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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 />

REFERENDUM, n. A law for submission of proposed legislation to a<br />

popular vote to learn the nonsensus of public opinion.<br />

REFLECTION, n. An action of the mind whereby we obtain a clearer view<br />

of our relation to the things of yesterday and are able to avoid the<br />

perils that we shall not again encounter.<br />

REFORM, v. A thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to<br />

reformation.<br />

REFUGE, n. Anything assuring protection to one in peril. Moses and<br />

Joshua provided six cities of refuge‐‐Bezer, Golan, Ramoth, Kadesh,<br />

Schekem and Hebron‐‐to which one who had taken life inadvertently<br />

could flee when hunted by relatives of the deceased. This admirable<br />

expedient supplied him with wholesome exercise and enabled them to<br />

enjoy the pleasures of the chase; whereby the soul of the dead man was<br />

appropriately honored by observations akin to the funeral games of<br />

early Greece.<br />

REFUSAL, n. Denial of something desired; as an elderly maiden's hand<br />

in marriage, to a rich and handsome suitor; a valuable franchise to a<br />

rich corporation, by an alderman; absolution to an impenitent king, by<br />

a priest, and so forth. Refusals are graded in a descending scale of<br />

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