It is long since I read the Book of Job, but if I thought it better
than your addition to it I should not sleep until I had read it
again--and again. Such a superb Who's Who in the Universe! Not a
Homeric hero in the imminence of a personal encounter ever did so fine
bragging. I hope you will let it into your next book, if only to show
that the "inspired" scribes of the Old Testament are not immatchable
by modern genius. You know the Jews regard them, not as prophets, in
our sense, but merely as poets--and the Jews ought to know something
of their own literature.
I fear I shall not be able to go to Carmel while you're a widow--I've
tangled myself up with engagements again. Moreover, I'm just back from
the St. Helena cemetery, and for a few days shall be too blue for
companionship.
"Shifted" is better, I think (in poetry) than "joggled." You say you
"don't like working." Then write a short story. That's work, but
you'd like it--or so I think. Poetry is the highest of arts, but why
be a specialist?
Sincerely yours,
AMBROSE BIERCE.
[Army and Navy Club, Washington, D. C.,
November 11, 1910.]