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Philosopher Bimm

by Ambrose Bierce

From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry

Republicans think Jonas Bimm A Democrat gone mad, And Democrats consider him Republican and bad.
The Lout reviles him as a Dude And gives it him right hot; The Dude condemns his crassitude And calls him sans culottes .
Derided as an Anglophile By Anglophobes, forsooth, As Anglophobe he feels, the while, The Anglophilic tooth.
The Churchman calls him Atheist; The Atheists, rough-shod, Have ridden o’er him long and hissed “The wretch believes in God!”
The Saints whom clergymen we call Would kill him if they could; The Sinners (scientists and all) Complain that he is good.
All men deplore the difference Between themselves and him, And all devise expedients For paining Jonas Bimm.
I too, with wild demoniac glee, Would put out both his eyes; For Mr. Bimm appears to me Insufferably wise!

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