Explore "Laus Lucis" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Theosophists are about to build a "Temple for the revival of the / Mysteries of Antiquity." -- "Vide the Newspapers, passim".
Each to his taste: some men prefer to play / At mystery, as others at piquet.
Some sit in mystic meditation; some / Parade the street with tambourine and drum.
One studies to decipher ancient lore / Which, proving stuff, he studies all the more; / Another swears that learning is but good / To darken things already understood, / Then writes upon Simplicity so well / That none agree on what he wants to tell, / And future ages will declare his pen / Inspired by gods with messages to men.
To found an ancient order those devote / Their time -- with ritual, regalia, goat, / Blankets for tossing, chairs of little ease / And all the modern inconveniences; / These, saner, frown upon unmeaning rites / And go to church for rational delights.
So all are suited, shallow and profound, / The prophets prosper and the world goes round.
For me -- unread in the occult, I'm fain / To damn all mysteries alike as vain, / Spurn the obscure and base my faith upon / The Revelations of the good St. John.
1897.