The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE TANK In the meanwhile, Mr. Bishop writes a book to prove the truth of all this pre- historic nonsense. Mr. Bishop’s intelligence is very far beneath the human level. For example, he actually maintains that the claws and teeth of predatory animals have been given to them out of kindness towards their prey! You would think it was impossible for any one to miss the point of the argument that nature is cruel. The fact is that Mr. Bishop’s ideas of kindness are a little crude, like his ideas of writing a book. This is not really a book at all. It’s mere scissors and paste. Its main argument is that as two men of science have differed on some minute de- tail of theory, there is no value in science. He does not in the least understand the subject on which he is writing. He does not understand the canon of reason. He has only one idea, which is, that the Bible (authorized translation) is literally true in every detail. His great explanation of everything that seems a little pecu- liar is that it is the result of sin. He claims, however, that sin was caused by the devil, who was created by God, and that God foreknew and permitted all this, in order to inflict torture upon nearly everybody except Mr. Bishop. He would however deny furiously that the God who willingly and knowingly created the devil, was in any way responsible for him. This Kaiserlich-Chautauquameri- canisch-Bishopisch God is therefore an illogical impossibility and absurdity. But this doesn’t detract from the unmetaphysical conception of him as a monster. Mr. Bishop is one of the best known philanthropists in England. Let us see how he acts within his family circle. Here is a quotation from a bill of costs sent in to his nephew by the family solicitor. It should be understood that the nephew in question was at the time of the transaction entitled to a considerable sum of money which was in the hands of this solicitor, and that Mr. Bishop was aware of this: “Attending Mrs. Bishop when she informed us that Mr. Bishop had received a letter from you that you were ill and needed money and she asked whether Mr. Bishop would be safe in sending you out any and generally answering your in- quiries. “Attending Mr. T. B. Bishop on his calling when he showed us the letter from you and stated that he was cabling you out £12.” A generous impulse is sometimes regretted by the impulsive one. Mr. Bishop’s motto seems to be, “Safety First.” Many years ago, as stated in THE Equinox, Mr. Bishop worked his sister to death in order to spare himself the expense of a stenographer. Mr. Bishop is a man of considerable wealth, but he never allows it to injure his moral principles. The death of his sister left him with one other sister, and for her he professed the most unbounded devotion. As she lay dead in her house, he wrote long letters to her son about One pound, three and tuppence that she owed to the grocer, sixteen and nine pence that she owed to the butcher, and so on. I suppose he had her buried by the parish, though I have no information on this point; but he was the residuary legatee of her estate, and any 285