diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'lib/ebooks/devils/U.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | lib/ebooks/devils/U.html | 118 |
1 files changed, 118 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/lib/ebooks/devils/U.html b/lib/ebooks/devils/U.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0327426f --- /dev/null +++ b/lib/ebooks/devils/U.html @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +<?xml version="1.0"?> +<!DOCTYPE package PUBLIC "+//ISBN 0-9673008-1-9//DTD OEB 1.0 Package//EN" + "http://openebook.org/dtds/oeb-1.0/oebdoc1.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/x-oeb1-document; charset=utf-8" /> +<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/x-oeb1-css" href="devil.css" /> +<title>The Devil’s Dictionary: U</title> +</head> +<body lang="en-US"> + + +<h1>U</h1> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">ubiquity</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The +gift or power of being in all places at one time, but not in all places at all +times, which is omnipresence, an attribute of God and the luminiferous ether +only. This important distinction between ubiquity and omnipresence was not +clear to the mediaeval Church and there was much bloodshed about it. Certain +Lutherans, who affirmed the presence everywhere of Christ’s body were known as +Ubiquitarians. For this error they were doubtless damned, for Christ’s body is +present only in the eucharist, though that sacrament may be performed in more +than one place simultaneously. In recent times ubiquity has not always been +understood—not even by Sir Boyle Roche, for example, who held that a man cannot +be in two places at once unless he is a bird.</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">ugliness</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A +gift of the gods to certain women, entailing virtue without humility.</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">ultimatum</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> In +diplomacy, a last demand before resorting to concessions.</p> + +<p>Having received an ultimatum from Austria, the Turkish Ministry met to consider it.</p> + +<p>“O servant of the Prophet,” said the Sheik of the Imperial Chibouk to the Mamoosh of the +Invincible Army, “how many unconquerable soldiers have we in arms?”</p> + +<p>“Upholder of the Faith,” that dignitary replied after examining his memoranda, “they are in +numbers as the leaves of the forest!”</p> + +<p>“And how many impenetrable battleships strike terror to the hearts of all Christian swine?” +he asked the Imaum of the Ever Victorious Navy.</p> + +<p>“Uncle of the Full Moon,” was the reply, “deign to know that they are as the waves of the ocean, +the sands of the desert and the stars of Heaven!”</p> + +<p>For eight hours the broad brow of the Sheik of the Imperial Chibouk was corrugated with +evidences of deep thought: he was calculating the chances of war. Then, “Sons +of angels,” he said, “the die is cast! I shall suggest to the Ulema of the +Imperial Ear that he advise inaction. In the name of Allah, the council is adjourned.”</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">un-American</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span> Wicked, +intolerable, heathenish.</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">unction</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> An +oiling, or greasing. The rite of extreme unction consists in touching with oil +consecrated by a bishop several parts of the body of one engaged in dying. Marbury +relates that after the rite had been administered to a certain wicked English +nobleman it was discovered that the oil had not been properly consecrated and +no other could be obtained. When informed of this the sick man said in anger: </p> + +<p>“Then I’ll be damned if I die!”</p> + +<p>“My son,” said the priest, “this is what we fear.”</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">understanding</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A +cerebral secretion that enables one having it to know a house from a horse by +the roof on the house. Its nature and laws have been exhaustively expounded by +Locke, who rode a house, and Kant, who lived in a horse.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="poetry">His understanding was so keen<br /> +That all things which he’d felt, heard, seen,<br /> +He could interpret without fail<br /> +If he was in or out of jail.<br /> +He wrote at Inspiration’s call<br /> +Deep disquisitions on them all,<br /> +Then, pent at last in an asylum,<br /> +Performed the service to compile ‘em.<br /> +So great a writer, all men swore,<br /> +They never had not read before.</p> +<p class="citeauth">Jorrock Wormley</p> +</div> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">Unitarian</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> One +who denies the divinity of a Trinitarian.</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">universalist</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> One +who forgoes the advantage of a Hell for persons of another faith.</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">urbanity</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The +kind of civility that urban observers ascribe to dwellers in all cities but New +York. Its commonest expression is heard in the words, “I beg your pardon,” and +it is not consistent with disregard of the rights of others.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p class="poetry">The owner of a powder mill<br /> +Was musing on a distant hill—<br /> +Something his mind foreboded—<br /> +When from the cloudless sky there fell<br /> +A deviled human kidney! Well,<br /> +The man’s mill had exploded.<br /> +His hat he lifted from his head;<br /> +“I beg your pardon, sir,” he said;<br /> +“I didn’t know ‘twas loaded.”</p> +<p class="citeauth">Swatkin</p> +</div> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">usage</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The First +Person of the literary Trinity, the Second and Third being Custom and +Conventionality. Imbued with a decent reverence for this Holy Triad an +industrious writer may hope to produce books that will live as long as the fashion.</p> + +<p class="entry"><span class="def">uxoriousness</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A +perverted affection that has strayed to one’s own wife.</p> + +</body> +</html>
\ No newline at end of file |
