Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Delphi Classics)

by Ambrose Bierce

CONGRATULATION, n. The civility of envy.

  CONGRESS, n. A body of men who meet to repeal laws.

  CONNOISSEUR, n. A specialist who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else.

  An old wine-bibber having been smashed in a railway collision, some wine was pouted on his lips to revive him. “Pauillac, 1873,” he murmured and died.

  CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

  CONSOLATION, n. The knowledge that a better man is more unfortunate than yourself.

  CONSUL, n. In American politics, a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is given one by the Administration on condition that he leave the country.

  CONSULT, v.i. To seek another’s disapproval of a course already decided on.

  CONTEMPT, n. The feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.

  CONTROVERSY, n. A battle in which spittle or ink replaces the injurious cannon-ball and the inconsiderate bayonet.

  In controversy with the facile tongue —

  That bloodless warfare of the old and young —

  So seek your adversary to engage

  That on himself he shall exhaust his rage,

  And, like a snake that’s fastened to the ground,

  With his own fangs inflict the fatal wound.

  You ask me how this miracle is done?

  Adopt his own opinions, one by one,

  And taunt him to refute them; in his wrath

  He’ll sweep them pitilessly from his path.

  Advance then gently all you wish to prove,

  Each proposition prefaced with, “As you’ve

  So well remarked,” or, “As you wisely say,

  And I cannot dispute,” or, “By the way,

  This view of it which, better far expressed,

  Runs through your argument.” Then leave the rest

  To him, secure that he’ll perform his trust

  And prove your views intelligent and just.

  –Conmore Apel Brune

  CONVENT, n. A place of retirement for woman who wish for leisure to meditate upon the vice of idleness.

  CONVERSATION, n. A fair to the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.

  CORONATION, n. The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with a dynamite bomb.

  CORPORAL, n. A man who occupies the lowest rung of the military ladder.

  Fiercely the battle raged and, sad to tell,

  Our corporal heroically fell!

  Fame from her height looked down upon the brawl

  And said: “He hadn’t very far to fall.”

  –Giacomo Smith

  CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.

  CORSAIR, n. A politician of the seas.

  COURT FOOL, n. The plaintiff.

  COWARD, n. One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.

  CRAYFISH, n. A small crustacean very much resembling the lobster, but less indigestible.

  In this small fish I take it that human wisdom is admirably

  figured and symbolized; for whereas the crayfish doth move only

  backward, and can have only retrospection, seeing naught but the

  perils already passed, so the wisdom of man doth not enable him to

  avoid the follies that beset his course, but only to apprehend

  their nature afterward.

  –Sir James Merivale

  CREDITOR, n. One of a tribe of savages dwelling beyond the Financial Straits and dreaded for their desolating incursions.

  CREMONA, n. A high-priced violin made in Connecticut.

  CRITIC, n. A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please him.

  There is a land of pure delight,

  Beyond the Jordan’s flood,

  Where saints, apparelled all in white,

  Fling back the critic’s mud.

  And as he legs it through the skies,

  His pelt a sable hue,

  He sorrows sore to recognize

  The missiles that he threw.

  –Orrin Goof

  CROSS, n. An ancient religious symbol erroneously supposed to owe its significance to the most solemn event in the history of Christianity, but really antedating it by thousands of years. By many it has been believed to be identical with the crux ansata of the ancient phallic worship, but it has been traced even beyond all that we know of that, to the rites of primitive peoples. We have to-day the White Cross as a symbol of chastity, and the Red Cross as a badge of benevolent neutrality in war. Having in mind the former, the reverend Father Gassalasca Jape smites the lyre to the effect following:

  “Be good, be good!” the sisterhood

  Cry out in holy chorus,

  And, to dissuade from sin, parade

  Their various charms before us.

  But why, O why, has ne’er an eye

  Seen her of winsome manner

  And youthful grace and pretty face

  Flaunting the White Cross banner?

  Now where’s the need of speech and screed

  To better our behaving?

  A simpler plan for saving man

  (But, first, is he worth saving?)

  Is, dears, when he declines to flee

  From bad thoughts that beset him,

  Ignores the Law as ‘t were a straw,

  And wants to sin — don’t let him.

  CUI BONO? [Latin] What good would that do me?

  CUNNING, n. The faculty that distinguishes a weak animal or person from a strong one. It brings its possessor much mental satisfaction and great material adversity. An Italian proverb says: “The furrier gets the skins of more foxes than asses.”

  CUPID, n. The so-called god of love. This bastard creation of a barbarous fancy was no doubt inflicted upon mythology for the sins of its deities. Of all unbeautiful and inappropriate conceptions this is the most reasonless and offensive. The notion of symbolizing sexual love by a semisexless babe, and comparing the pains of passion to the wounds of an arrow — of introducing this pudgy homunculus into art grossly to materialize the subtle spirit and suggestion of the work — this is eminently worthy of the age that, giving it birth, laid it on the doorstep of prosperity.

  CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.

  CURSE, v.t. Energetically to belabor with a verbal slap-stick. This is an operation which in literature, particularly in the drama, is commonly fatal to the victim. Nevertheless, the liability to a cursing is a risk that cuts but a small figure in fixing the rates of life insurance.

  CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his vision.

  D

  DAMN, v. A word formerly much used by the Paphlagonians, the meaning of which is lost. By the learned Dr. Dolabelly Gak it is believed to have been a term of satisfaction, implying the highest possible degree of mental tranquillity. Professor Groke, on the contrary, thinks it expressed an emotion of tumultuous delight, because it so frequently occurs in combination with the word jod or god, meaning “joy.” It would be with great diffidence that I should advance an opinion conflicting with that of either of these formidable authorities.

  DANCE, v.i. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferably with arms about your neighbor’s wife or daughter. There are many kinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the two sexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuously innocent, and warmly loved by the vicious.

  DANGER, n.

  A
savage beast which, when it sleeps,

  Man girds at and despises,

  But takes himself away by leaps

  And bounds when it arises.

  –Ambat Delaso

  DARING, n. One of the most conspicuous qualities of a man in security.

  DATARY, n. A high ecclesiastic official of the Roman Catholic Church, whose important function is to brand the Pope’s bulls with the words Datum Romae. He enjoys a princely revenue and the friendship of God.

  DAWN, n. The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

  DAY, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent. This period is divided into two parts, the day proper and the night, or day improper — the former devoted to sins of business, the latter consecrated to the other sort. These two kinds of social activity overlap.

  DEAD, adj.

  Done with the work of breathing; done

  With all the world; the mad race run

  Though to the end; the golden goal

  Attained and found to be a hole!

  –Squatol Johnes

  DEBAUCHEE, n. One who has so earnestly pursued pleasure that he has had the misfortune to overtake it.

  DEBT, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave-driver.

  As, pent in an aquarium, the troutlet

  Swims round and round his tank to find an outlet,

  Pressing his nose against the glass that holds him,

  Nor ever sees the prison that enfolds him;

  So the poor debtor, seeing naught around him,

  Yet feels the narrow limits that impound him,

  Grieves at his debt and studies to evade it,

  And finds at last he might as well have paid it.

  –Barlow S. Vode

  DECALOGUE, n. A series of commandments, ten in number — just enough to permit an intelligent selection for observance, but not enough to embarrass the choice. Following is the revised edition of the Decalogue, calculated for this meridian.

  Thou shalt no God but me adore:

  ‘Twere too expensive to have more.

  No images nor idols make

  For Robert Ingersoll to break.

  Take not God’s name in vain; select

  A time when it will have effect.

  Work not on Sabbath days at all,

  But go to see the teams play ball.

  Honor thy parents. That creates

  For life insurance lower rates.

  Kill not, abet not those who kill;

  Thou shalt not pay thy butcher’s bill.

  Kiss not thy neighbor’s wife, unless

  Thine own thy neighbor doth caress

  Don’t steal; thou’lt never thus compete

  Successfully in business. Cheat.

  Bear not false witness — that is low —

  But “hear ‘tis rumored so and so.”

  Cover thou naught that thou hast not

  By hook or crook, or somehow, got.

  –G.J.

  DECIDE, v.i. To succumb to the preponderance of one set of influences over another set.

  A leaf was riven from a tree,

  “I mean to fall to earth,” said he.

  The west wind, rising, made him veer.

  “Eastward,” said he, “I now shall steer.”

  The east wind rose with greater force.

  Said he: “‘Twere wise to change my course.”

  With equal power they contend.

  He said: “My judgment I suspend.”

  Down died the winds; the leaf, elate,

  Cried: “I’ve decided to fall straight.”

  “First thoughts are best?” That’s not the moral;

  Just choose your own and we’ll not quarrel.

  Howe’er your choice may chance to fall,

  You’ll have no hand in it at all.

  –G.J.

  DEFAME, v.t. To lie about another. To tell the truth about another.

  DEFENCELESS, adj. Unable to attack.

  DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one’s ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at “men who live in these degenerate days,” which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread — a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved.

  DEGRADATION, n. One of the stages of moral and social progress from private station to political preferment.

  DEINOTHERIUM, n. An extinct pachyderm that flourished when the Pterodactyl was in fashion. The latter was a native of Ireland, its name being pronounced Terry Dactyl or Peter O’Dactyl, as the man pronouncing it may chance to have heard it spoken or seen it printed.

  DEJEUNER, n. The breakfast of an American who has been in Paris. Variously pronounced.

  DELEGATION, n. In American politics, an article of merchandise that comes in sets.

  DELIBERATION, n. The act of examining one’s bread to determine which side it is buttered on.

  DELUGE, n. A notable first experiment in baptism which washed away the sins (and sinners) of the world.

  DELUSION, n. The father of a most respectable family, comprising Enthusiasm, Affection, Self-denial, Faith, Hope, Charity and many other goodly sons and daughters.

  All hail, Delusion! Were it not for thee

  The world turned topsy-turvy we should see;

  For Vice, respectable with cleanly fancies,

  Would fly abandoned Virtue’s gross advances.

  –Mumfrey Mappel

  DENTIST, n. A prestidigitator who, putting metal into your mouth, pulls coins out of your pocket.

  DEPENDENT, adj. Reliant upon another’s generosity for the support which you are not in a position to exact from his fears.

  DEPUTY, n. A male relative of an office-holder, or of his bondsman. The deputy is commonly a beautiful young man, with a red necktie and an intricate system of cobwebs extending from his nose to his desk. When accidentally struck by the janitor’s broom, he gives off a cloud of dust.

  “Chief Deputy,” the Master cried,

  “To-day the books are to be tried

  By experts and accountants who

  Have been commissioned to go through

  Our office here, to see if we

  Have stolen injudiciously.

  Please have the proper entries made,

  The proper balances displayed,

  Conforming to the whole amount

  Of cash on hand — which they will count.

  I’ve long admired your punctual way —

  Here at the break and close of day,

  Confronting in your chair the crowd

  Of business men, whose voices loud

  And gestures violent you quell

  By some mysterious, calm spell —

  Some magic lurking in your look

  That brings the noisiest to book

  And spreads a holy and profound

  Tranquillity o’er all around.

  So orderly all’s done that they

  Who came to draw remain to pay.

  But now the time demands, at last,

  That you employ your genius vast

  In energies more active. Rise

  And shake the lightnings from your eyes;

  Inspire your underlings, and fling

  Your spirit into everything!”

  The Master’s hand here dealt a whack

  Upon the Deputy’s bent back,

  When straightway to the floor there fell
r />   A shrunken globe, a rattling shell

  A blackened, withered, eyeless head!

  The man had been a twelvemonth dead.

  –Jamrach Holobom

  DESTINY, n. A tyrant’s authority for crime and fool’s excuse for failure.

  DIAGNOSIS, n. A physician’s forecast of the disease by the patient’s pulse and purse.

  DIAPHRAGM, n. A muscular partition separating disorders of the chest from disorders of the bowels.

  DIARY, n. A daily record of that part of one’s life, which he can relate to himself without blushing.

  Hearst kept a diary wherein were writ

  All that he had of wisdom and of wit.

  So the Recording Angel, when Hearst died,

  Erased all entries of his own and cried:

  “I’ll judge you by your diary.” Said Hearst:

  “Thank you; ‘twill show you I am Saint the First” —

  Straightway producing, jubilant and proud,

  That record from a pocket in his shroud.

  The Angel slowly turned the pages o’er,

  Each stupid line of which he knew before,

  Glooming and gleaming as by turns he hit

  On Shallow sentiment and stolen wit;

  Then gravely closed the book and gave it back.

  “My friend, you’ve wandered from your proper track:

  You’d never be content this side the tomb —

  For big ideas Heaven has little room,

  And Hell’s no latitude for making mirth,”

  He said, and kicked the fellow back to earth.

  –”The Mad Philosopher”

  DICTATOR, n. The chief of a nation that prefers the pestilence of despotism to the plague of anarchy.