



Produced by David Widger from page images generously
provided by the Internet Archive








THE DANCE OF DEATH

By Ambrose Bierce (AKA William Herman)



```"Wilt thou bring fine gold for a payment

````For sins on this wise?

```For the glittering of raiment

````And the shining of eyes,

```For the painting of faces

````And the sundering of trust,

```For the sins of thine high places

````And delight of thy lust?"=

* * * *

```"Not with fine gold for a payment,

````But with coin of sighs,

```But with rending of raiment

````And with weeping of eyes,

```But with shame of stricken faces

````And with strewing of dust,

```For the sin of stately places

````And lordship of lust."

 `````Swinburne.=

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PREFACE.

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he writer of these pages is not foolish enough to suppose that he can
escape strong and bitter condemnation for his utterances. On this
score he is not disposed to be greatly troubled; and for these reasons:
Firstly--he feels that he is performing a _duty_; secondly--he is
certain that his sentiments will be endorsed by hundreds upon whose
opinion he sets great value; thirdly--he relieves his mind of a burden
that has oppressed it for many years; and fourthly--as is evident upon
the face of these pages--he is no professed _litterateur_, who can be
starved by adverse criticism. Nevertheless he would be apostate to his
self-appointed mission if he invited censure by unseemly defiance of
those who must read and pass judgment upon his work. While, therefore,
he does not desire to invoke the _leniency_ of the professional critic
or the casual reader, he does desire to justify the position he has
taken as far as may be consistent with good taste.

It will doubtless be asserted by many: That the writer is a "bigoted
parson," whose puritanical and illiberal ideas concerning matters of
which he has no personal experience belong to an age that is happily
passed. On the contrary, he is a man of the world, who has mixed much
in society both in the old world and the new, and who knows whereof he
affirms.

That he is, for some reason, unable to partake of the amusement he
condemns, and is therefore jealous of those more fortunate than himself.
Wrong again. He has drunk deeply of the cup he warns others to avoid;
and has better opportunities than the generality of men to continue the
draught if he found it to his taste.

That he publishes from motives of private malice. _Private_ malice--no.
Malice of a certain kind, yes. Malice against those who should know
better than to abuse the rights of hospitality by making a bawdy-house
of their host's dwelling.

But the principal objection will doubtless refer to the plain language
used.

My excuse, if indeed excuse be needed for saying just what I mean,
is, that it is impossible to clothe in delicate terms the intolerable
nastiness which I expose, and at the same time to press the truth home
to those who are most in need of it; I might as well talk to the winds
as veil my ideas in sweet phrases when addressing people who it seems
cannot descry the presence of corruption until it is held in all its
putridity under their very nostrils.

Finally, concerning the prudence and advisability of such a publication,
I have only to say that I have consulted many leading divines and
principals of educational institutions, all of whom agree that the
subject must be dealt with plainly, and assure me that its importance
demands more than ordinary treatment--that it is a foeman worthy of the
sharpest steel; for, say they: To repeat the tame generalities uttered
from the pulpit, or the quiet tone of disapprobation adopted by the
press, would be to accord to the advocates of this evil a power which
they do not possess, and to proclaim a weakness of its opponents which
the facts will not justify.

I have therefore spoken plainly and to the purpose, that those who
run--or waltz--may read.

But there remains yet something to be said, which is more necessary to
my own peace of mind, and to that of many of my readers, than all that
has gone before. So important is it, indeed, that what I am about to say
should be distinctly understood by all those whose criticism I value,
and whose feelings I respect, that I almost hesitate to consign it to
that limbo of egotism--the preface.

Be it known, then, that