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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 />

MACE, n. A staff of office signifying authority. Its form, that of a<br />

heavy club, indicates its original purpose and use in dissuading from<br />

dissent.<br />

MACHINATION, n. The method employed by one's opponents in baffling<br />

one's open and honorable efforts to do the right thing.<br />

So plain the advantages of machination<br />

It constitutes a moral obligation,<br />

And honest wolves who think upon't with loathing<br />

Feel bound to don the sheep's deceptive clothing.<br />

So prospers still the diplomatic art,<br />

And Satan bows, with hand upon his heart.<br />

R.S.K.<br />

MACROBIAN, n. One forgotten of the gods and living to a great age.<br />

History is abundantly supplied with examples, from Methuselah to Old<br />

Parr, but some notable instances of longevity are less well known. A<br />

Calabrian peasant named Coloni, born in 1753, lived so long that he<br />

had what he considered a glimpse of the dawn of universal peace.<br />

Scanavius relates that he knew an archbishop who was so old that he<br />

could remember a time when he did not deserve hanging. In 1566 a<br />

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