 | The collected works of Ambrose Bierce |  |
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Loss, n.
[_]
Privation of that which we had, or had not. Thus, in the latter sense, it is said of a defeated candidate that he “lost his election”; and of that eminent man, the poet Gilder, that he has “lost his mind.” It is in the former and more legitimate sense, that the word is used in the famous epitaph:
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[Here Huntington's ashes long have lain]
Here Huntington's ashes long have lainWhose loss is our own eternal gain,
For while he exercised all his powers
Whatever he gained, the loss was ours.
| The collected works of Ambrose Bierce | |