sed
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 POLITICI