{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/substance-or-shadow",
 "title": "Substance or Shadow",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
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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",
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    "date": "2026-08-20"
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 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
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  "longest_line_chars": 52,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "So, gentle critics, you would have me tilt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not at the guilty, only at their guilt!⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Spare the offender and condemn Offense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make life miserable to Pretense!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whip Vice and Folly⁠—that is satire’s use⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But be not personal, for that’s abuse;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor e’er forget what, ‘like a razor keen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wounds with a touch that’s scarcely felt or seen.’ ”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well, friends, I venture, destitute of awe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To think that razor but an old, old saw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A trifle rusty; and a wound, I’m sure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That’s felt not, seen not, one can well endure.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go to! go to!⁠—you’re as unfitted quite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To give advice to writers as to write.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I find in Folly and in Vice a lack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of head to strike, and for the lash no back,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whilst Pixley has a pow that’s easy struck,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And though good Deacon Fitch (a Fitch for luck!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has none, yet, lest he go entirely free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God gave to him a corn, a heel to me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He, also, sets his face (so like a flint",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wonder grows that Pickering doesn’t skin’t)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With cold austerity, against these wars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On scamps⁠—’tis Scampery that he abhors!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Behold advances in dignity and state⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grave, smug, serene, indubitably great⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stanford, philanthropist! One hand bestows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In alms what t’other one to justice owes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rascality attends him like a shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But closes, woundless, o’er my baffled blade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its limbs unsevered, spirit undismayed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Faith! I’m for something can be made to feel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If, like Pelides, only in the heel.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fellow’s self invites assault; his crimes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will each bear killing twenty thousand times!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Anon Creed Haymond⁠—but the list is long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of names to point the moral of my song.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rogues, fools, impostors, sycophants, they rise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They foul the earth and horrify the skies⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Collis Huntington (sole honest man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In all the reek of that rapscallion clan)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Denouncing Theft as hard as e’er he can!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}