Explore "One Judge" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Wallace, created on a noble plan / To show us that a Judge can be a Man; / Through moral mire exhaling mortal stench / God-guided sweet and foot-clean to the Bench; / In salutation here and sign I lift / A hand as free as yours from lawless thrift, / A heart -- ah, would I truly could proclaim / My bosom lighted with so pure a flame! / Alas, not love of justice moves my pen / To praise, or to condemn, my fellow men.
Good will and ill its busy point incite: / I do but gratify them when I write.
In palliation, though, I'd humbly state, / I love the righteous and the wicked hate.
So, sir, although we differ we agree, / Our work alike from persecution free, / And Heaven, approving you, consents to me.
Take, therefore, from this not all useless hand / The crown of honor -- not in all the land / One honest man dissenting from the choice, / Nor in approval one Fred. Crocker's voice!