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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38273-8.txt b/38273-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac9c933 --- /dev/null +++ b/38273-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,916 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Is the Bible Indictable?, by Annie Besant + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Is the Bible Indictable? + Being an Enquiry whether the Bible Comes within the Ruling + of the Lord Chief Justice as to Obscene Literature + +Author: Annie Besant + +Release Date: December 11, 2011 [EBook #38273] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + [ Transcriber's Notes: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully + as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation. + Some corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made. They + are listed at the end of the text. + + Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. + ] + + + + + IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? + + BY + ANNIE BESANT. + + BEING AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES + WITHIN THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF + JUSTICE AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE. + + + LONDON: + FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, + 28, Stonecutter Street, E.C. + + PRICE TWOPENCE. + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AND CHARLES BRADLAUGH, + 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C. + + + + +IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? + +AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES WITHIN THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF +JUSTICE AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE. + + +The ruling of Sir Alexander Cockburn in the late trial, the Queen +_against_ Bradlaugh and Besant, seems to involve wider issues than the +Lord Chief Justice intended, or than the legal ally of Nature and +Providence can desire. The question of motive is entirely set on one +side; the purest motives are valueless if the information conveyed is +such as is capable of being turned to bad purposes by the evil-minded +and the corrupt. This view of the law would not be enforced against +expensive medical works; provided that the price set on a book be such +as shall keep it out of reach of the "common people," its teaching may +be thoroughly immoral but it is not obscene. Dr. Fleetwood Churchill, +for instance, is not committing an indictable offence by giving +directions as to the simplest and easiest way of procuring abortion; he +is not committing a misdemeanour, although he points out means which any +woman could obtain and use for herself; he does not place himself within +reach of the law, although he recommends the practice of abortion in all +cases where previous experience proves that the birth of a living child +is impossible. A check to population which destroys life is thus passed +over as legal, perhaps because the destruction of life is the check so +largely employed by Nature and Providence, and would thus ensure the +approval of the Solicitor-General. But the real reason why Dr. Churchill +is left unmolested and Dr. Knowlton is assailed, lies in the difference +of the price at which the two are severally published. If Dr. Knowlton +was sold at 10s. 6d. and Dr. Churchill at 6d., then the vials of legal +wrath would have descended on the advocate of abortion and not on the +teacher of prevention. The obscenity lies, to a great extent, in the +price of the book sold. A vulgar little sixpence is obscene, a dainty +half-sovereign is respectable. Poor people must be content to remain +ignorant, or to buy the injurious quack treatises circulated in secret; +wealthier people, who want knowledge less, are to be protected by the +law in their purchases of medical works, but if poor people, in sore +need, finding "an undoubted physician" ready to aid them, venture to ask +for his work, written especially for them, the law strikes down those +who sell them health and happiness. They must not complain; Nature and +Providence have placed them in a state of poverty, and have mercifully +provided for them effectual, if painful, checks to population. The same +element of price rules the decency or the indecency of pictures. A +picture painted in oils, life size, of the naked human figure, such as +Venus disrobed for the bath, or Phryne before her judges, or Perseus and +Andromeda, exhibited to the upper classes, in a gallery, with a shilling +admission charge, is a perfectly decent and respectable work of art. +Photographs of those pictures, uncoloured, and reduced in size, are +obscene publications, and are seized as such by the police. Cheapness +is, therefore, an essential part of obscenity. + +If a book be cheap, what constitutes it an obscene book? Lord Campbell, +advocating in Parliament the Act against obscene literature which bears +his name, laid down very clearly his view of what should, legally, be an +obscene work. It must be a work "written for the single purpose of +corrupting the morals of youth, and of a nature calculated to shock the +feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind" (Hansard, vol. 146, +No. 2, p. 329). The law, according to him, was never to be levelled even +against works which might be considered immoral and indecent, such as +some of those of Dryden, Congreve, or Rochester. "The keeping, or the +reading, or the delighting in such things must be left to taste, and was +not a subject for legal interference;" the law was only to interpose +where the motive of the seller was bad; "when there were people who +designedly and industriously manufactured books and prints with the +intention of corrupting the public morals, and when they succeeded in +their infamous purpose, he thought it was necessary for the legislature +to interpose" (Hansard, vol. 146, No. 4, p. 865). + +The ruling of the present Lord Chief Justice in the late trial is in +direct opposition to the view taken by Lord Campbell. The chief says: +"Knowlton goes into physiological details connected with the functions +of the generation and procreation of children. The principles of this +pamphlet, with its details, are to be found in greater abundance and +distinctness in numerous works to which your attention has been +directed, and, having these details before you, you must judge for +yourselves whether there is anything in them which is calculated to +excite the passions of man and debase the public morals. If so, every +medical work is open to the same imputation" (Trial, p. 261). The Lord +Chief Justice then refers to the very species of book against which Lord +Campbell said that he directed his Act. "There are books," the chief +says, "which have for their purpose the exciting of libidinous thoughts, +and are intended to give to persons who take pleasure in that sort of +thing the impure gratification which the contemplation of such thoughts +is calculated to give." If the book were of that character it "would be +condemnable," and so far all are agreed as to the law. But Sir Alexander +Cockburn goes further, and here is the danger of his interpretation of +the law: "Though the intention is not unduly to convey this knowledge, +and gratify prurient and libidinous thoughts, still, if its effect is to +excite and create thoughts of so demoralising a character to the mind of +the reader, the work is open to the condemnation asked for at your +hands" (Trial, p. 261). Its effect on what reader? Suppose a person of +prurient mind buys Dr. Carpenter's "Human Physiology," and reads the +long chapter, containing over 100 pages, wholly devoted to a minute +description of generation; the effect of the reading will be "to excite +and create thoughts of" the "demoralising character" spoken of. +According to the Lord Chief Justice's ruling, Dr. Carpenter's would then +become an obscene book. The evil motive is transferred from the buyer to +the seller, and then the seller is punished for the buyer's bad intent; +vicarious punishment seems to have passed from the church into the law +court. There can be no doubt that every medical book now comes under the +head of "obscene literature," for they may all be read by impure people, +and will infallibly have the effect of arousing prurient thoughts; that +they are written for a good purpose, that they are written to cure +disease, is no excuse; the motive of the writer must not be considered; +the law has decided that books whose intention is to convey +physiological knowledge, and that not unduly, are obscene, if the +reader's passions chance to be aroused by them; "we must not listen to +arguments upon moral obligations arising out of any motive, or out of +any desire to benefit humanity, or to do good to your species" (Trial, +p. 237). The only protection of these, otherwise obscene, books lies in +their price; they are generally highly-priced, and they do thus lack one +essential element of obscenity. For the useful book that bad people make +harmful must be cheap in order to be practically obscene; it must be +within reach of the poor, and be "capable of being sold at the corners +of the streets, and at bookstalls, to every one who has sixpence to +spare" (Trial, p. 261). + +The new ruling touches all the dramatists and writers that Lord Campbell +had no idea of attacking; no one can doubt that many of Congreve's +dramas are calculated to arouse sexual passion; these are sold at a very +low price, and they have not even the defence of conveying any useful +information; they come most distinctly within the ruling of the Lord +Chief Justice; why are they to be permitted free circulation? Sterne, +Fielding, Smollett, Swift, must all be flung into the dusthole after +Congreve, Wycherley, Jonson; Dryden, of course, follows these without +delay, and Spencer, with his "Faerie Queene," is the next victim. +Shakespeare can have no quarter shown him; not only are most gross +passages scattered through his works, but the motive of some of them is +directly calculated to arouse the passions; for how many youthful love +fevers is not "Romeo and Juliet" answerable; what of "Cymbeline," +"Pericles," or "Titus Andronicus"? Can "Venus and Adonis" tend to +anything except to the rousing of passion? is "Lucrece" not obscene? Yet +Macmillan's Globe Edition of Shakespeare is regarded as one of the most +admirable publishing efforts made by that eminent firm to put English +masterpieces in the hands of the poor. Coming to our time, what is to be +done with Byron? "Don Juan" is surely calculated to corrupt, not to +speak of other poems, such as "Parisina." What of Shelley, with his +"Cenci?" Swinburne, must of course, be burned at once. Every one of +these great names is now branded as obscene, and, under the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice every one of them must be condemned. Suppose some +one should follow Hetherington's example? Suppose that we should become +the prosecutors instead of the prosecuted? Suppose that we should drag +others to share our prison, and should bring the most honoured names of +authors into the same condemnation that has struck us? Why should we +show to others a consideration that has not been shown to us? If it is +said that we should not strike, we answer; "Then leave _us_ alone, and +calculate the consequences before you touch us again." The law has been +declared by the Lord Chief Justice of England; why is not that law as +binding on Macmillan as on us? The law has been narrowed in order to +enmesh Freethought: its net will catch other fishes as well, or else +break under the strain and let all go free. The Christians desire to +make two laws, and show their hands too plainly: one law is to be +strict, and is to apply wholly to Freethinkers; cheating Christians, who +sell even Knowlton, are to be winked at by the authorities, and are to +be let off scot free; but this is not all. Ritualists circulate a book +beside which Knowlton is said to be purity itself, and the law does not +touch them; no warrants are issued for their apprehension; no +prosecution is paid for by a hidden enemy; no law-officer of the Crown +is briefed against them. Why is this? because to attack Christians is to +draw attention to the foundation of Christianity; because to attack the +"Priest in Absolution" is to attack Moses. The Christian walls are made +out of Bible-glass, and they fear to throw stones lest they should break +their own house. Listen to Mr. Ridsdale, a brother of the Holy Cross: "I +wonder," he says, "why some one does not stand up in the House of Lords +and bring a charge against the Bible (especially Leviticus) as an +immoral book." The _Church Times_, the organ of the Ritualists, has a +letter which runs thus: "Suppose a patrician and a pontifex in old Rome +had with care and deliberation extracted sentences from Holy Writ, +separated them from their context, suppressed the general nature and +character of the book, and then accused the bishop and his clergy of +deliberately preparing an obscene book to contaminate the young (how +readily he might have made such extracts!), what should we have said of +such ruffians?" This, then, is the shield of the clergy; the Bible is +itself so obscene that Christians fear to prosecute priests who +circulate obscenity. + +Does the Bible come within the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice as to +obscene literature? Most decidedly it does, and if prosecuted as an +obscene book, it must necessarily be condemned, if the law is justly +administered. Every Christian ought therefore to range himself on our +side, and demand a reversal of the present rule, for under it his own +sacred book is branded as obscene, and may be prosecuted as such by any +unbeliever. + +First, the book is widely circulated at a low price. If the Bible were +restricted in its circulation by being sold at 10s. 6d. or a guinea, it +might escape being placed in the category of obscene literature under +the present ruling. But no such defence can be pleaded for it. It is +sold at 8d. a copy, printed on cheap paper, and strongly bound, for use +in schools; it is given away by thousands among the "common people," +whose morals are now so carefully looked after in the matter of books; +it is presented to little children of both sexes, and they are told to +read it carefully. To such an extent is this carried, that some +thousands of children assembled together were actually told by Lord +Sandon, the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education, to +read the Bible right through from beginning to end, and were bidden not +to pick and choose. The element of price is clearly against the Bible if +it be proved to have in it anything which is of a nature calculated to +suggest impure thoughts. + +As to the motives of the writers, we need not trouble about them. The +law now says that intention is nothing, and no desire to do good is any +excuse for obscenity (Trial, p. 257). + +There remains the vital question: is the effect of some of its passages +to excite and create demoralising thoughts? (Trial, p. 261). + +The difficulty of dealing with this question is that many of the +quotations necessary to prove that the Bible comes under the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice are of such an extremely coarse and disgusting +character, that it is really impossible to reproduce them without +intensifying the evil which they are calculated to do. While I see no +indecency in a plain statement of physiological facts, written for +people's instruction, I do see indecency in coarse and indelicate +stories, the reading of which can do no good to any human being, and can +have no effect save that of corrupting the mind and suggesting unclean +ideas. I therefore refuse to soil my pages with quotations, and content +myself with giving the references, so that anyone who desires to use the +ruling of the Lord Chief Justice to suppress the Bible may see what +certainty of success awaits him if justice be done. I shall not trouble +about simple coarseness, such as Gen. iv. 1, 17, 25; Gen. vi. 4; or +Matt. i. 18-20, 25. If mere coarseness of expression were to be noted, +my task would be endless. But let the intending prosecutor read the +following passages. A little boy of 8 or 10 would scarcely be improved +by reading Gen. ix. 20-25; the drunkenness, indecency, and swearing in +these six verses is surely calculated to corrupt the boy's mind. The +teaching of Gen. xvi. 1-5 is scarcely elevating for the "common people," +seeing the example set by the "friend of God." Gen. xvii. 10-14 and +23-27 is very coarse. Would Gen. xix. 4-9 improve a young maiden, or +would it not suggest the most impure thoughts, verse 5 dealing with an +idea that should surely never be put into a girl's mind? The same +chapter, 30-38, is revolting; and Deut. ii. 9 and 19 implies God's +approval of the unnatural crime. The ignorance of physiology which is +thought best for girls would receive a shock, when in reading the Bible +straight through, the day's portion comprised Gen. xxv., 21-26. Gen. +xxvi., 8 is not nice, nor is Gen. xxix., 21-35, and Gen. xxx. The story +of Dinah, Gen. xxxiv.; of Reuben, Gen. xxxv., 22; of Onan, Gen. +xxxviii., 8-10; of Judah and Tamar, xxxviii., 13-26; of the birth of +Tamar's children, xxxviii., 27-30, are all revolting in their foulness +of phraseology. Why the Bible should be allowed to tell the story of +Onan seems very strange, and the "righteousness" of Tamar (v. 26) wins +approval. Is this thought purifying teaching for the "common people"? +The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Gen. xxxix., 7-18, I have heard +read in church to the manifest discomfort of some of the congregation, +and the amusement of others, while Joseph flying from temptation and +leaving his garment with Potiphar's wife is a picture often seen in +Sunday schools. Thus twelve out of the fifty chapters of Genesis are +undeniably obscene, and if there is any justice in England, Genesis +ought to be suppressed. We pass to Exodus. Ex. i., 15-19 is surely +indecent. I am not dealing with immoral teaching, or God's blessing on +the falsehood of the midwives (20, 21) would need comment. Ex. iv., +24-26, is very coarse; so also Ex. xxii., 16, 17, 19. Leviticus is +coarse throughout, but is especially so in chaps. v., 3; xii.; xv.; +xviii., 6-23; xx., 10-21; xxii., 3-5. The trial of jealousy is most +revolting in Numb. v., 12-29. Numb. xxv., 6-8 is hardly a nice story for +a child, nor is that of Numb. xxxi., 17, 18. Deut. xxi., 10-14 is not +pure teaching for soldiers. Deut. xxii., 13-21 is extremely coarse; the +remainder of the chapter comes also within the Chief's ruling, as do +also chaps. xxiii., 1, 10, 11; xxv., 11, 12; xxvii., 20, 22, 23; +xxviii., 57. The fault of the book of Joshua lies chiefly in its +exceeding brutality and bloodthirstiness, but it, also, does not quite +escape the charge of obscenity, as may be seen by referring to the +following passage: chap. v., 2-8. Judges is occasionally very foul, and +is utterly unfit for general reading, according to the late definition; +Ehud and Eglon, Judges, iii., 15-25, would not bear reading aloud, and +the story might have been told equally well in decent language. Or take +the horribly disgusting tale of the Levite and his concubine (Judges +xix.), and then judge whether a book containing such stories is fit for +use in schools. Dr. Carpenter's book may do good there, because, with +all its plain speaking, it conveys useful information; but what +good--mental, physical, or moral--can be done to a young girl by reading +Judges xix.? And the harm done is intensified by the fact that the +ignorance in which girls are kept surrounds such a story with +unwholesome interest, as giving a glimpse into what is, to them, the +great mystery of sex. The story of Ruth iii. 3-14 is one which we should +not like to see repeated by our daughters; for the virtue of a woman who +should wait until a man was drunk, and then go alone at night and lie +down at his feet, would, in our days, be regarded as problematical. 1 +Sam. ii. 22, and v. 9 are both obscene; so are 1 Sam. xviii. 25-27 and +xxi. 4, 5. 1 Sam. xxv. 22, 34 are disgustingly coarse, and there are +many similar coarse passages to be found in "holy" writ. 2 Sam. vi. 14, +16, 20, is a little over-suggestive, as is also 2 Sam. x. 4. The story +of David dancing is told in 1 Chron. xv. 27-29 without anything +offensive in its tone. The story of David and Bathsheba is only too well +known, and as told in 2 Sam. xi. 2-13 is far more calculated to arouse +the passions than is anything in Knowlton. The prophecy in 2 Sam. xii. +11, 12, fulfilled in xvi. 21, 22, is repulsive in the extreme, more +especially when we are told that the shameful counsel was given by +Ahithophel, whose counsel, "which he counselled in those days, was as if +a man had inquired at the oracle of God." If God's oracles give such +counsel, the less they are resorted to the better for the welfare of the +state. We are next given the odious story of Amnon and Tamar (2 Sam. +xiii. 1-22), instructive for Lord Sandon's boys and girls to read +together, as they go through the Bible from beginning to end. 1 Kings i. +1-4 conveys an idea more worthy of George IV. than of the man after +God's own heart. In 1 Kings xiv. 10, the coarseness is inexcusable, and +verse 24 is only too intelligible after Judges xix. 2 Kings ix. 8, +xviii. 27, are thoroughly Biblical in their delicacy. 1 Chron. xix. 4 +repeats the unpleasant story of 2 Sam. x. 4; but both 1 and 2 Chronicles +are, for the Bible, remarkably free from coarseness, and are a great +improvement on the books of Kings and Samuel. The same praise is +deserved by Ezra and Nehemiah. The tone of the story of Esther is +somewhat sensual throughout: the drunken king commanding Vashti to come +in and show her beauty, Esther i. 11; the search for the young virgins, +Esther ii. 2-4; the trial and choice, Esther ii. 12-17, these are +scarcely elevating reading; Esther vii. 8 is also coarse. To a girl +whose safety is in her ignorance, Job iii. 11 is very plain. Psalm +xxxviii. 5-7 gives a description of a certain class of disease in exact +terms. Proverbs v. 17-20 is good advice, but would be condemned by the +Lord Chief Justice; Proverbs vi. 24-32 is of the same character, as is +also Proverbs vii. 5-23. The allusion in Ecclesiastes xi. 5 would be +objected to as improper by the Solicitor-General. + +The Song of Solomon is a marriage-song of the sensual and luxuriant +character: put Knowlton side by side with it, and then judge which is +most calculated to arouse the passions. It is almost impossible to +select, where all is of so extreme a character, but take i. 2, 13; ii. +4-6, 17; iii. 1, 4; iv. 5, 6, 11; v. 2-4, 8, 14-16; vii. 2, 3, 6-10, 12; +viii. 1-3, 8-10. Could any language be more alluring, more seductive, +more passion-rousing, than the languid, uxorious, "linked sweetness long +drawn out" of this Eastern marriage-ode? It is not vulgarly coarse and +offensive as is so much of the Bible, but it is, according to the ruling +of the Lord Chief Justice, a very obscene poem. One may add that, in +addition to the allusions and descriptions that lie on the surface, +there is a multitude of suggestions not so apparent, but which are +thoroughly open to all who know anything of Eastern imagery. + +After the Song of Solomon, it is a shock to come to the prophets; it is +like plunging into cold water after being in a hothouse. Unfortunately, +with the more bracing atmosphere, we find the old brutality coming again +to repel us, and coarse denunciation shocks us, as in Isaiah iii. 17. +How would the Lord Chief Justice have dealt with Isaiah if he had lived +in his day, and acted as is recorded in Isaiah xx., 2-4? He clearly +would have put him in a lunatic asylum (Trial, p. 168). If it were not +that there are so many worse passages, one might complain of the taste +shown in the comparison of Isaiah xxvi. 17, 18; the same may be said of +Isaiah xxxii. 11, 12. In Isaiah xxxvi. 12 we have a repetition of 2 +Kings xviii. 27, which we could well have spared. In Isaiah lvii. 8, 9, +we meet a favourite simile of the Jewish prophets, wherein God is +compared to a husband, and the people to an unfaithful wife, and the +relations between them are described with a minuteness which can only be +fitly designated by the Solicitor-General's favourite word. Isaiah lxvi. +7-12 would be regarded as somewhat coarse in an ordinary book. The +prophets get worse as they go on. Jeremiah i. 5 is the first verse we +meet in Jeremiah which the Solicitor-General would take exception to. We +next meet the simile of marriage, in Jeremiah ii., 20, iii. 1-3, 6-9, +verse 9 being especially offensive. Jer. v. 7, 8, is coarse, as are also +Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girls' schools to read Jer. xx. +17, 18? But, perhaps, as Ezekiel is coming, it is hypercritical to +object to Jeremiah. Lamentations i. 8, 9, is revolting, and verse 17 of +the same chapter uses an extremely coarse simile. Ezekiel is the prophet +who ate a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity +that he did not eat a large part of his own, and so prevent it from +poisoning other people. What can be more disgusting than Ez. iv. 12-15? +the whole chapter is absurd, but these verses are abominable. The +prophet seems, like the drawers of the indictment against us, to take +pleasure in piling up uncomfortable terms, as in Ez. vi. 9. We now come +to a chapter that is obscene from beginning to end, and may, I think, +almost claim the palm of foulness. Let any one read through Ez. xvi., +marking especially verses 4-9, 15-17, 25, 26, 33, 34, 37, 39, and then +think of the absurdity of prosecuting Knowlton for corrupting the morals +of the young, who have this book of Ezekiel put into their hand. After +this, Ez. xviii. 6, 11, and 15 seem quite chaste and delicate; and no +one could object to Ez. xxii. 9-11. Ez. xxiii. is almost as bad as +chapter xvi., especially verses 6-9, 14-21, 29, 41-44. Surely if any +book be indictable for obscenity, the Bible should be the first to be +prosecuted. I know of no other book in which is to be found such utterly +unredeemed coarseness. The rest of Ezekiel is only bloodthirsty and +brutal, so may, fortunately, be passed over without further comment. +Daniel may be left unnoticed; and we now come to Hosea, a prophet whose +morals were, to speak gently, peculiar. The "beginning of the word of +the Lord by Hosea," was the Lord's command as to his marriage, related +in Hosea i. 2; we then hear of his children by the said wife in the +remainder of the chapter, and in the next chapter we are told, Hosea ii. +2, that the woman is not his wife, and from verse 2-13 we have an +extremely indecent speech of Hosea on the misdeeds of the unfortunate +creature he married, wherein, verse 4, he complains of the very fact +that God commanded in chap. i. 2. Hosea iii. 1-3 relates another +indecent proceeding on Hosea's part, and his purchase of another +mistress; whether girls' morals are improved by the contemplation of +such divine commands, is a question that might fairly be urged on Lord +Sandon before he next distributes Bibles to little children of both +sexes. The said girls must surely, as they study Hosea iv. 10-18, wonder +that God expresses his intention not to punish impurity in verse 14. It +is impossible, in reading Hosea, to escape from the prevailing tone of +obscenity; chaps. v. 3, 4, 7; vi. 9, 10; vii. 4; viii. 9; ix. 1, 10, 11, +14, 16; xii. 3; xiii. 13, every one of these has a thought in it that +all must regard as coarse, and which comes distinctly within the ruling +of the Lord Chief Justice as to obscenity; there is scarcely one chapter +in Hosea that does not, with offensive reiteration, dwell on the +coarsest form of wrongdoing of which women are capable. Joel iii. 3 is +objectionable in a comparatively slight degree. Amos, although +occasionally coarse, keeps clear of the gross obscenity of Hosea, as do +also Obadiah and Jonah. Micah i. 7, 8, 11, would scarcely be passed by +Sir Hardinge Giffard, nor would he approve Micah iv. 9, 10. Nahum iii. +4-6 is almost Hoseatic, and Habakkuk ii. 5, 16 runs it close. The +remaining four prophets are sometimes coarse, but have nothing in them +approaching the abominations of the others, and we close the Old +Testament with a sigh of relief. + +The New Testament has in it nothing at all approaching the obscenity of +the Old, save two passages in Revelation. The story of Mary and Joseph +is somewhat coarse, especially as told in Matt. i. 18-25. Rom. i. 24-27 +is distinctly obscene, and 1 Cor. v. 1, vi. 9, 15, 16, 18, would all be +judged indelicate by Her Majesty's Solicitor-General, who objected to +the warnings given by Knowlton against sexual sin. The whole of 1 Cor. +vii. might be thought calculated to arouse the passions, but the rest of +Paul's Epistles may pass, in spite of many coarse passages, such as 1 +Thess. iv. 3-7. Heb. xiii. 4 and 2 Peter ii. 10-18 both come into the +same category, but it is useless to delay on simple coarseness. +Revelation slips into the old prophetic indecency; Rev. ii. 20-22 and +xvii. 1-4 are almost worthy of Ezekiel. + +Can anyone go through all these passages and have any doubt that the +Bible--supposing it to be unprotected by statute--is indictable as an +obscene book under the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice? It is idle to +plead that the writers do not approve the evil deeds they chronicle, and +that it is only in two or three cases that God appears to endorse the +sin; no purity of motives on the writers' parts can be admitted in +excuse (Trial, p. 257). These sensuous stories and obscene parables come +directly under the censure of the Lord Chief Justice, and I invite our +police authorities to show their sense of justice by prosecuting the +people who circulate this indictable book, thereby doing all that in +them lies to vitiate and corrupt the morals of the young. If they will +not do this, in common decency they ought to drop the prosecution +against us for selling the "Fruits of Philosophy." + +The right way would be to prosecute none of these books. All that I have +intended to do in drawing attention to the "obscene" passages in the +Bible, is to show that to deal with the sexual relations with a good +object--as is presumably that of the Bible--should not be an indictable +misdemeanour. I do not urge that the Bible should be prosecuted: I do +urge that it is indictable under the present ruling; and I plead, +further, that this very fact shows how the present ruling is against the +public weal. Nothing could be more unfortunate than to have a large crop +of prosecutions against the standard writers of old times and of the +present day, and yet this is what is likely to happen, unless some stop +is put to the stupid and malicious prosecution against ourselves. With +one voice, the press of the country--omitting the _Englishman_--has +condemned the "foolish" verdict and the "vindictive" sentence. When that +sentence is carried out, the real battle will begin, and the blame of +the loss and the trouble that will ensue must rest on those who started +this prosecution, and on those who shield the hidden prosecutor. The +Christians, at least, ought to join with us in reversing the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice, since their own sacred book is one of those most +easily assailable. The purity that depends on ignorance is a fragile +purity; the chastity that depends on ignorance is a fragile chastity; to +buttress up ignorance with prison and fine is a fatal policy; and I call +on those who love freedom and desire knowledge, to join with us in +over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law. + + + + + [ Transcriber's Note: + + The following is a list of corrections made to the original. + The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + description of generation; the affect of the reading will be "to excite + description of generation; the effect of the reading will be "to excite + + Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girl's schools to read Jer. xx. + Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girls' schools to read Jer. xx. + + who eat a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity + who ate a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity + + over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law + over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law. + + ] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Is the Bible Indictable?, by Annie Besant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + +***** This file should be named 38273-8.txt or 38273-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/7/38273/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Is the Bible Indictable? + Being an Enquiry whether the Bible Comes within the Ruling + of the Lord Chief Justice as to Obscene Literature + +Author: Annie Besant + +Release Date: December 11, 2011 [EBook #38273] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div id="tnote"> +<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Notes:</b></p> + +<p>Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully +as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation.</p> + +<p>Some corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made. +<span class="screen">They are marked <ins title="transcriber's note">like +this</ins> in the text. The original text appears when hovering the cursor +over the marked text.</span> A <a href="#tn-bottom">list of amendments</a> is +at the end of the text.</p> +</div> + +<h1>IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE?</h1> + +<p class="center" style="line-height: 1.6;">BY<br/> +<big>ANNIE BESANT.</big></p> + +<p class="center">BEING AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES +WITHIN THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF +JUSTICE AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"> +<img src="images/emblem.png" width="100" height="128" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p class="center" style="line-height: 1.4;">LONDON:<br/> +FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,<br/> +<span class="small-caps">28, Stonecutter Street, E.C.</span></p> + +<p class="center">PRICE TWOPENCE.</p> + +<p class="center page-break" style="line-height: 1.4;">LONDON:<br/> +PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AND CHARLES BRADLAUGH,<br/> +28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.</p> + +<p class="center page-break" style="font-size: x-large;"><a class="pagenum" name="Page_3" title="3"> </a>IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE?</p> + +<p class="center" style="font-size: large;">AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES WITHIN +THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE +AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE.</p> + +<p class="no-indent"><span class="small-caps">The</span> ruling of Sir Alexander Cockburn in the late trial, the +Queen <i>against</i> Bradlaugh and Besant, seems to involve +wider issues than the Lord Chief Justice intended, or than +the legal ally of Nature and Providence can desire. The +question of motive is entirely set on one side; the purest +motives are valueless if the information conveyed is such as +is capable of being turned to bad purposes by the evil-minded +and the corrupt. This view of the law would not +be enforced against expensive medical works; provided that +the price set on a book be such as shall keep it out of reach +of the “common people,” its teaching may be thoroughly +immoral but it is not obscene. Dr. Fleetwood Churchill, +for instance, is not committing an indictable offence by +giving directions as to the simplest and easiest way of procuring +abortion; he is not committing a misdemeanour, +although he points out means which any woman could +obtain and use for herself; he does not place himself within +reach of the law, although he recommends the practice of +abortion in all cases where previous experience proves that +the birth of a living child is impossible. A check to population +which destroys life is thus passed over as legal, perhaps +because the destruction of life is the check so largely +employed by Nature and Providence, and would thus ensure +the approval of the Solicitor-General. But the real reason +why Dr. Churchill is left unmolested and Dr. Knowlton +is assailed, lies in the difference of the price at which +the two are severally published. If Dr. Knowlton was +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_4" title="4"> </a> +sold at 10s. 6d. and Dr. Churchill at 6d., then +the vials of legal wrath would have descended on the +advocate of abortion and not on the teacher of prevention. +The obscenity lies, to a great extent, in the price of the book +sold. A vulgar little sixpence is obscene, a dainty half-sovereign +is respectable. Poor people must be content to +remain ignorant, or to buy the injurious quack treatises +circulated in secret; wealthier people, who want knowledge +less, are to be protected by the law in their purchases of +medical works, but if poor people, in sore need, finding +“an undoubted physician” ready to aid them, venture to +ask for his work, written especially for them, the law strikes +down those who sell them health and happiness. They +must not complain; Nature and Providence have placed +them in a state of poverty, and have mercifully provided for +them effectual, if painful, checks to population. The same +element of price rules the decency or the indecency of +pictures. A picture painted in oils, life size, of the naked +human figure, such as Venus disrobed for the bath, or +Phryne before her judges, or Perseus and Andromeda, +exhibited to the upper classes, in a gallery, with a shilling +admission charge, is a perfectly decent and respectable work +of art. Photographs of those pictures, uncoloured, and +reduced in size, are obscene publications, and are seized as +such by the police. Cheapness is, therefore, an essential +part of obscenity.</p> + +<p>If a book be cheap, what constitutes it an obscene book? +Lord Campbell, advocating in Parliament the Act against +obscene literature which bears his name, laid down very +clearly his view of what should, legally, be an obscene work. +It must be a work “written for the single purpose of +corrupting the morals of youth, and of a nature calculated +to shock the feelings of decency in any well-regulated +mind” (Hansard, vol. 146, No. 2, p. 329). The law, +according to him, was never to be levelled even against +works which might be considered immoral and indecent, +such as some of those of Dryden, Congreve, or Rochester. +“The keeping, or the reading, or the delighting in such +things must be left to taste, and was not a subject for legal +interference;” the law was only to interpose where the motive +of the seller was bad; “when there were people who +designedly and industriously manufactured books and prints +with the intention of corrupting the public morals, and when +they succeeded in their infamous purpose, he thought it was +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_5" title="5"> </a> +necessary for the legislature to interpose” (Hansard, vol. 146, +No. 4, p. 865).</p> + +<p>The ruling of the present Lord Chief Justice in the late +trial is in direct opposition to the view taken by Lord +Campbell. The chief says: “Knowlton goes into physiological +details connected with the functions of the generation +and procreation of children. The principles of this +pamphlet, with its details, are to be found in greater +abundance and distinctness in numerous works to which +your attention has been directed, and, having these details +before you, you must judge for yourselves whether there is +anything in them which is calculated to excite the passions +of man and debase the public morals. If so, every medical work +is open to the same imputation” (Trial, p. 261). The Lord Chief +Justice then refers to the very species of book against which +Lord Campbell said that he directed his Act. “There are +books,” the chief says, “which have for their purpose the +exciting of libidinous thoughts, and are intended to give to +persons who take pleasure in that sort of thing the impure +gratification which the contemplation of such thoughts is +calculated to give.” If the book were of that character it +“would be condemnable,” and so far all are agreed as to the +law. But Sir Alexander Cockburn goes further, and here is +the danger of his interpretation of the law: “Though the +intention is not unduly to convey this knowledge, and gratify +prurient and libidinous thoughts, still, if its effect is to excite +and create thoughts of so demoralising a character to the +mind of the reader, the work is open to the condemnation +asked for at your hands” (Trial, p. 261). Its effect on what +reader? Suppose a person of prurient mind buys Dr. +Carpenter's “Human Physiology,” and reads the long chapter, +containing over 100 pages, wholly devoted to a minute description +of generation; the effect of the reading will be “to +excite and create thoughts of” the “demoralising character” +spoken of. According to the Lord Chief Justice's ruling, Dr. +Carpenter's would then become an obscene book. The evil +motive is transferred from the buyer to the seller, and then +the seller is punished for the buyer's bad intent; vicarious +punishment seems to have passed from the church into the +law court. There can be no doubt that every medical book +now comes under the head of “obscene literature,” for they +may all be read by impure people, and will infallibly have +the <ins title="affect">effect</ins> of arousing prurient thoughts; that they are written +for a good purpose, that they are written to cure disease, is +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_6" title="6"> </a> +no excuse; the motive of the writer must not be considered; +the law has decided that books whose intention is to +convey physiological knowledge, and that not unduly, are obscene, +if the reader's passions chance to be aroused by +them; “we must not listen to arguments upon moral obligations +arising out of any motive, or out of any desire to +benefit humanity, or to do good to your species” (Trial, +p. 237). The only protection of these, otherwise obscene, +books lies in their price; they are generally highly-priced, +and they do thus lack one essential element of obscenity. +For the useful book that bad people make harmful must be +cheap in order to be practically obscene; it must be within +reach of the poor, and be “capable of being sold at the +corners of the streets, and at bookstalls, to every one who +has sixpence to spare” (Trial, p. 261).</p> + +<p>The new ruling touches all the dramatists and writers that +Lord Campbell had no idea of attacking; no one can doubt +that many of Congreve's dramas are calculated to arouse sexual +passion; these are sold at a very low price, and they +have not even the defence of conveying any useful information; +they come most distinctly within the ruling of the +Lord Chief Justice; why are they to be permitted free +circulation? Sterne, Fielding, Smollett, Swift, must all be flung +into the dusthole after Congreve, Wycherley, Jonson; +Dryden, of course, follows these without delay, and +Spencer, with his “Faerie Queene,” is the next victim. +Shakespeare can have no quarter shown him; not only are most +gross passages scattered through his works, but the motive +of some of them is directly calculated to arouse the +passions; for how many youthful love fevers is not “Romeo +and Juliet” answerable; what of “Cymbeline,” “Pericles,” +or “Titus Andronicus”? Can “Venus and Adonis” tend +to anything except to the rousing of passion? is “Lucrece” +not obscene? Yet Macmillan's Globe Edition of Shakespeare +is regarded as one of the most admirable publishing +efforts made by that eminent firm to put English masterpieces +in the hands of the poor. Coming to our time, what +is to be done with Byron? “Don Juan” is surely calculated +to corrupt, not to speak of other poems, such as “Parisina.” +What of Shelley, with his “Cenci?” Swinburne, must of +course, be burned at once. Every one of these great +names is now branded as obscene, and, under the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice every one of them must be condemned. +Suppose some one should follow Hetherington's +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_7" title="7"> </a> +example? Suppose that we should become the prosecutors +instead of the prosecuted? Suppose that we should drag +others to share our prison, and should bring the most honoured +names of authors into the same condemnation that +has struck us? Why should we show to others a consideration +that has not been shown to us? If it is said +that we should not strike, we answer; “Then leave <em>us</em> +alone, and calculate the consequences before you touch +us again.” The law has been declared by the Lord Chief +Justice of England; why is not that law as binding on Macmillan +as on us? The law has been narrowed in order to +enmesh Freethought: its net will catch other fishes as well, +or else break under the strain and let all go free. The +Christians desire to make two laws, and show their hands +too plainly: one law is to be strict, and is to apply wholly +to Freethinkers; cheating Christians, who sell even Knowlton, +are to be winked at by the authorities, and are to be let +off scot free; but this is not all. Ritualists circulate a book +beside which Knowlton is said to be purity itself, and the +law does not touch them; no warrants are issued for their +apprehension; no prosecution is paid for by a hidden +enemy; no law-officer of the Crown is briefed against them. +Why is this? because to attack Christians is to draw attention +to the foundation of Christianity; because to attack the +“Priest in Absolution” is to attack Moses. The Christian +walls are made out of Bible-glass, and they fear to throw +stones lest they should break their own house. Listen to +Mr. Ridsdale, a brother of the Holy Cross: “I wonder,” +he says, “why some one does not stand up in the House of +Lords and bring a charge against the Bible (especially Leviticus) +as an immoral book.” The <cite>Church Times</cite>, the organ +of the Ritualists, has a letter which runs thus: “Suppose a +patrician and a pontifex in old Rome had with care and +deliberation extracted sentences from Holy Writ, separated +them from their context, suppressed the general nature +and character of the book, and then accused the bishop +and his clergy of deliberately preparing an obscene +book to contaminate the young (how readily he might +have made such extracts!), what should we have said of +such ruffians?” This, then, is the shield of the clergy; +the Bible is itself so obscene that Christians fear to prosecute +priests who circulate obscenity.</p> + +<p>Does the Bible come within the ruling of the Lord Chief +Justice as to obscene literature? Most decidedly it does, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_8" title="8"> </a> +and if prosecuted as an obscene book, it must necessarily be +condemned, if the law is justly administered. Every +Christian ought therefore to range himself on our side, and +demand a reversal of the present rule, for under it his own +sacred book is branded as obscene, and may be prosecuted +as such by any unbeliever.</p> + +<p>First, the book is widely circulated at a low price. If the +Bible were restricted in its circulation by being sold at +10s. 6d. or a guinea, it might escape being placed in the +category of obscene literature under the present ruling. +But no such defence can be pleaded for it. It is sold at +8d. a copy, printed on cheap paper, and strongly bound, for +use in schools; it is given away by thousands among the +“common people,” whose morals are now so carefully looked +after in the matter of books; it is presented to little children +of both sexes, and they are told to read it carefully. +To such an extent is this carried, that some thousands of +children assembled together were actually told by Lord +Sandon, the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on +Education, to read the Bible right through from beginning +to end, and were bidden not to pick and choose. The element +of price is clearly against the Bible if it be proved to +have in it anything which is of a nature calculated to suggest +impure thoughts.</p> + +<p>As to the motives of the writers, we need not trouble +about them. The law now says that intention is nothing, +and no desire to do good is any excuse for obscenity (Trial, +p. 257).</p> + +<p>There remains the vital question: is the effect of some of +its passages to excite and create demoralising thoughts? +(Trial, p. 261).</p> + +<p>The difficulty of dealing with this question is that +many of the quotations necessary to prove that the Bible +comes under the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice are +of such an extremely coarse and disgusting character, that +it is really impossible to reproduce them without intensifying +the evil which they are calculated to do. While I +see no indecency in a plain statement of physiological +facts, written for people's instruction, I do see indecency +in coarse and indelicate stories, the reading of which can do +no good to any human being, and can have no effect save +that of corrupting the mind and suggesting unclean +ideas. I therefore refuse to soil my pages with quotations, +and content myself with giving the references, so that anyone +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_9" title="9"> </a> +who desires to use the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice +to suppress the Bible may see what certainty of success +awaits him if justice be done. I shall not trouble about +simple coarseness, such as Gen. iv. 1, 17, 25; Gen. vi. 4; +or Matt. i. 18–20, 25. If mere coarseness of expression +were to be noted, my task would be endless. But let the +intending prosecutor read the following passages. A little +boy of 8 or 10 would scarcely be improved by reading Gen. +ix. 20–25; the drunkenness, indecency, and swearing in +these six verses is surely calculated to corrupt the boy's +mind. The teaching of Gen. xvi. 1–5 is scarcely elevating +for the “common people,” seeing the example set by the +“friend of God.” Gen. xvii. 10–14 and 23–27 is very coarse. +Would Gen. xix. 4–9 improve a young maiden, or would it +not suggest the most impure thoughts, verse 5 dealing with +an idea that should surely never be put into a girl's +mind? The same chapter, 30–38, is revolting; and Deut. +ii. 9 and 19 implies God's approval of the unnatural +crime. The ignorance of physiology which is thought best +for girls would receive a shock, when in reading the Bible +straight through, the day's portion comprised Gen. xxv., 21–26. +Gen. xxvi., 8 is not nice, nor is Gen. xxix., 21–35, and +Gen. xxx. The story of Dinah, Gen. xxxiv.; of Reuben, +Gen. xxxv., 22; of Onan, Gen. xxxviii., 8–10; of Judah and +Tamar, xxxviii., 13–26; of the birth of Tamar's children, +xxxviii., 27–30, are all revolting in their foulness of phraseology. +Why the Bible should be allowed to tell the story of +Onan seems very strange, and the “righteousness” of Tamar +(v. 26) wins approval. Is this thought purifying teaching for +the “common people”? The story of Joseph and Potiphar's +wife, Gen. xxxix., 7–18, I have heard read in church to the +manifest discomfort of some of the congregation, and the +amusement of others, while Joseph flying from temptation +and leaving his garment with Potiphar's wife is a picture +often seen in Sunday schools. Thus twelve out of the fifty +chapters of Genesis are undeniably obscene, and if there is +any justice in England, Genesis ought to be suppressed. +We pass to Exodus. Ex. i., 15–19 is surely indecent. I am +not dealing with immoral teaching, or God's blessing on the +falsehood of the midwives (20, 21) would need comment. +Ex. iv., 24–26, is very coarse; so also Ex. xxii., 16, 17, 19. +Leviticus is coarse throughout, but is especially so in chaps. +v., 3; xii.; xv.; xviii., 6–23; xx., 10–21; xxii., 3–5. The +trial of jealousy is most revolting in Numb. v., 12–29. +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_10" title="10"> </a> +Numb. xxv., 6–8 is hardly a nice story for a child, nor is that +of Numb. xxxi., 17, 18. Deut. xxi., 10–14 is not pure teaching +for soldiers. Deut. xxii., 13–21 is extremely coarse; the remainder +of the chapter comes also within the Chief's ruling, +as do also chaps. xxiii., 1, 10, 11; xxv., 11, 12; xxvii., 20, +22, 23; xxviii., 57. The fault of the book of Joshua lies +chiefly in its exceeding brutality and bloodthirstiness, but it, +also, does not quite escape the charge of obscenity, as may +be seen by referring to the following passage: chap. v., 2–8. +Judges is occasionally very foul, and is utterly unfit for +general reading, according to the late definition; +Ehud and Eglon, Judges, iii., 15–25, would not bear +reading aloud, and the story might have been +told equally well in decent language. Or take the +horribly disgusting tale of the Levite and his concubine +(Judges xix.), and then judge whether a book containing +such stories is fit for use in schools. Dr. Carpenter's book +may do good there, because, with all its plain speaking, it +conveys useful information; but what good—mental, +physical, or moral—can be done to a young girl by reading +Judges xix.? And the harm done is intensified by the fact +that the ignorance in which girls are kept surrounds such a +story with unwholesome interest, as giving a glimpse into +what is, to them, the great mystery of sex. The story of +Ruth iii. 3–14 is one which we should not like to see +repeated by our daughters; for the virtue of a woman who +should wait until a man was drunk, and then go alone at +night and lie down at his feet, would, in our days, be +regarded as problematical. 1 Sam. ii. 22, and v. 9 are both +obscene; so are 1 Sam. xviii. 25–27 and xxi. 4, 5. +1 Sam. xxv. 22, 34 are disgustingly coarse, and there are +many similar coarse passages to be found in “holy” writ. +2 Sam. vi. 14, 16, 20, is a little over-suggestive, as is also +2 Sam. x. 4. The story of David dancing is told in +1 Chron. xv. 27–29 without anything offensive in its tone. +The story of David and Bathsheba is only too well known, and +as told in 2 Sam. xi. 2–13 is far more calculated to arouse +the passions than is anything in Knowlton. The prophecy +in 2 Sam. xii. 11, 12, fulfilled in xvi. 21, 22, is repulsive in +the extreme, more especially when we are told that the +shameful counsel was given by Ahithophel, whose counsel, +“which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had +inquired at the oracle of God.” If God's oracles give such +counsel, the less they are resorted to the better for the +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_11" title="11"> </a> +welfare of the state. We are next given the odious story of +Amnon and Tamar (2 Sam. xiii. 1–22), instructive for Lord +Sandon's boys and girls to read together, as they go through +the Bible from beginning to end. 1 Kings i. 1–4 conveys +an idea more worthy of George IV. than of the man after +God's own heart. In 1 Kings xiv. 10, the coarseness is inexcusable, +and verse 24 is only too intelligible after Judges xix. +2 Kings ix. 8, xviii. 27, are thoroughly Biblical in their +delicacy. 1 Chron. xix. 4 repeats the unpleasant story of +2 Sam. x. 4; but both 1 and 2 Chronicles are, for the Bible, +remarkably free from coarseness, and are a great improvement +on the books of Kings and Samuel. The same praise +is deserved by Ezra and Nehemiah. The tone of the story +of Esther is somewhat sensual throughout: the drunken +king commanding Vashti to come in and show her beauty, +Esther i. 11; the search for the young virgins, Esther ii. +2–4; the trial and choice, Esther ii. 12–17, these are +scarcely elevating reading; Esther vii. 8 is also coarse. +To a girl whose safety is in her ignorance, Job iii. 11 is very +plain. Psalm xxxviii. 5–7 gives a description of a certain +class of disease in exact terms. Proverbs v. 17–20 is good +advice, but would be condemned by the Lord Chief Justice; +Proverbs vi. 24–32 is of the same character, as is also +Proverbs vii. 5–23. The allusion in Ecclesiastes xi. 5 +would be objected to as improper by the Solicitor-General.</p> + +<p>The Song of Solomon is a marriage-song of the sensual +and luxuriant character: put Knowlton side by side with it, +and then judge which is most calculated to arouse the +passions. It is almost impossible to select, where all is of +so extreme a character, but take i. 2, 13; ii. 4–6, 17; +iii. 1, 4; iv. 5, 6, 11; v. 2–4, 8, 14–16; vii. 2, 3, 6–10, 12; +viii. 1–3, 8–10. Could any language be more alluring, +more seductive, more passion-rousing, than the languid, +uxorious, “linked sweetness long drawn out” of this +Eastern marriage-ode? It is not vulgarly coarse and offensive +as is so much of the Bible, but it is, according to the +ruling of the Lord Chief Justice, a very obscene poem. +One may add that, in addition to the allusions and descriptions +that lie on the surface, there is a multitude of suggestions +not so apparent, but which are thoroughly open to all +who know anything of Eastern imagery.</p> + +<p>After the Song of Solomon, it is a shock to come to the +prophets; it is like plunging into cold water after being in +a hothouse. Unfortunately, with the more bracing atmosphere, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_12" title="12"> </a> +we find the old brutality coming again to repel us, +and coarse denunciation shocks us, as in Isaiah iii. 17. How +would the Lord Chief Justice have dealt with Isaiah if he +had lived in his day, and acted as is recorded in Isaiah xx., +2–4? He clearly would have put him in a lunatic asylum +(Trial, p. 168). If it were not that there are so many worse +passages, one might complain of the taste shown in the comparison +of Isaiah xxvi. 17, 18; the same may be said of +Isaiah xxxii. 11, 12. In Isaiah xxxvi. 12 we have a repetition +of 2 Kings xviii. 27, which we could well have spared. +In Isaiah lvii. 8, 9, we meet a favourite simile of the Jewish +prophets, wherein God is compared to a husband, and the +people to an unfaithful wife, and the relations between them +are described with a minuteness which can only be fitly +designated by the Solicitor-General's favourite word. Isaiah +lxvi. 7–12 would be regarded as somewhat coarse in an +ordinary book. The prophets get worse as they go on. +Jeremiah i. 5 is the first verse we meet in Jeremiah which the +Solicitor-General would take exception to. We next meet the +simile of marriage, in Jeremiah ii., 20, iii. 1–3, 6–9, verse 9 +being especially offensive. Jer. v. 7, 8, is coarse, as are also +Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the <ins title="girl's">girls'</ins> schools to read +Jer. xx. 17, 18? But, perhaps, as Ezekiel is coming, it is +hypercritical to object to Jeremiah. Lamentations i. 8, 9, is +revolting, and verse 17 of the same chapter uses an extremely +coarse simile. Ezekiel is the prophet who <ins title="eat">ate</ins> a little book +and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity that he did +not eat a large part of his own, and so prevent it from +poisoning other people. What can be more disgusting than +Ez. iv. 12–15? the whole chapter is absurd, but these +verses are abominable. The prophet seems, like the drawers +of the indictment against us, to take pleasure in piling up +uncomfortable terms, as in Ez. vi. 9. We now come to +a chapter that is obscene from beginning to end, and may, +I think, almost claim the palm of foulness. Let any one +read through Ez. xvi., marking especially verses 4–9, 15–17, +25, 26, 33, 34, 37, 39, and then think of the absurdity of +prosecuting Knowlton for corrupting the morals of the +young, who have this book of Ezekiel put into their hand. +After this, Ez. xviii. 6, 11, and 15 seem quite chaste and +delicate; and no one could object to Ez. xxii. 9–11. +Ez. xxiii. is almost as bad as chapter xvi., especially verses +6–9, 14–21, 29, 41–44. Surely if any book be indictable +for obscenity, the Bible should be the first to be prosecuted. +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_13" title="13"> </a> +I know of no other book in which is to be found such +utterly unredeemed coarseness. The rest of Ezekiel is only +bloodthirsty and brutal, so may, fortunately, be passed over +without further comment. Daniel may be left unnoticed; +and we now come to Hosea, a prophet whose morals were, +to speak gently, peculiar. The “beginning of the word of +the Lord by Hosea,” was the Lord's command as to his +marriage, related in Hosea i. 2; we then hear of his children +by the said wife in the remainder of the chapter, and +in the next chapter we are told, Hosea ii. 2, that the +woman is not his wife, and from verse 2–13 we have an extremely +indecent speech of Hosea on the misdeeds of the +unfortunate creature he married, wherein, verse 4, he complains +of the very fact that God commanded in chap. i. 2. +Hosea iii. 1–3 relates another indecent proceeding on +Hosea's part, and his purchase of another mistress; whether +girls' morals are improved by the contemplation of such +divine commands, is a question that might fairly be urged +on Lord Sandon before he next distributes Bibles to little +children of both sexes. The said girls must surely, as they +study Hosea iv. 10–18, wonder that God expresses his intention +not to punish impurity in verse 14. It is impossible, +in reading Hosea, to escape from the prevailing tone of +obscenity; chaps. v. 3, 4, 7; vi. 9, 10; vii. 4; viii. 9; +ix. 1, 10, 11, 14, 16; xii. 3; xiii. 13, every one of these +has a thought in it that all must regard as coarse, and which +comes distinctly within the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice +as to obscenity; there is scarcely one chapter in Hosea that +does not, with offensive reiteration, dwell on the coarsest +form of wrongdoing of which women are capable. Joel iii. +3 is objectionable in a comparatively slight degree. Amos, +although occasionally coarse, keeps clear of the gross +obscenity of Hosea, as do also Obadiah and Jonah. Micah i. +7, 8, 11, would scarcely be passed by Sir Hardinge Giffard, +nor would he approve Micah iv. 9, 10. Nahum iii. 4–6 +is almost Hoseatic, and Habakkuk ii. 5, 16 runs it close. +The remaining four prophets are sometimes coarse, but +have nothing in them approaching the abominations of the +others, and we close the Old Testament with a sigh of +relief.</p> + +<p>The New Testament has in it nothing at all approaching +the obscenity of the Old, save two passages in Revelation. +The story of Mary and Joseph is somewhat coarse, especially +as told in Matt. i. 18–25. Rom. i. 24–27 is distinctly +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_14" title="14"> </a> +obscene, and 1 Cor. v. 1, vi. 9, 15, 16, 18, would all be +judged indelicate by Her Majesty's Solicitor-General, who +objected to the warnings given by Knowlton against sexual +sin. The whole of 1 Cor. vii. might be thought calculated +to arouse the passions, but the rest of Paul's Epistles may +pass, in spite of many coarse passages, such as 1 Thess. iv. +3–7. Heb. xiii. 4 and 2 Peter ii. 10–18 both come into +the same category, but it is useless to delay on simple +coarseness. Revelation slips into the old prophetic indecency; +Rev. ii. 20–22 and xvii. 1–4 are almost worthy +of Ezekiel.</p> + +<p>Can anyone go through all these passages and have any +doubt that the Bible—supposing it to be unprotected by +statute—is indictable as an obscene book under the ruling +of the Lord Chief Justice? It is idle to plead that the +writers do not approve the evil deeds they chronicle, and +that it is only in two or three cases that God appears to endorse +the sin; no purity of motives on the writers' parts can +be admitted in excuse (Trial, p. 257). These sensuous stories +and obscene parables come directly under the censure of the +Lord Chief Justice, and I invite our police authorities to +show their sense of justice by prosecuting the people who +circulate this indictable book, thereby doing all that in them +lies to vitiate and corrupt the morals of the young. If they +will not do this, in common decency they ought to drop +the prosecution against us for selling the “Fruits of +Philosophy.”</p> + +<p>The right way would be to prosecute none of these +books. All that I have intended to do in drawing attention +to the “obscene” passages in the Bible, is to show that to +deal with the sexual relations with a good object—as is +presumably that of the Bible—should not be an indictable +misdemeanour. I do not urge that the Bible should be +prosecuted: I do urge that it is indictable under the present +ruling; and I plead, further, that this very fact shows how +the present ruling is against the public weal. Nothing could +be more unfortunate than to have a large crop of prosecutions +against the standard writers of old times and of the +present day, and yet this is what is likely to happen, unless +some stop is put to the stupid and malicious prosecution +against ourselves. With one voice, the press of the country—omitting +the <cite>Englishman</cite>—has condemned the “foolish” +verdict and the “vindictive” sentence. When that sentence +is carried out, the real battle will begin, and the blame of +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_15" title="15"> </a> +the loss and the trouble that will ensue must rest on those +who started this prosecution, and on those who shield the +hidden prosecutor. The Christians, at least, ought to join +with us in reversing the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice, +since their own sacred book is one of those most easily +assailable. The purity that depends on ignorance is a +fragile purity; the chastity that depends on ignorance is a +fragile chastity; to buttress up ignorance with prison and +fine is a fatal policy; and I call on those who love freedom +and desire knowledge, to join with us in over-ruling by +statute the new judge-made <ins title="law">law.</ins></p> + +<div id="tnote-bottom"> +<p class="center"><a name="tn-bottom"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></a></p> +<p>The following is a list of corrections made to the original. The +first passage is the original passage, the second the corrected one.</p> + +<ul id="corrections"> +<li><a href="#Page_5">Page 5</a>:<br/> +the <span class="correction">affect</span> of arousing prurient thoughts; that they are written<br/> +the <span class="correction">effect</span> of arousing prurient thoughts; that they are written +</li> +<li><a href="#Page_12">Page 12</a>:<br/> +Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the <span class="correction">girl's</span> schools to read<br/> +Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the <span class="correction">girls'</span> schools to read +</li> +<li><a href="#Page_12">Page 12</a>:<br/> +coarse simile. Ezekiel is the prophet who <span class="correction">eat</span> a little book<br/> +coarse simile. Ezekiel is the prophet who <span class="correction">ate</span> a little book +</li> +<li><a href="#Page_15">Page 15</a>:<br/> +statute the new judge-made <span class="correction">law</span><br/> +statute the new judge-made <span class="correction">law.</span> +</li> +</ul> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Is the Bible Indictable?, by Annie Besant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + +***** This file should be named 38273-h.htm or 38273-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/7/38273/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Is the Bible Indictable? + Being an Enquiry whether the Bible Comes within the Ruling + of the Lord Chief Justice as to Obscene Literature + +Author: Annie Besant + +Release Date: December 11, 2011 [EBook #38273] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + [ Transcriber's Notes: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully + as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation. + Some corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made. They + are listed at the end of the text. + + Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. + ] + + + + + IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? + + BY + ANNIE BESANT. + + BEING AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES + WITHIN THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF + JUSTICE AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE. + + + LONDON: + FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, + 28, Stonecutter Street, E.C. + + PRICE TWOPENCE. + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AND CHARLES BRADLAUGH, + 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C. + + + + +IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? + +AN ENQUIRY WHETHER THE BIBLE COMES WITHIN THE RULING OF THE LORD CHIEF +JUSTICE AS TO OBSCENE LITERATURE. + + +The ruling of Sir Alexander Cockburn in the late trial, the Queen +_against_ Bradlaugh and Besant, seems to involve wider issues than the +Lord Chief Justice intended, or than the legal ally of Nature and +Providence can desire. The question of motive is entirely set on one +side; the purest motives are valueless if the information conveyed is +such as is capable of being turned to bad purposes by the evil-minded +and the corrupt. This view of the law would not be enforced against +expensive medical works; provided that the price set on a book be such +as shall keep it out of reach of the "common people," its teaching may +be thoroughly immoral but it is not obscene. Dr. Fleetwood Churchill, +for instance, is not committing an indictable offence by giving +directions as to the simplest and easiest way of procuring abortion; he +is not committing a misdemeanour, although he points out means which any +woman could obtain and use for herself; he does not place himself within +reach of the law, although he recommends the practice of abortion in all +cases where previous experience proves that the birth of a living child +is impossible. A check to population which destroys life is thus passed +over as legal, perhaps because the destruction of life is the check so +largely employed by Nature and Providence, and would thus ensure the +approval of the Solicitor-General. But the real reason why Dr. Churchill +is left unmolested and Dr. Knowlton is assailed, lies in the difference +of the price at which the two are severally published. If Dr. Knowlton +was sold at 10s. 6d. and Dr. Churchill at 6d., then the vials of legal +wrath would have descended on the advocate of abortion and not on the +teacher of prevention. The obscenity lies, to a great extent, in the +price of the book sold. A vulgar little sixpence is obscene, a dainty +half-sovereign is respectable. Poor people must be content to remain +ignorant, or to buy the injurious quack treatises circulated in secret; +wealthier people, who want knowledge less, are to be protected by the +law in their purchases of medical works, but if poor people, in sore +need, finding "an undoubted physician" ready to aid them, venture to ask +for his work, written especially for them, the law strikes down those +who sell them health and happiness. They must not complain; Nature and +Providence have placed them in a state of poverty, and have mercifully +provided for them effectual, if painful, checks to population. The same +element of price rules the decency or the indecency of pictures. A +picture painted in oils, life size, of the naked human figure, such as +Venus disrobed for the bath, or Phryne before her judges, or Perseus and +Andromeda, exhibited to the upper classes, in a gallery, with a shilling +admission charge, is a perfectly decent and respectable work of art. +Photographs of those pictures, uncoloured, and reduced in size, are +obscene publications, and are seized as such by the police. Cheapness +is, therefore, an essential part of obscenity. + +If a book be cheap, what constitutes it an obscene book? Lord Campbell, +advocating in Parliament the Act against obscene literature which bears +his name, laid down very clearly his view of what should, legally, be an +obscene work. It must be a work "written for the single purpose of +corrupting the morals of youth, and of a nature calculated to shock the +feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind" (Hansard, vol. 146, +No. 2, p. 329). The law, according to him, was never to be levelled even +against works which might be considered immoral and indecent, such as +some of those of Dryden, Congreve, or Rochester. "The keeping, or the +reading, or the delighting in such things must be left to taste, and was +not a subject for legal interference;" the law was only to interpose +where the motive of the seller was bad; "when there were people who +designedly and industriously manufactured books and prints with the +intention of corrupting the public morals, and when they succeeded in +their infamous purpose, he thought it was necessary for the legislature +to interpose" (Hansard, vol. 146, No. 4, p. 865). + +The ruling of the present Lord Chief Justice in the late trial is in +direct opposition to the view taken by Lord Campbell. The chief says: +"Knowlton goes into physiological details connected with the functions +of the generation and procreation of children. The principles of this +pamphlet, with its details, are to be found in greater abundance and +distinctness in numerous works to which your attention has been +directed, and, having these details before you, you must judge for +yourselves whether there is anything in them which is calculated to +excite the passions of man and debase the public morals. If so, every +medical work is open to the same imputation" (Trial, p. 261). The Lord +Chief Justice then refers to the very species of book against which Lord +Campbell said that he directed his Act. "There are books," the chief +says, "which have for their purpose the exciting of libidinous thoughts, +and are intended to give to persons who take pleasure in that sort of +thing the impure gratification which the contemplation of such thoughts +is calculated to give." If the book were of that character it "would be +condemnable," and so far all are agreed as to the law. But Sir Alexander +Cockburn goes further, and here is the danger of his interpretation of +the law: "Though the intention is not unduly to convey this knowledge, +and gratify prurient and libidinous thoughts, still, if its effect is to +excite and create thoughts of so demoralising a character to the mind of +the reader, the work is open to the condemnation asked for at your +hands" (Trial, p. 261). Its effect on what reader? Suppose a person of +prurient mind buys Dr. Carpenter's "Human Physiology," and reads the +long chapter, containing over 100 pages, wholly devoted to a minute +description of generation; the effect of the reading will be "to excite +and create thoughts of" the "demoralising character" spoken of. +According to the Lord Chief Justice's ruling, Dr. Carpenter's would then +become an obscene book. The evil motive is transferred from the buyer to +the seller, and then the seller is punished for the buyer's bad intent; +vicarious punishment seems to have passed from the church into the law +court. There can be no doubt that every medical book now comes under the +head of "obscene literature," for they may all be read by impure people, +and will infallibly have the effect of arousing prurient thoughts; that +they are written for a good purpose, that they are written to cure +disease, is no excuse; the motive of the writer must not be considered; +the law has decided that books whose intention is to convey +physiological knowledge, and that not unduly, are obscene, if the +reader's passions chance to be aroused by them; "we must not listen to +arguments upon moral obligations arising out of any motive, or out of +any desire to benefit humanity, or to do good to your species" (Trial, +p. 237). The only protection of these, otherwise obscene, books lies in +their price; they are generally highly-priced, and they do thus lack one +essential element of obscenity. For the useful book that bad people make +harmful must be cheap in order to be practically obscene; it must be +within reach of the poor, and be "capable of being sold at the corners +of the streets, and at bookstalls, to every one who has sixpence to +spare" (Trial, p. 261). + +The new ruling touches all the dramatists and writers that Lord Campbell +had no idea of attacking; no one can doubt that many of Congreve's +dramas are calculated to arouse sexual passion; these are sold at a very +low price, and they have not even the defence of conveying any useful +information; they come most distinctly within the ruling of the Lord +Chief Justice; why are they to be permitted free circulation? Sterne, +Fielding, Smollett, Swift, must all be flung into the dusthole after +Congreve, Wycherley, Jonson; Dryden, of course, follows these without +delay, and Spencer, with his "Faerie Queene," is the next victim. +Shakespeare can have no quarter shown him; not only are most gross +passages scattered through his works, but the motive of some of them is +directly calculated to arouse the passions; for how many youthful love +fevers is not "Romeo and Juliet" answerable; what of "Cymbeline," +"Pericles," or "Titus Andronicus"? Can "Venus and Adonis" tend to +anything except to the rousing of passion? is "Lucrece" not obscene? Yet +Macmillan's Globe Edition of Shakespeare is regarded as one of the most +admirable publishing efforts made by that eminent firm to put English +masterpieces in the hands of the poor. Coming to our time, what is to be +done with Byron? "Don Juan" is surely calculated to corrupt, not to +speak of other poems, such as "Parisina." What of Shelley, with his +"Cenci?" Swinburne, must of course, be burned at once. Every one of +these great names is now branded as obscene, and, under the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice every one of them must be condemned. Suppose some +one should follow Hetherington's example? Suppose that we should become +the prosecutors instead of the prosecuted? Suppose that we should drag +others to share our prison, and should bring the most honoured names of +authors into the same condemnation that has struck us? Why should we +show to others a consideration that has not been shown to us? If it is +said that we should not strike, we answer; "Then leave _us_ alone, and +calculate the consequences before you touch us again." The law has been +declared by the Lord Chief Justice of England; why is not that law as +binding on Macmillan as on us? The law has been narrowed in order to +enmesh Freethought: its net will catch other fishes as well, or else +break under the strain and let all go free. The Christians desire to +make two laws, and show their hands too plainly: one law is to be +strict, and is to apply wholly to Freethinkers; cheating Christians, who +sell even Knowlton, are to be winked at by the authorities, and are to +be let off scot free; but this is not all. Ritualists circulate a book +beside which Knowlton is said to be purity itself, and the law does not +touch them; no warrants are issued for their apprehension; no +prosecution is paid for by a hidden enemy; no law-officer of the Crown +is briefed against them. Why is this? because to attack Christians is to +draw attention to the foundation of Christianity; because to attack the +"Priest in Absolution" is to attack Moses. The Christian walls are made +out of Bible-glass, and they fear to throw stones lest they should break +their own house. Listen to Mr. Ridsdale, a brother of the Holy Cross: "I +wonder," he says, "why some one does not stand up in the House of Lords +and bring a charge against the Bible (especially Leviticus) as an +immoral book." The _Church Times_, the organ of the Ritualists, has a +letter which runs thus: "Suppose a patrician and a pontifex in old Rome +had with care and deliberation extracted sentences from Holy Writ, +separated them from their context, suppressed the general nature and +character of the book, and then accused the bishop and his clergy of +deliberately preparing an obscene book to contaminate the young (how +readily he might have made such extracts!), what should we have said of +such ruffians?" This, then, is the shield of the clergy; the Bible is +itself so obscene that Christians fear to prosecute priests who +circulate obscenity. + +Does the Bible come within the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice as to +obscene literature? Most decidedly it does, and if prosecuted as an +obscene book, it must necessarily be condemned, if the law is justly +administered. Every Christian ought therefore to range himself on our +side, and demand a reversal of the present rule, for under it his own +sacred book is branded as obscene, and may be prosecuted as such by any +unbeliever. + +First, the book is widely circulated at a low price. If the Bible were +restricted in its circulation by being sold at 10s. 6d. or a guinea, it +might escape being placed in the category of obscene literature under +the present ruling. But no such defence can be pleaded for it. It is +sold at 8d. a copy, printed on cheap paper, and strongly bound, for use +in schools; it is given away by thousands among the "common people," +whose morals are now so carefully looked after in the matter of books; +it is presented to little children of both sexes, and they are told to +read it carefully. To such an extent is this carried, that some +thousands of children assembled together were actually told by Lord +Sandon, the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education, to +read the Bible right through from beginning to end, and were bidden not +to pick and choose. The element of price is clearly against the Bible if +it be proved to have in it anything which is of a nature calculated to +suggest impure thoughts. + +As to the motives of the writers, we need not trouble about them. The +law now says that intention is nothing, and no desire to do good is any +excuse for obscenity (Trial, p. 257). + +There remains the vital question: is the effect of some of its passages +to excite and create demoralising thoughts? (Trial, p. 261). + +The difficulty of dealing with this question is that many of the +quotations necessary to prove that the Bible comes under the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice are of such an extremely coarse and disgusting +character, that it is really impossible to reproduce them without +intensifying the evil which they are calculated to do. While I see no +indecency in a plain statement of physiological facts, written for +people's instruction, I do see indecency in coarse and indelicate +stories, the reading of which can do no good to any human being, and can +have no effect save that of corrupting the mind and suggesting unclean +ideas. I therefore refuse to soil my pages with quotations, and content +myself with giving the references, so that anyone who desires to use the +ruling of the Lord Chief Justice to suppress the Bible may see what +certainty of success awaits him if justice be done. I shall not trouble +about simple coarseness, such as Gen. iv. 1, 17, 25; Gen. vi. 4; or +Matt. i. 18-20, 25. If mere coarseness of expression were to be noted, +my task would be endless. But let the intending prosecutor read the +following passages. A little boy of 8 or 10 would scarcely be improved +by reading Gen. ix. 20-25; the drunkenness, indecency, and swearing in +these six verses is surely calculated to corrupt the boy's mind. The +teaching of Gen. xvi. 1-5 is scarcely elevating for the "common people," +seeing the example set by the "friend of God." Gen. xvii. 10-14 and +23-27 is very coarse. Would Gen. xix. 4-9 improve a young maiden, or +would it not suggest the most impure thoughts, verse 5 dealing with an +idea that should surely never be put into a girl's mind? The same +chapter, 30-38, is revolting; and Deut. ii. 9 and 19 implies God's +approval of the unnatural crime. The ignorance of physiology which is +thought best for girls would receive a shock, when in reading the Bible +straight through, the day's portion comprised Gen. xxv., 21-26. Gen. +xxvi., 8 is not nice, nor is Gen. xxix., 21-35, and Gen. xxx. The story +of Dinah, Gen. xxxiv.; of Reuben, Gen. xxxv., 22; of Onan, Gen. +xxxviii., 8-10; of Judah and Tamar, xxxviii., 13-26; of the birth of +Tamar's children, xxxviii., 27-30, are all revolting in their foulness +of phraseology. Why the Bible should be allowed to tell the story of +Onan seems very strange, and the "righteousness" of Tamar (v. 26) wins +approval. Is this thought purifying teaching for the "common people"? +The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Gen. xxxix., 7-18, I have heard +read in church to the manifest discomfort of some of the congregation, +and the amusement of others, while Joseph flying from temptation and +leaving his garment with Potiphar's wife is a picture often seen in +Sunday schools. Thus twelve out of the fifty chapters of Genesis are +undeniably obscene, and if there is any justice in England, Genesis +ought to be suppressed. We pass to Exodus. Ex. i., 15-19 is surely +indecent. I am not dealing with immoral teaching, or God's blessing on +the falsehood of the midwives (20, 21) would need comment. Ex. iv., +24-26, is very coarse; so also Ex. xxii., 16, 17, 19. Leviticus is +coarse throughout, but is especially so in chaps. v., 3; xii.; xv.; +xviii., 6-23; xx., 10-21; xxii., 3-5. The trial of jealousy is most +revolting in Numb. v., 12-29. Numb. xxv., 6-8 is hardly a nice story for +a child, nor is that of Numb. xxxi., 17, 18. Deut. xxi., 10-14 is not +pure teaching for soldiers. Deut. xxii., 13-21 is extremely coarse; the +remainder of the chapter comes also within the Chief's ruling, as do +also chaps. xxiii., 1, 10, 11; xxv., 11, 12; xxvii., 20, 22, 23; +xxviii., 57. The fault of the book of Joshua lies chiefly in its +exceeding brutality and bloodthirstiness, but it, also, does not quite +escape the charge of obscenity, as may be seen by referring to the +following passage: chap. v., 2-8. Judges is occasionally very foul, and +is utterly unfit for general reading, according to the late definition; +Ehud and Eglon, Judges, iii., 15-25, would not bear reading aloud, and +the story might have been told equally well in decent language. Or take +the horribly disgusting tale of the Levite and his concubine (Judges +xix.), and then judge whether a book containing such stories is fit for +use in schools. Dr. Carpenter's book may do good there, because, with +all its plain speaking, it conveys useful information; but what +good--mental, physical, or moral--can be done to a young girl by reading +Judges xix.? And the harm done is intensified by the fact that the +ignorance in which girls are kept surrounds such a story with +unwholesome interest, as giving a glimpse into what is, to them, the +great mystery of sex. The story of Ruth iii. 3-14 is one which we should +not like to see repeated by our daughters; for the virtue of a woman who +should wait until a man was drunk, and then go alone at night and lie +down at his feet, would, in our days, be regarded as problematical. 1 +Sam. ii. 22, and v. 9 are both obscene; so are 1 Sam. xviii. 25-27 and +xxi. 4, 5. 1 Sam. xxv. 22, 34 are disgustingly coarse, and there are +many similar coarse passages to be found in "holy" writ. 2 Sam. vi. 14, +16, 20, is a little over-suggestive, as is also 2 Sam. x. 4. The story +of David dancing is told in 1 Chron. xv. 27-29 without anything +offensive in its tone. The story of David and Bathsheba is only too well +known, and as told in 2 Sam. xi. 2-13 is far more calculated to arouse +the passions than is anything in Knowlton. The prophecy in 2 Sam. xii. +11, 12, fulfilled in xvi. 21, 22, is repulsive in the extreme, more +especially when we are told that the shameful counsel was given by +Ahithophel, whose counsel, "which he counselled in those days, was as if +a man had inquired at the oracle of God." If God's oracles give such +counsel, the less they are resorted to the better for the welfare of the +state. We are next given the odious story of Amnon and Tamar (2 Sam. +xiii. 1-22), instructive for Lord Sandon's boys and girls to read +together, as they go through the Bible from beginning to end. 1 Kings i. +1-4 conveys an idea more worthy of George IV. than of the man after +God's own heart. In 1 Kings xiv. 10, the coarseness is inexcusable, and +verse 24 is only too intelligible after Judges xix. 2 Kings ix. 8, +xviii. 27, are thoroughly Biblical in their delicacy. 1 Chron. xix. 4 +repeats the unpleasant story of 2 Sam. x. 4; but both 1 and 2 Chronicles +are, for the Bible, remarkably free from coarseness, and are a great +improvement on the books of Kings and Samuel. The same praise is +deserved by Ezra and Nehemiah. The tone of the story of Esther is +somewhat sensual throughout: the drunken king commanding Vashti to come +in and show her beauty, Esther i. 11; the search for the young virgins, +Esther ii. 2-4; the trial and choice, Esther ii. 12-17, these are +scarcely elevating reading; Esther vii. 8 is also coarse. To a girl +whose safety is in her ignorance, Job iii. 11 is very plain. Psalm +xxxviii. 5-7 gives a description of a certain class of disease in exact +terms. Proverbs v. 17-20 is good advice, but would be condemned by the +Lord Chief Justice; Proverbs vi. 24-32 is of the same character, as is +also Proverbs vii. 5-23. The allusion in Ecclesiastes xi. 5 would be +objected to as improper by the Solicitor-General. + +The Song of Solomon is a marriage-song of the sensual and luxuriant +character: put Knowlton side by side with it, and then judge which is +most calculated to arouse the passions. It is almost impossible to +select, where all is of so extreme a character, but take i. 2, 13; ii. +4-6, 17; iii. 1, 4; iv. 5, 6, 11; v. 2-4, 8, 14-16; vii. 2, 3, 6-10, 12; +viii. 1-3, 8-10. Could any language be more alluring, more seductive, +more passion-rousing, than the languid, uxorious, "linked sweetness long +drawn out" of this Eastern marriage-ode? It is not vulgarly coarse and +offensive as is so much of the Bible, but it is, according to the ruling +of the Lord Chief Justice, a very obscene poem. One may add that, in +addition to the allusions and descriptions that lie on the surface, +there is a multitude of suggestions not so apparent, but which are +thoroughly open to all who know anything of Eastern imagery. + +After the Song of Solomon, it is a shock to come to the prophets; it is +like plunging into cold water after being in a hothouse. Unfortunately, +with the more bracing atmosphere, we find the old brutality coming again +to repel us, and coarse denunciation shocks us, as in Isaiah iii. 17. +How would the Lord Chief Justice have dealt with Isaiah if he had lived +in his day, and acted as is recorded in Isaiah xx., 2-4? He clearly +would have put him in a lunatic asylum (Trial, p. 168). If it were not +that there are so many worse passages, one might complain of the taste +shown in the comparison of Isaiah xxvi. 17, 18; the same may be said of +Isaiah xxxii. 11, 12. In Isaiah xxxvi. 12 we have a repetition of 2 +Kings xviii. 27, which we could well have spared. In Isaiah lvii. 8, 9, +we meet a favourite simile of the Jewish prophets, wherein God is +compared to a husband, and the people to an unfaithful wife, and the +relations between them are described with a minuteness which can only be +fitly designated by the Solicitor-General's favourite word. Isaiah lxvi. +7-12 would be regarded as somewhat coarse in an ordinary book. The +prophets get worse as they go on. Jeremiah i. 5 is the first verse we +meet in Jeremiah which the Solicitor-General would take exception to. We +next meet the simile of marriage, in Jeremiah ii., 20, iii. 1-3, 6-9, +verse 9 being especially offensive. Jer. v. 7, 8, is coarse, as are also +Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girls' schools to read Jer. xx. +17, 18? But, perhaps, as Ezekiel is coming, it is hypercritical to +object to Jeremiah. Lamentations i. 8, 9, is revolting, and verse 17 of +the same chapter uses an extremely coarse simile. Ezekiel is the prophet +who ate a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity +that he did not eat a large part of his own, and so prevent it from +poisoning other people. What can be more disgusting than Ez. iv. 12-15? +the whole chapter is absurd, but these verses are abominable. The +prophet seems, like the drawers of the indictment against us, to take +pleasure in piling up uncomfortable terms, as in Ez. vi. 9. We now come +to a chapter that is obscene from beginning to end, and may, I think, +almost claim the palm of foulness. Let any one read through Ez. xvi., +marking especially verses 4-9, 15-17, 25, 26, 33, 34, 37, 39, and then +think of the absurdity of prosecuting Knowlton for corrupting the morals +of the young, who have this book of Ezekiel put into their hand. After +this, Ez. xviii. 6, 11, and 15 seem quite chaste and delicate; and no +one could object to Ez. xxii. 9-11. Ez. xxiii. is almost as bad as +chapter xvi., especially verses 6-9, 14-21, 29, 41-44. Surely if any +book be indictable for obscenity, the Bible should be the first to be +prosecuted. I know of no other book in which is to be found such utterly +unredeemed coarseness. The rest of Ezekiel is only bloodthirsty and +brutal, so may, fortunately, be passed over without further comment. +Daniel may be left unnoticed; and we now come to Hosea, a prophet whose +morals were, to speak gently, peculiar. The "beginning of the word of +the Lord by Hosea," was the Lord's command as to his marriage, related +in Hosea i. 2; we then hear of his children by the said wife in the +remainder of the chapter, and in the next chapter we are told, Hosea ii. +2, that the woman is not his wife, and from verse 2-13 we have an +extremely indecent speech of Hosea on the misdeeds of the unfortunate +creature he married, wherein, verse 4, he complains of the very fact +that God commanded in chap. i. 2. Hosea iii. 1-3 relates another +indecent proceeding on Hosea's part, and his purchase of another +mistress; whether girls' morals are improved by the contemplation of +such divine commands, is a question that might fairly be urged on Lord +Sandon before he next distributes Bibles to little children of both +sexes. The said girls must surely, as they study Hosea iv. 10-18, wonder +that God expresses his intention not to punish impurity in verse 14. It +is impossible, in reading Hosea, to escape from the prevailing tone of +obscenity; chaps. v. 3, 4, 7; vi. 9, 10; vii. 4; viii. 9; ix. 1, 10, 11, +14, 16; xii. 3; xiii. 13, every one of these has a thought in it that +all must regard as coarse, and which comes distinctly within the ruling +of the Lord Chief Justice as to obscenity; there is scarcely one chapter +in Hosea that does not, with offensive reiteration, dwell on the +coarsest form of wrongdoing of which women are capable. Joel iii. 3 is +objectionable in a comparatively slight degree. Amos, although +occasionally coarse, keeps clear of the gross obscenity of Hosea, as do +also Obadiah and Jonah. Micah i. 7, 8, 11, would scarcely be passed by +Sir Hardinge Giffard, nor would he approve Micah iv. 9, 10. Nahum iii. +4-6 is almost Hoseatic, and Habakkuk ii. 5, 16 runs it close. The +remaining four prophets are sometimes coarse, but have nothing in them +approaching the abominations of the others, and we close the Old +Testament with a sigh of relief. + +The New Testament has in it nothing at all approaching the obscenity of +the Old, save two passages in Revelation. The story of Mary and Joseph +is somewhat coarse, especially as told in Matt. i. 18-25. Rom. i. 24-27 +is distinctly obscene, and 1 Cor. v. 1, vi. 9, 15, 16, 18, would all be +judged indelicate by Her Majesty's Solicitor-General, who objected to +the warnings given by Knowlton against sexual sin. The whole of 1 Cor. +vii. might be thought calculated to arouse the passions, but the rest of +Paul's Epistles may pass, in spite of many coarse passages, such as 1 +Thess. iv. 3-7. Heb. xiii. 4 and 2 Peter ii. 10-18 both come into the +same category, but it is useless to delay on simple coarseness. +Revelation slips into the old prophetic indecency; Rev. ii. 20-22 and +xvii. 1-4 are almost worthy of Ezekiel. + +Can anyone go through all these passages and have any doubt that the +Bible--supposing it to be unprotected by statute--is indictable as an +obscene book under the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice? It is idle to +plead that the writers do not approve the evil deeds they chronicle, and +that it is only in two or three cases that God appears to endorse the +sin; no purity of motives on the writers' parts can be admitted in +excuse (Trial, p. 257). These sensuous stories and obscene parables come +directly under the censure of the Lord Chief Justice, and I invite our +police authorities to show their sense of justice by prosecuting the +people who circulate this indictable book, thereby doing all that in +them lies to vitiate and corrupt the morals of the young. If they will +not do this, in common decency they ought to drop the prosecution +against us for selling the "Fruits of Philosophy." + +The right way would be to prosecute none of these books. All that I have +intended to do in drawing attention to the "obscene" passages in the +Bible, is to show that to deal with the sexual relations with a good +object--as is presumably that of the Bible--should not be an indictable +misdemeanour. I do not urge that the Bible should be prosecuted: I do +urge that it is indictable under the present ruling; and I plead, +further, that this very fact shows how the present ruling is against the +public weal. Nothing could be more unfortunate than to have a large crop +of prosecutions against the standard writers of old times and of the +present day, and yet this is what is likely to happen, unless some stop +is put to the stupid and malicious prosecution against ourselves. With +one voice, the press of the country--omitting the _Englishman_--has +condemned the "foolish" verdict and the "vindictive" sentence. When that +sentence is carried out, the real battle will begin, and the blame of +the loss and the trouble that will ensue must rest on those who started +this prosecution, and on those who shield the hidden prosecutor. The +Christians, at least, ought to join with us in reversing the ruling of +the Lord Chief Justice, since their own sacred book is one of those most +easily assailable. The purity that depends on ignorance is a fragile +purity; the chastity that depends on ignorance is a fragile chastity; to +buttress up ignorance with prison and fine is a fatal policy; and I call +on those who love freedom and desire knowledge, to join with us in +over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law. + + + + + [ Transcriber's Note: + + The following is a list of corrections made to the original. + The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + description of generation; the affect of the reading will be "to excite + description of generation; the effect of the reading will be "to excite + + Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girl's schools to read Jer. xx. + Jer. xi. 15 and xiii. 26, 27. Ought the girls' schools to read Jer. xx. + + who eat a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity + who ate a little book and found it disagree with him: it seems a pity + + over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law + over-ruling by statute the new judge-made law. + + ] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Is the Bible Indictable?, by Annie Besant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE INDICTABLE? *** + +***** This file should be named 38273.txt or 38273.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/7/38273/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Jana Srna and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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