In the Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, there’s an extended quote from a work called The Lunarian Astonished published by Pfeiffer & Co., Boston in 1803. From the quote (below), it appears to concern a visitor from the Moon learning about American governence (and perhaps society as well, since at the rate it’s covering ground it would be an exceedingly short book if it only concerned government).
I’ve looked for the book several times, and I’ve come up completely dry in libraries, on Google Books, and on Google in general. All I can find is hundreds of different versions of the Devil’s Dictionary. Is the book lost in the mists of time? Did Bierce make it up? Or is it out there somewhere, and I simply haven’t looked hard enough?
LUNARIAN: Then when your Congress has passed a law it goes
directly to the Supreme Court in order that it may at once be
known whether it is constitutional?
TERRESTRIAN: O no; it does not require the approval of the
Supreme Court until having perhaps been enforced for many
years somebody objects to its operation against himself — I
mean his client. The President, if he approves it, begins to
execute it at once.
LUNARIAN: Ah, the executive power is a part of the legislative.
Do your policemen also have to approve the local ordinances
that they enforce?
TERRESTRIAN: Not yet — at least not in their character of
constables. Generally speaking, though, all laws require the
approval of those whom they are intended to restrain.
LUNARIAN: I see. The death warrant is not valid until signed by
the murderer.
TERRESTRIAN: My friend, you put it too strongly; we are not so
consistent.
LUNARIAN: But this system of maintaining an expensive judicial
machinery to pass upon the validity of laws only after they
have long been executed, and then only when brought before the
court by some private person — does it not cause great
confusion?
TERRESTRIAN: It does.
LUNARIAN: Why then should not your laws, previously to being
executed, be validated, not by the signature of your
President, but by that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court?
TERRESTRIAN: There is no precedent for any such course.
LUNARIAN: Precedent. What is that?
TERRESTRIAN: It has been defined by five hundred lawyers in three
volumes each. So how can any one know?
{ 10 comments }
Eric,
Given that my university library has no record of it (even for interlibrary loan!) I have to conclude either it is exceedingly rare, or else Bierce just made it up (not an uncommon literary device at the time).
I was afraid of that; the quote does have a Biercey feel to it, and a Library of Congress search comes up dry (I only just now thought to check again, as they didn’t have a complete online catalog a few years ago when I last went looking for it).
Thank you for checking.
Of course, given the date of publication, it’s possible that the LOC doesn’t have a copy because the British burned it in 1815. But if they haven’t tracked down an additional copy since then, that points to either “exceedingly rare” or “Bierce made it up”.
It vaguely reminds me of a piece by de Bergerac…
I love searches like this. I obviously never heard of it, and so even though you may have already done this, sometimes my Google-fu is better than others (and people combining Google-fu often results in uber-chi!). Thus, I tried searching on The Lunarian Astonished minus Bierce, to rid us of all traces of Bierce’s quoting it.
That turned up this book called Science-fiction, the Early Years, and a review of something entitled “The Lunarian Professor And His Remarkable Revelations Concerning the Earth, The Moon and Mars Together.” The review describes a book that sounds like it very well could be what Bierce was quoting from,and right general time frame for Bierce’s writing, right general subject.
Further searching turned up this online copy of said book. Which looks suspiciously like what Bierce was referring to, but I can’t find that quote in it. On the other hand, just perusing its content, it looks like a book Bierce would have liked.
It appears to have been published in 1909. Can’t say if it was the book or not; Bierce may have misremembered the title, may have misquoted, or may have made much of it up because, as you note, that wouldn’t have been unusual in his era, or for him in particular.
Don’t know of the book, but as long as y’all are looking for this kind of stuff…
there was this ScFi story (not a book) about a conference between businessman and what he took to be a salesman. The salesman (best of my recollection) went through a brief description of why voodoo works — had to do with the psychological impact of knowing a group of people want you dead (I know, different time) . The business man says, yeah, I’ll join & the salesmen says – you misunderstand, I’m letting you know that we want you dead.
Anyone know of it or how I can find it? I’ve tried google & reference librarians, not sure how it can be done.
Doesn’t the 1909 date make it likely that it was written after the fact?
Yours,
Wince
Thus, I tried searching on The Lunarian Astonished minus Bierce, to rid us of all traces of Bierce’s quoting it.
I tried that, too, but missed that critical link. I mostly got pages of Devil’s Dictionary that didn’t happen to mention Bierce, plus a late-18th century navigational manual called “The Lunarian”.
It appears your google-fu is stronger than mine. Thank you very much!
It could be. Devil’s Dictionary wasn’t published as a book until 1911, but most of it has appeared as a series of newspaper columns much earlier, and I’m not sure when the definition the quote came from first saw print.
> Devil’s Dictionary wasn’t published as a book until 1911
No, no, my timing is wrong. I thought Devil’s Dictionary was published earlier.
Yours,
Wince
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