{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/religious-progress",
 "title": "Religious Progress",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 24,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
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  "longest_line_chars": 38,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Professor dear, I think it queer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all these good religions",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "(’Twixt you and me, some two or three",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are schemes for plucking pigeons)⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I mean ’tis strange that every change",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our poor minds to unfetter",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Entails a new religion⁠—true",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As t’ other one, and better.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From each in turn the truth we learn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That wood or flesh or spirit",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "May justly boast it rules the roast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until we cease to fear it.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, once upon a time long gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man worshipped Cat and Lizard:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His God he’d find in any kind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of beast, from a to izzard.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When risen above his early love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of dirt and blood and slumber,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He pulled down these vain deities,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And made one out of lumber.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Far better that than even a cat,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Howisons all shouted;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“When God is wood religion’s good!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But one poor cynic doubted.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“A timber God⁠—that’s very odd!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Progress, and invented",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The simple plan to worship Man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who, kindly soul! consented.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But soon our eye we lift asky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our vows all unregarded,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And find (at least so says the priest)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Truth⁠—and Man’s discarded.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Along our line of march recline",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dead gods devoid of feeling;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And thick about each sun-cracked lout",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dried Howisons are kneeling.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}