Explore "A Rear Elevation" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
[He can speak with his eyes, his hands, arms, legs, body -- nay, / with his very bones, for he turned the broad of his back upon / us in "Conrad," the other night, and his shoulder-blades / spoke to us a volume of hesitation, fear, submission, / desperation -- everything which could haunt a man at the moment / of inevitable detection. -- "A "Dramatic Critic."]
Once Moses (in Scripture the story is told) / Entreated the favor God's face to behold.
Compassion divine the petition denied / Lest vision be blasted and body be fried.
Yet this much, the Record informs us, took place: / Jehovah, concealing His terrible face, / Protruded His rear from behind a great rock, / And edification ensued without shock.
So godlike Salvini, lest worshipers die, / Averting the blaze of his withering eye, / Tempers his terrors and shows to the pack / Of feeble adorers the broad of his back.
The fires of their altars, which, paled and declined / Before him, burn all the more brightly behind.
O happy adorers, to care not at all / Where fawning may tickle or lip-service fall!