Evening star., 1896-02-08

dent literature are to
be found on cur book
counters, the Woman's Bible is to be oh
tained only by special order. Do not un-
derstand from this that it is improper
reading. Dear, no! The young person might
safely be intrusted with 1T, for it is not
only expurgated of great many en-
barrassing features Of the masculine Bible,
but 1t is peculiarly instructive-a new reve-
lation, a divinely ordained revelation con-
tanning evidence beyond the power CT any
man TO dispute that the new woman is
illogical, inconsistent, irreverent, irrespon-
sible, and above all, ill-natured as a sick
baby that won't take its bottle, will hit
it's nurse, and makes ugly faces at the
pretty moon.
The Object of the Book.
The object Of this Bible, as announced in
the preface, is to revise those texts and
chapters directly referring to women, and
those also in which women are made prom
Trent by exclusion. The reason assigned
for SO doing is: 1.-The canon and civil law;
church and state; priests and legislators;
all political parties and religious aenomi-
nations have alike taught that woman was
made after man, Of maa, and for man, an
inferior being, subject to man. CreedS,
codes scriptures and statutes are all based
en- this idea. The fashions, forms, cere-
monies and customs Of society, church or
dinances and discipline all grow out of this
idea.
1.-The Bible teaches that woman brought
sin and death into the world, that she pre-
cipitated the fall of the race, that she was
arraigned before the judgment seat of hea-
ven, tried, condemned and sentenced.
Marriage for her was to be condition of
bondage, maternity a period of suffering
and anguish, and in silence and subjection
she was to play the role Of dependent on
mans bounty for all her material wants,
and for all the information she might de-
sire en- the vital questions of the hour she
was commanded to ask her husband at
home. Hele is the Bible position of wo-
man briefly summed up"
What Man Did Not Do.
That this Bible position Of woman is the
fault Of man, the new woman undertakes
to show through the medium of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Clara Berwick Colby, Rev.
Phebo Hanaford, Lille pevereux Blake
Ellen Bottelle Dietrich. Helen II. Gardner,
Mrs. Robt G. Ingersoil, and others--rnore
than two score in all.
The emancipation of these women from
orthodoxy in religion is as absolute as
their social emancipation, says Mrs. Stan
ton. Il do lot believe that any man ever
saw or talked with God. / do not believe
God inspired the Mosaic code or told the
historians what they say he did about
woman" and to her conservative sisters
friends, wipe the dew off your spectacles
and see that the world is still moving.
Whatever your views as to the Importance
Of the proposed work, your political and
of your status in the Bible and the aver
sion you express is based on a blind feeling
of reverence, in which reason has no con-
troll"
Appeal to Reason Not Reverence.
Putting reverence under foot. then, and
enthroning reason-woman's reason, that
clever, crippled creature of the human
brain that stands firm on its one leg of
logic, "because''-the revising committee of
women beginS with Genesis and throws q
binding glare of female suffrage into the
matter of the trinity.
Here is the sacred historians first ac-
count of the advent of woman: A stimuli
taneous creation of both sexes in the image
of God. 1t is evident from the language
that there was consultation in the God
head, and that the masculine and feminine
elements were equally represented. Scott, lin
of the gods is the origin Of the doctrine of
the trinity But instead Of three male
personages, as generally represented, a
Heavenly Father, Mother and Son would
seem more rational
Woman Not n Subject to Man.
"As to woman's subjection, in which
both the canon and civil laws delight to
dwell, it is importent to note that equal
dominion is given to woman over every
living thing, but not one word is said CIV
irg man dominion over woman. My own
opinion is that the story accepted as war
rant for this assumed dominion was manip-
ulated by some Jew in an endeavor to give
heavenly authority for requiring a woman
to obey the man she married"
beginning so perfect as woman by the
Womar's Bible is shown TO be was ever
persuaded to associate with anything SO
far beneath her as man grows more and
more of a wonder as the revised story of
creation moves on. When 1t gets as far as
the devil in the Garden of Eden, it is dem
onstrated that the serpent was a being so
markedly superior to Adam as to justify
Ewes ildiScretion.
1T was a serpent supernaturally endow-
ed-a seraphim, as Scott and other COM
mentators have claimed, who talked with
Eve-and whose words might reasonably
of Adam. The tempter evidently had
profound knowledge of human nature, and
saw at a glance the high character of the
person he met by chance in mis- walks in
from the path of duty by brilliant Jewels,
rich dresses. worldly luxuries or pleasures,
but with the promise of knowledge with
the wisdom of the gods. Like Socrates or
irg puzzling questions were no DOUBT mar
velous, and he roused in the woman that
intense thirst for knowledge that the SIM
pie pleasures of picking flowers and talk
ing with Adam did not satisfy"
The Intellectual Eve.
In thus iEstituting a parallel between
Ewes curiosity and the Intellectual activity
Of the fin de steele woman, the woman's
Bible becomes authority for a statement of
the tendency Of the new woman, which ex-
perience in general and the divorce courts
in particular have previously made clear
To sustain E, es conduct it is not enough
to apotheosize the devil, and by incidental
innuendo establish the fact that Adam was
a man calculated to drive any woman to
destruction, the real nature of Adam must
be more directly set forth. Accordingly,
commenting on our first parents fall, the
case proceeds:
1.-THE unprejudiced reader must be i'm
pressed with the courage, the dignity, and
the lefty ambition of the woman. The wo-
man, fearless of death IL she can gain Wis
dom, takes of the fruit; and all this time
Adam, standing beside her, interposes no
duct of Adam was to the last degree das-
tardly. When the awful time Of reckoning
comes, and the Jehovah God appears to de-
mend why His command has been disobey-
ed, Adam endeavorS to shield himself be-
hind the gentle being he has declared to
be SO dear-'The woman Thou gavest to
be with me, she gave me and did eat'-he
whines, trying to shield himself at his
wife's expense. Again we are amazed that
upon such story men have built up a