ,hebrew ,old-,clothes8 ,let us heed ,carlyle's stern monition3--,the ,jew old-clothes having now grown fairly pestilential1 a poisonous incumbrance in the path of of men1 burn them up with revolutionary fire4 ,a word in conclusion4 ,the editor of the ,manchester ,examiner1 writing over the well-,known signature of ,verax1 recently published a long article1 censuring the policy of aggressive ,freethought1 and declaring that to laugh at the absurdities of the ,bible was to insult the human race4 ,we might as well1 he said1 laugh at our poor ancestors1 the ancient ,britons1 for all their mistakes and follies4 ,well1 when the ancient ,jews are not only dead1 but buried like the ancient ,britons2 when their mistakes and follies are no longer palmed off on unsuspecting children1 and imposed on grown-up men and women1 as divine immortal truths2 we will cease ridiculing them1 and devote our attention to worthier objects4 ,what1 would ,verax say if an ancient ,briton1 dressed in a full suit of war-paint1 were to walk through the ,manchester streets1 boasting himself the pink of fashion1 and insulting peaceable citizens who refused to patronise his tailor8 ,would he not write a racy article on the absurd phenomenon1 and ask why the police tolerated such a nuisance8 ,in like manner we publish our ,comic ,bible ,sketches1 and summon the police of thought to remove those ancient ,jews who still infest our mental thoroughfares4 ,april1 #ahhe4 ,g4 ,w4 ,,foote