{"id":"01KG8AK8N6Z4JGNMXW03NPRQ24","cid":"bafkreiblebceuytlujn2urblfpn6fbtpucibnlc5ph3bteojyt4t47nun4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7434,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.725Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":7371,"text":"\"Even so; some gloomy souls affirming that it is proving with that great\r\ninvention as with brandy or eau-de-vie, which, upon its first discovery,\r\nwas believed by the doctors to be, as its French name implies, a\r\npanacea--a notion which experience, it may be thought, has not fully\r\nverified.\"\r\n\r\n\"You surprise me, Frank. Are there really those who so decry the press?\r\nTell me more. Their reasons.\"\r\n\r\n\"Reasons they have none, but affirmations they have many; among other\r\nthings affirming that, while under dynastic despotisms, the press is to\r\nthe people little but an improvisatore, under popular ones it is too apt\r\nto be their Jack Cade. In fine, these sour sages regard the press in the\r\nlight of a Colt's revolver, pledged to no cause but his in whose chance\r\nhands it may be; deeming the one invention an improvement upon the pen,\r\nmuch akin to what the other is upon the pistol; involving, along with\r\nthe multiplication of the barrel, no consecration of the aim. The term\r\n'freedom of the press' they consider on a par with _freedom of Colt's\r\nrevolver_. Hence, for truth and the right, they hold, to indulge hopes\r\nfrom the one is little more sensible than for Kossuth and Mazzini to\r\nindulge hopes from the other. Heart-breaking views enough, you think;\r\nbut their refutation is in every true reformer's contempt. Is it not\r\nso?\"\r\n\r\n\"Without doubt. But go on, go on. I like to hear you,\" flatteringly\r\nbrimming up his glass for him.\r\n\r\n\"For one,\" continued the cosmopolitan, grandly swelling his chest, \"I\r\nhold the press to be neither the people's improvisatore, nor Jack Cade;\r\nneither their paid fool, nor conceited drudge. I think interest never\r\nprevails with it over duty. The press still speaks for truth though\r\nimpaled, in the teeth of lies though intrenched. Disdaining for it the\r\npoor name of cheap diffuser of news, I claim for it the independent\r\napostleship of Advancer of Knowledge:--the iron Paul! Paul, I say; for\r\nnot only does the press advance knowledge, but righteousness. In the\r\npress, as in the sun, resides, my dear Charlie, a dedicated principle of\r\nbeneficent force and light. For the Satanic press, by its coappearance\r\nwith the apostolic, it is no more an aspersion to that, than to the true\r\nsun is the coappearance of the mock one. For all the baleful-looking\r\nparhelion, god Apollo dispenses the day. In a word, Charlie, what the\r\nsovereign of England is titularly, I hold the press to be\r\nactually--Defender of the Faith!--defender of the faith in the final\r\ntriumph of truth over error, metaphysics over superstition, theory over\r\nfalsehood, machinery over nature, and the good man over the bad. Such\r\nare my views, which, if stated at some length, you, Charlie, must\r\npardon, for it is a theme upon which I cannot speak with cold brevity.\r\nAnd now I am impatient for your panegyric, which, I doubt not, will put\r\nmine to the blush.\"\r\n\r\n\"It is rather in the blush-giving vein,\" smiled the other; \"but such as\r\nit is, Frank, you shall have it.\"\r\n\r\n\"Tell me when you are about to begin,\" said the cosmopolitan, \"for, when\r\nat public dinners the press is toasted, I always drink the toast\r\nstanding, and shall stand while you pronounce the panegyric.\"\r\n\r\n\"Very good, Frank; you may stand up now.\"\r\n\r\nHe accordingly did so, when the stranger likewise rose, and uplifting\r\nthe ruby wine-flask, began.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJMVDVBGMNVX6KTEX6BBC","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8NCQBTGWQ4TAC9H9GEQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.630Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:12.360Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}