By Abracadabra we signify
An infinite number of things.
'T is the answer to What? and How? and Why?
And Whence? and Whither?--a word whereby
The Truth (with the comfort it brings)
Is open to all who grope in night,
Crying for Wisdom's holy light.
Whether the word is a verb or a noun
Is knowledge beyond my reach.
I only know that't is handed down
From sage to sage,
From age to age--
An immortal part of speech!
Of an ancient man the tale is told
That he lived to be ten centuries old,
In a cave on a mountain side.
(True, he finally died.)
The fame of his wisdom filled the land,
For his head was bald and you 'll understand
His beard was long and white
And his eyes uncommonly bright.
Philosophers gathered from far and near
To sit at his feet and hear and hear,
Though he never was heard
To utter a word
But "Abracadabra, abracadab,
Abracada, abracad.
Abraca, abrac, ahra, ab!"
'T was all he had,
'T was all they wanted to hear, for each
Made copious notes of the mystical speech
Which they published next--
A trickle of text
In a meadow of commentary.
Mighty big books were these,
In number, as leaves of trees;
In learning, remarkable--very!
He 's dead,
As I said,
And the books of the sages have perished,
But his wisdom is sacredly cherished.
In "<i>Abracadabra</i>" it solemnly rings,
Like an ancient bell that forever swings.
Oh, I love to hear
That word make clear
Humanity's General Sense of Things.
Jamrach Holobom.
ABRIDGE, v. t. To shorten.
"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people
to abridge their king, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation."--Oliver Cromwell.
ABRUPT, adj. Sudden, without ceremony, like the arrival of a cannonshot
and the departure of the soldier whose interests are most affected by
it. Dr. Samuel Johnson beautifully said of another author's ideas that
they were "concatenated without abruption."
ABSCOND, v. i. To "move" in a mysterious way, commonly with the property
of another.
Spring beckons! All things to the call respond;
The trees are leaving and cashiers abscond.
Phela Orm.
ABSENT, adj. Peculiarly exposed to the tooth of detraction; vilified;
hopelessly in the wrong; superseded in the consideration and affection
of another.
To men a man is but a mind. Who cares
What face he carries or what form he wears?
But woman's body is the woman. Oh,
Stay thou, my sweetheart, and do never go.
But heed the warning words the sage hath said:
A woman absent is a woman dead.
Jogo Tyree.
ABSENTEE, n. A person with an income who has had the forethought to
remove himself from the sphere of exaction.
ABSOLUTE, adj. Independent, irresponsible. An absolute monarchy is one
in which the sovereign does as he pleases so long as he pleases the
assassins. Not many absolute monarchies are left, most of them having
been replaced by limited monarchies, where the sovereigns' power for
evil (and for good) is greatly curtailed, and by republics, which are
governed by chance.
ABSTAINER, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying
himself a pleasure. A Total Abstainer is one who abstains from
everything, but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the
affairs of others.
Said a man to a crapulent youth: "I thought
You a total abstainer, my son."
"So I am, so I am," said the scapegrace caught--
"But not, sir, a bigoted one."