If you say: "There is no hope _or_ fear" you say that _one_ of them does not exist. In saying: "There is no hope _nor_ fear" you say that _both_ do not exist--which is what you mean. "Not to weary you, I shall say that I fetched the book from his cabin." Whether that is preferable to "I will say" depends on just what is meant; both are grammatical. The "shall" merely indicates an intention to say; the "will" implies a certain shade of concession in saying it. It is no trouble to answer such questions, _nor_ to do anything else to please you. I only hope I make it clear. I don't know if all my "Journal" work gets into the "Examiner," for I don't see all the issues of either paper. I'm not writing much anyhow. They don't seem to want much from me, and their weekly check is about all that I want from them. * * * * * No, I don't know any better poem of Kipling than "The Last Chanty." Did you see what stuff of his Prof. Harry Thurston Peck, the Hearst outfit's special literary censor, chose for a particular commendation the other day? Yet Peck is a scholar, a professor of Latin and a writer of merited distinction. Excepting the ability to write poetry, the ability to understand it is, I think, the rarest of intellectual gifts. Let us thank "whatever gods may be" that we have it, if we haven't so very much else. I've a lovely birch stick a-seasoning for you--cut it up in the Alleghanies. * * * * * Sincerely yours, AMBROSE BIERCE. [Washington, D. C., October 29, 1903.] DEAR GEORGE, I return the verses--with apology for tardiness. I've been "full up" with cares. * * * * * I would not change "Religion" to "Dogma" (if I were you) for all "the pious monks of St. Bernard." Once you begin to make concessions to the feelings of this person or that there is no place to stop and you may as well hang up the lyre. Besides, Dogma does not "seek"; it just impudently declares something to have been found. However, it is a small matter--nothing can destroy the excellence of the verses. I only want to warn you against yielding to a temptation which will assail you all your life--the temptation to "edit" your thought for somebody whom it may pain. Be true to Truth and let all stand from under. Yes, I think the quatrain that you wrote in Col. Eng's book good enough to go in your own. But I'd keep "discerning," instead of substituting "revering." In art discernment _carries_ reverence.