Shapes of Clay
CONTENTS
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.
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.
Ambrose Bierce
SHAPES OF CLAY
1903
DEDICATION.
PREFACE.
SHAPES OF CLAY
THE PASSING SHOW.
ELIXER 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
AN 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.
COOPERATION.
AN APOLOGUE.
DIAGNOSIS.
FALLEN.
DIES IRAE.
DIES IRAE.
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 FABULA DOCET.
EXONERATION.
AZRAEL.
AGAIN.
HOMO PODUNKENSIS.
A SOCIAL CALL.