{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/theosophistry",
 "title": "Theosophistry",
 "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": null,
 "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"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4793",
   "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": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Says Anderson, Theosophist:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Among the many that exist",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In modern halls.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some lived in ancient Egypt’s clime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in their childhood saw the prime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Karnak’s walls.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, Anderson, if that is true",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis my conviction, sir, that you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are one of those",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That once resided by the Nile⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peer to the Sacred Crocodile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heir to his woes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My judgment is, the Holy Cat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mews through your larynx (and your hat)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These many years.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through you the Hallowed Onion brings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its melancholy sense of things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And moves to tears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In you the Bull Divine again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bellows and paws the dusty plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To nature true.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I challenge not his ancient hate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, lowering my knurly pate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lock horns with you.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And though Reincarnation prove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A creed too stubborn to remove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all your school",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Theosophs I cannot scare⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All the more earnestly I swear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That you’re a fool!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You’ll say that this is mere abuse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without, in fraying you, a use.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That’s plain to see",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With only half an eye. Come, now,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be fair, be fair⁠—consider how",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It eases me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}