Shapes of Clay by Ambrose Bierce (best short novels of all time txt) 📕

DEDICATION.

WITH PRIDE IN THEIR WORK, FAITH IN THEIR FUTURE AND AFFECTION FOR THEMSELVES, AN OLD WRITER DEDICATES THIS BOOK TO HIS YOUNG FRIENDS AND PUPILS, GEORGE STERLING AND HERMAN SCHEFFAUER. A.B.


PREFACE

Some small part of this book being personally censorious, and in that part the names of real persons being used without their assent, it seems fit that a few words be said of the matter in sober prose. What it seems well to say I have already said with sufficient clarity in the preface of another book, somewhat allied to this by that feature of its character. I quote from "Black Beetles in Amber:"

"Many of the verses in this book are republished, with considerable alterations, from various newspapers. Of my motives in writing and in now republishing I do not care to make either defence or explanation, except with reference to those who since my first censure of them have passed away. To one having only a reader's interest in the matter it may easily seem that the verses relating to those might properly have been omitted from this collection. But if these pieces, or indeed, if any considerable part of my work in literature, have the intrinsic worth which by this attempt to preserve some of it I have assumed, their permanent suppression is impossible, and it is only a question of when and by whom they will be republished. Some one will surely search them out and put them in circulation.

"I conceive it the right of an author to have his fugitive work collected in his lifetime; and this seems to me especially true of one whose work, necessarily engendering animosities, is peculiarly exposed to challenge as unjust. That is a charge that can best be examined before time has effaced the evidence. For the death of a man of whom I have written what I may venture to think worthy to live I am no way responsible; and however sincerely I may regret it, I can hardly consent that it shall affect my literary fortunes. If the satirist who does not accept the remarkable doctrine that, while condemning the sin he should spare the sinner, were bound to let the life of his work be coterminous with that of his subject his were a lot of peculiar hardship.

"Persuaded of the validity of all this I have not hesitated to reprint even certain 'epitaphs' which, once of the living, are now of the dead, as all the others must eventually be. The objection inheres in all forms of applied satire--my understanding of whose laws and liberties is at least derived from reverent study of the masters. That in respect of matters herein mentioned I have but followed their practice can be shown by abundant instance and example."

In arranging these verses for publication I have thought it needless to classify them according to character, as "Serious," "Comic," "Sentimental," "Satirical," and so forth. I do the reader the honor to think that he will readily discern the nature of what he is reading; and I entertain the hope that his mood will accommodate itself without disappointment to that of his author.

AMBROSE BIERCE.


CONTENTS.

THE PASSING SHOW
ELIXIR VITAE
CONVALESCENT
AT THE CLOSE OF THE CANVASS
NOVUM ORGANUM
GEOTHEOS
YORICK
A VISION OF DOOM
POLITICS
POESY
IN DEFENSE
AN INVOCATION
RELIGION
A MORNING FANCY
VISIONS OF SIN
THE TOWN OF DAE
AN ANARCHIST
AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE
ARMA VIRUMQUE
ON A PROPOSED CREMATORY
A DEMAND
THE WEATHER WIGHT
T.A.H.
MY MONUMENT
MAD
HOSPITALITY
FOR A CERTAIN CRITIC
RELIGIOUS PROGRESS
MAGNANIMITY
TO HER
TO A SUMMER POET
ARTHUR MCEWEN
CHARLES AND PETER
CONTEMPLATION
CREATION
BUSINESS
A POSSIBILITY
TO A CENSOR
THE HESITATING VETERAN
A YEAR'S CASUALTIES
INSPIRATION
TO-DAY
AN ALIBI
REBUKE
J.F.B.
THE DYING STATESMAN
THE DEATH OF GRANT
THE FOUNTAIN REFILLED
LAUS LUCIS
NANINE
TECHNOLOGY
A REPLY TO A LETTER
TO OSCAR WILDE
PRAYER
A "BORN LEADER OF MEN"
TO THE BARTHOLDI STATUE
AN UNMERRY CHRISTMAS
BY A DEFEATED LITIGANT
AN EPITAPH
THE POLITICIAN
AN INSCRIPTION
FROM VIRGINIA TO PARIS
A "MUTE INGLORIOUS MILTON"
THE FREE TRADER'S LAMENT
SUBTERRANEAN PHANTASIES
IN MEMORIAM
THE STATESMEN
THE BROTHERS
THE CYNIC'S BEQUEST
CORRECTED NEWS
AN EXPLANATION
JUSTICE
MR. FINK'S DEBATING DONKEY
TO MY LAUNDRESS
FAME
OMNES VANITAS
ASPIRATION
DEMOCRACY
THE NEW "ULALUME"
CONSOLATION
FATE
PHILOSOPHER BIMM
REMINDED
SALVINI IN AMERICA
ANOTHER WAY
ART
AN ENEMY TO LAW AND ORDER
TO ONE ACROSS THE WAY
THE DEBTOR ABROAD
FORESIGHT
A FAIR DIVISION
GENESIS
LIBERTY
THE PASSING OF "BOSS" SHEPHERD
TO MAUDE
THE BIRTH OF VIRTUE
STONEMAN IN HEAVEN
THE SCURRIL PRESS
STANLEY
ONE OF THE UNFAIR SEX
THE LORD'S PRAYER ON A COIN
A LACKING FACTOR
THE ROYAL JESTER
A CAREER IN LETTERS
THE FOLLOWING PAIR
POLITICAL ECONOMY
VANISHED AT COCK-CROW
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
INDUSTRIAL DISCONTENT
TEMPORA MUTANTUR
CONTENTMENT
THE NEW ENOCH
DISAVOWAL
AN AVERAGE
WOMAN
INCURABLE
THE PUN
A PARTISAN'S PROTEST
TO NANINE
VICE VERSA
A BLACK-LIST
A BEQUEST TO MUSIC
AUTHORITY
THE PSORIAD
ONEIROMANCY
PEACE
THANKSGIVING
L'AUDACE
THE GOD'S VIEW-POINT
THE AESTHETES
JULY FOURTH
WITH MINE OWN PETARD
CONSTANCY
SIRES AND SONS
A CHALLENGE
TWO SHOWS
A POET'S HOPE
THE WOMAN AND THE DEVIL
TWO ROGUES
BEECHER
NOT GUILTY
PRESENTIMENT
A STUDY IN GRAY
A PARADOX
FOR MERIT
A BIT OF SCIENCE
THE TABLES TURNED
TO A DEJECTED POET
A FOOL
THE HUMORIST
MONTEFIORE
A WARNING
DISCRETION
AN EXILE
THE DIVISION SUPERINTENDENT
PSYCHOGRAPHS
TO A PROFESSIONAL EULOGIST
FOR WOUNDS
ELECTION DAY
THE MILITIAMAN
A LITERARY METHOD
A WELCOME
A SERENADE
THE WISE AND GOOD
THE LOST COLONEL
FOR TAT
A DILEMMA
METEMPSYCHOSIS
THE SAINT AND THE MONK
THE OPPOSING SEX
A WHIPPER-IN
JUDGMENT
THE FALL OF MISS LARKIN
IN HIGH LIFE
A BUBBLE
A RENDEZVOUS
FRANCINE
AN EXAMPLE
REVENGE
THE GENESIS OF EMBARRASSMENT
IN CONTUMACIAM
RE-EDIFIED
A BULLETIN
FROM THE MINUTES
WOMAN IN POLITICS
TO AN ASPIRANT
A BALLAD OF PIKEVILLE
A BUILDER
AN AUGURY
LUSUS POLITICUS
BEREAVEMENT
AN INSCRIPTION
A PICKBRAIN
CONVALESCENT
THE NAVAL CONSTRUCTOR
DETECTED
BIMETALISM
THE RICH TESTATOR
TWO METHODS
FOUNDATIONS OF THE STATE
IN IMPOSTER
UNEXPOUNDED
FRANCE
THE EASTERN QUESTION
A GUEST
A FALSE PROPHECY
TWO TYPES
SOME ANTE-MORTEM EPITAPHS
A HYMN OF THE MANY
ONE MORNING
AN ERROR
AT THE "NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT"
THE KING OF BORES
HISTORY
THE HERMIT
TO A CRITIC OF TENNYSON
THE YEARLY LIE
CO-OPERATION
AN APOLOGUE
DIAGNOSIS
FALLEN
DIES IRAE
THE DAY OF WRATH
ONE MOOD'S EXPRESSION
SOMETHING IN THE PAPERS
IN THE BINNACLE
HUMILITY
ONE PRESIDENT
THE BRIDE
STRAINED RELATIONS
THE MAN BORN BLIND
A NIGHTMARE
A WET SEASON
THE CONFEDERATE FLAGS
HAEC FARULA DOCET
EXONERATION
AZRAEL
AGAIN
HOMO PODUNKENSIS
A SOCIAL CALL

THE PASSING SHOW.

I.

I know not if it was a dream. I viewed
A city where the restless multitude,
Between the eastern and the western deep
Had roared gigantic fabrics, strong and rude.

Colossal palaces crowned every height;
Towers from valleys climbed into the light;
O'er dwellings at their feet, great golden domes
Hung in the blue, barbarically bright.

But now, new-glimmering to-east, the day
Touched the black masses with a grace of gray,
Dim spires of temples to the nation's God
Studding high spaces of the wide survey.

Well did the roofs their solemn secret keep
Of life and death stayed by the truce of sleep,
Yet whispered of an hour-when sleepers wake,
The fool to hope afresh, the wise to weep.

The gardens greened upon the builded hills
Above the tethered thunders of the mills
With sleeping wheels unstirred to service yet
By the tamed torrents and the quickened rills.

A hewn acclivity, reprieved a space,
Looked on the builder's blocks about his base
And bared his wounded breast in sign to say:
"Strike! 't is my destiny to lodge your race.

"'T was but a breath ago the mammoth browsed
Upon my slopes, and in my caves I housed
Your shaggy fathers in their nakedness,
While on their foeman's offal they caroused."

Ships from afar afforested the bay.
Within their huge and chambered bodies lay
The wealth of continents; and merrily sailed
The hardy argosies to far Cathay.

Beside the city of the living spread--
Strange fellowship!--the city of the dead;
And much I wondered what its humble folk,
To see