{"id":"01KG8AK8N5VCPHEVYB0FAG3VPK","cid":"bafkreidkv2hfktcvn7pkjf33kddgnf3f335uopst5u4fshfowc5jvvfsca","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1392,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":1338,"text":"may have undergone, it but deepens my confidence in my kind. Now, then\"\r\n(winningly), \"this book--will you let me drown it for you?\"\r\n\r\n\"Really, sir--I--\"\r\n\r\n\"I see, I see. But of course you read Tacitus in order to aid you in\r\nunderstanding human nature--as if truth was ever got at by libel. My\r\nyoung friend, if to know human nature is your object, drop Tacitus and\r\ngo north to the cemeteries of Auburn and Greenwood.\"\r\n\r\n\"Upon my word, I--I--\"\r\n\r\n\"Nay, I foresee all that. But you carry Tacitus, that shallow Tacitus.\r\nWhat do _I_ carry? See\"--producing a pocket-volume--\"Akenside--his\r\n'Pleasures of Imagination.' One of these days you will know it. Whatever\r\nour lot, we should read serene and cheery books, fitted to inspire love\r\nand trust. But Tacitus! I have long been of opinion that these classics\r\nare the bane of colleges; for--not to hint of the immorality of Ovid,\r\nHorace, Anacreon, and the rest, and the dangerous theology of Eschylus\r\nand others--where will one find views so injurious to human nature as in\r\nThucydides, Juvenal, Lucian, but more particularly Tacitus? When I\r\nconsider that, ever since the revival of learning, these classics have\r\nbeen the favorites of successive generations of students and studious\r\nmen, I tremble to think of that mass of unsuspected heresy on every\r\nvital topic which for centuries must have simmered unsurmised in the\r\nheart of Christendom. But Tacitus--he is the most extraordinary example\r\nof a heretic; not one iota of confidence in his kind. What a mockery\r\nthat such an one should be reputed wise, and Thucydides be esteemed the\r\nstatesman's manual! But Tacitus--I hate Tacitus; not, though, I trust,\r\nwith the hate that sins, but a righteous hate. Without confidence\r\nhimself, Tacitus destroys it in all his readers. Destroys confidence,\r\npaternal confidence, of which God knows that there is in this world none\r\nto spare. For, comparatively inexperienced as you are, my dear young\r\nfriend, did you never observe how little, very little, confidence, there\r\nis? I mean between man and man--more particularly between stranger and\r\nstranger. In a sad world it is the saddest fact. Confidence! I have\r\nsometimes almost thought that confidence is fled; that confidence is the\r\nNew Astrea--emigrated--vanished--gone.\" Then softly sliding nearer, with\r\nthe softest air, quivering down and looking up, \"could you now, my dear\r\nyoung sir, under such circumstances, by way of experiment, simply have\r\nconfidence in _me_?\"\r\n\r\nFrom the outset, the sophomore, as has been seen, had struggled with an\r\never-increasing embarrassment, arising, perhaps, from such strange\r\nremarks coming from a stranger--such persistent and prolonged remarks,\r\ntoo. In vain had he more than once sought to break the spell by\r\nventuring a deprecatory or leave-taking word. In vain. Somehow, the\r\nstranger fascinated him. Little wonder, then, that, when the appeal\r\ncame, he could hardly speak, but, as before intimated, being apparently\r\nof a retiring nature, abruptly retired from the spot, leaving the\r\nchagrined stranger to wander away in the opposite direction.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRSJDR0VDE83NPAST6V","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8N5TR9TFPP707ZXPHZ4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.629Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.634Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}