# XVIII explained — Poetry > Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce. ## What happens A cynical epitaph for Pixley, who judged others by his own flaws, learned only through sight without understanding, and lived a life of contradiction—neither fully miser nor knave—yet could not escape death. ## Themes in this chapter ### Hypocrisy and Corruption Pixley damns others for his own unworth, flatters for pay, and lives a double life of miserliness and half-knavery. ### Mortality and Regret The epitaph emphasizes that he could not cheat the grave, and the final line warns strangers to step lightly anywhere but his resting place. ## Character check-ins ### Frank Pixley Subject of the epitaph; described as a cynical scribe and muleteer who flattered for pay and hoarded his life away. ## Key lines > Cynic perforce from studying mankind In the false volume of his single mind, He damned his fellows for his own unworth, And, bad himself, thought nothing good on earth. Forced into cynicism by studying humanity only through his own flawed perspective, he condemned others for his own faults and, being corrupt himself, believed nothing good existed. _Explains Pixley's cynical worldview as a projection of his own failings._ > When hired to flatter he would never cease Till those who’d paid for praises paid for peace. When paid to flatter, he would keep at it until his patrons paid him again to stop. _Highlights his mercenary flattery and manipulation._ > Not wholly miser and but half a knave, He yearned to squander but he lived to save, And did not, for he could not, cheat the grave. He was neither a complete miser nor a full scoundrel; he wanted to spend freely but was driven to hoard, and ultimately he could not escape death. _Summarizes his contradictory nature and inevitable mortality._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters/xviii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters