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THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

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<strong>Ambrose</strong> <strong>Bierce</strong> The Devil’s Dictionary<br />

HOMICIDE, n. The slaying of one human being by another. There are<br />

four kinds of homocide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and<br />

praiseworthy, but it makes no great difference to the person slain<br />

whether he fell by one kind or another‐‐the classification is for<br />

advantage of the lawyers.<br />

HOMILETICS, n. The science of adapting sermons to the spiritual<br />

needs, capacities and conditions of the congregation.<br />

So skilled the parson was in homiletics<br />

That all his normal purges and emetics<br />

To medicine the spirit were compounded<br />

With a most just discrimination founded<br />

Upon a rigorous examination<br />

Of tongue and pulse and heart and respiration.<br />

Then, having diagnosed each one's condition,<br />

His scriptural specifics this physician<br />

Administered‐‐his pills so efficacious<br />

And pukes of disposition so vivacious<br />

That souls afflicted with ten kinds of Adam<br />

Were convalescent ere they knew they had 'em.<br />

But Slander's tongue‐‐itself all coated‐‐uttered<br />

Her bilious mind and scandalously muttered<br />

Page | 141

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