{"id":"01KG6GMJG8KXMKRE78CR0BTKNT","cid":"bafkreignee544y74xpnb7fh34tnohgwt7gfabqp7fgcbgeznqiuj5pxcmi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12288,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.886Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":12213,"text":"for years has been the least demonstrative of bodies.\r\n\r\nAs at the outset, it intermeddled not with political parties, and\r\nrefrained, among other things, from agitating for augmenting pensions,\r\nits members long content with the poor pittance the new government with\r\ndifficulty at last provided; so throughout it has never deviated from\r\nits one main principle, the priestly one of keeping alive the sacred\r\nfire of patriotism.\r\n\r\nIf the Society of the Cincinnati, a heritage from the Fathers, be really\r\nworthy of a respect bordering upon reverence, it is of the sort that the\r\nCatholics pay to the bones of the saints; for, indeed, this venerable\r\ninstitution survives but as a relic.\r\n\r\nIt seems amid the bustle of another age like the Greek monolith, the\r\nFire Column so called, in Constantinople, which unconsumed by the\r\nrepeated conflagrations of that capital, and rising from among all sorts\r\nof lesser erections, attests a temper and an era that shall never be\r\nrestored. It is a remarkable monument of the times when the British\r\ncolonist in the spirit of John Hampden resisting the imposition of the\r\ntea-tax, and indirectly the Crown, developed in the process of time into\r\na generation less impatient of imposts; pushing no quarrel, indeed,\r\nagainst fiscal arbitrariness, or any sort of power so it be but plural\r\nand domestic, wears a hat like the rest of us, and is careful to put on\r\nthat same humble deference toward the People, which all kings and\r\nemperors scrupulously profess for Him Whom--with exemplary meekness\r\nignoring themselves--they officially denominate the Supreme Arbiter of\r\nEvents. In short, the Society is archaic, originating at a period before\r\nwe became, to all practical purposes, a distinct People; a race which,\r\nthough having various superficial traits in common with the English\r\ninheriting the same blood with ourselves, is nevertheless, at bottom,\r\nunlike; as is frequently observable in uterine brothers who, while in\r\nphysical aspect a stranger can hardly tell them apart, yet brought to\r\nthe test of essential character, may be even more than dissimilar.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n                                FRAGMENT\r\n\r\n\r\nOf such redundant natures can it be possible that any can at last be\r\nnarrowed down to the bier? Yes, die, and in a sense, intestate, too, as\r\nleaving no intellectual estate? Nothing indeed but an imperfect memory\r\nthat ages avow, and is gone? Is this the end of that splendour? But why\r\nnot? According to authoritative interpreters, the evanescence, the\r\nnothingness of things glorious, redounds to the glory of Omnipotence.\r\nAnd with what other aim in view, the theologians would like to know, did\r\nthe Magnanimous call out the worlds? Two or three hundred years ago, to\r\nthe amazement of the telescopes, a strange star appeared in the\r\nconstellation of Cassiopeia, and shining there like a planet for a brief\r\nterm, abruptly disappeared, and was seen no more. Nor was any star-dust\r\nleft to tell of the fleet passage. True, out of the same Unknown or\r\nNothing, and back into it again, millions of small meteors come and go;\r\nbut extinction is signalised in the instance of stars of magnitude; and\r\nin corresponding degree the glory of God is magnified, who can work such\r\nwonders, to whom the planets are of even less consideration than to the\r\nGrand Mogul his golden buttons.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n                     FRAGMENTS FROM A WRITING-DESK\r\n\r\n    CLIPPING FROM THE ‘DEMOCRATIC PRESS AND LANSINGBURGH ADVERTISER’\r\n\r\n\r\n                                 No. 1\r\n\r\n                                                     LANSINGBURGH, N.Y.,\r\n                                                _Saturday, May 4, 1839_.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK9PNMK2BH5C1BFJXTJS2","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMJG6HAB701826WFSY2BC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMK2TV9QSMV98RP3CTRCN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:04.072Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:22.497Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}