{"id":"01KG6YHB0M1VHD96FHEX3ENFSP","cid":"bafkreias3nbsgp2fbyzdbkniooglgnixw2ac67ut2q4tkymm6ck62x6wma","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8514,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":8463,"text":"dolphin, stronger than the lion, more cunning than the ape, for\r\nindustry an ant, more fiery than serpents, and yet, in patience,\r\nanother ass. All excellences of all God-made creatures, which served\r\nman, were here to receive advancement, and then to be combined in one.\r\nTalus was to have been the all-accomplished Helot’s name. Talus, iron\r\nslave to Bannadonna, and, through him, to man.\r\n\r\nHere, it might well be thought that, were these last conjectures as to\r\nthe foundling’s secrets not erroneous, then must he have been\r\nhopelessly infected with the craziest chimeras of his age; far outgoing\r\nAlbert Magus and Cornelius Agrippa. But the contrary was averred.\r\nHowever marvelous his design, however apparently transcending not alone\r\nthe bounds of human invention, but those of divine creation, yet the\r\nproposed means to be employed were alleged to have been confined within\r\nthe sober forms of sober reason. It was affirmed that, to a degree of\r\nmore than skeptic scorn, Bannadonna had been without sympathy for any\r\nof the vain-glorious irrationalities of his time. For example, he had\r\nnot concluded, with the visionaries among the metaphysicians, that\r\nbetween the finer mechanic forces and the ruder animal vitality some\r\ngerm of correspondence might prove discoverable. As little did his\r\nscheme partake of the enthusiasm of some natural philosophers, who\r\nhoped, by physiological and chemical inductions, to arrive at a\r\nknowledge of the source of life, and so qualify themselves to\r\nmanufacture and improve upon it. Much less had he aught in common with\r\nthe tribe of alchemists, who sought, by a species of incantations, to\r\nevoke some surprising vitality from the laboratory. Neither had he\r\nimagined, with certain sanguine theosophists, that, by faithful\r\nadoration of the Highest, unheard-of powers would be vouchsafed to man.\r\nA practical materialist, what Bannadonna had aimed at was to have been\r\nreached, not by logic, not by crucible, not by conjuration, not by\r\naltars; but by plain vice-bench and hammer. In short, to solve nature,\r\nto steal into her, to intrigue beyond her, to procure some one else to\r\nbind her to his hand;—these, one and all, had not been his objects;\r\nbut, asking no favors from any element or any being, of himself, to\r\nrival her, outstrip her, and rule her. He stooped to conquer. With him,\r\ncommon sense was theurgy; machinery, miracle; Prometheus, the heroic\r\nname for machinist; man, the true God.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, in his initial step, so far as the experimental automaton\r\nfor the belfry was concerned, he allowed fancy some little play; or,\r\nperhaps, what seemed his fancifulness was but his utilitarian ambition\r\ncollaterally extended. In figure, the creature for the belfry should\r\nnot be likened after the human pattern, nor any animal one, nor after\r\nthe ideals, however wild, of ancient fable, but equally in aspect as in\r\norganism be an original production; the more terrible to behold, the\r\nbetter.\r\n\r\nSuch, then, were the suppositions as to the present scheme, and the\r\nreserved intent. How, at the very threshold, so unlooked for a\r\ncatastrophe overturned all, or rather, what was the conjecture here, is\r\nnow to be set forth.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGCCBQ15QDEM5CEG7CHSQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0MWD86M0FG3CYSRHGP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0QRW34DX436HX5M17S","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.164Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:08.074Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}