{"id":"01KG8AK8NXX1R912C5CXKHJS1C","cid":"bafkreibjck3y567gxqfzuy4o6asi6ocgnnm2o7td2sspmr3ci56dcgamzq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7641,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.725Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":7568,"text":"bland protest, \"that, in my presence at least, you will throw out\r\nnothing to the prejudice of the sons of the Puritans.\"\r\n\r\n\"Hey-day and high times indeed,\" exclaimed the other, nettled, \"sons of\r\nthe Puritans forsooth! And who be Puritans, that I, an Alabamaian, must\r\ndo them reverence? A set of sourly conceited old Malvolios, whom\r\nShakespeare laughs his fill at in his comedies.\"\r\n\r\n\"Pray, what were you about to suggest with regard to Polonius,\" observed\r\nthe cosmopolitan with quiet forbearance, expressive of the patience of a\r\nsuperior mind at the petulance of an inferior one; \"how do you\r\ncharacterize his advice to Laertes?\"\r\n\r\n\"As false, fatal, and calumnious,\" exclaimed the other, with a degree of\r\nardor befitting one resenting a stigma upon the family escutcheon, \"and\r\nfor a father to give his son--monstrous. The case you see is this: The\r\nson is going abroad, and for the first. What does the father? Invoke\r\nGod's blessing upon him? Put the blessed Bible in his trunk? No. Crams\r\nhim with maxims smacking of my Lord Chesterfield, with maxims of France,\r\nwith maxims of Italy.\"\r\n\r\n\"No, no, be charitable, not that. Why, does he not among other things\r\nsay:--\r\n\r\n    'The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,\r\n    Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel'?\r\n\r\nIs that compatible with maxims of Italy?\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes it is, Frank. Don't you see? Laertes is to take the best of care of\r\nhis friends--his proved friends, on the same principle that a\r\nwine-corker takes the best of care of his proved bottles. When a bottle\r\ngets a sharp knock and don't break, he says, 'Ah, I'll keep that\r\nbottle.' Why? Because he loves it? No, he has particular use for it.\"\r\n\r\n\"Dear, dear!\" appealingly turning in distress, \"that--that kind of\r\ncriticism is--is--in fact--it won't do.\"\r\n\r\n\"Won't truth do, Frank? You are so charitable with everybody, do but\r\nconsider the tone of the speech. Now I put it to you, Frank; is there\r\nanything in it hortatory to high, heroic, disinterested effort? Anything\r\nlike 'sell all thou hast and give to the poor?' And, in other points,\r\nwhat desire seems most in the father's mind, that his son should cherish\r\nnobleness for himself, or be on his guard against the contrary thing in\r\nothers? An irreligious warner, Frank--no devout counselor, is Polonius.\r\nI hate him. Nor can I bear to hear your veterans of the world affirm,\r\nthat he who steers through life by the advice of old Polonius will not\r\nsteer among the breakers.\"\r\n\r\n\"No, no--I hope nobody affirms that,\" rejoined the cosmopolitan, with\r\ntranquil abandonment; sideways reposing his arm at full length upon the\r\ntable. \"I hope nobody affirms that; because, if Polonius' advice be\r\ntaken in your sense, then the recommendation of it by men of experience\r\nwould appear to involve more or less of an unhandsome sort of reflection\r\nupon human nature. And yet,\" with a perplexed air, \"your suggestions\r\nhave put things in such a strange light to me as in fact a little to\r\ndisturb my previous notions of Polonius and what he says. To be frank,\r\nby your ingenuity you have unsettled me there, to that degree that were\r\nit not for our coincidence of opinion in general, I should almost think\r\nI was now at length beginning to feel the ill effect of an immature\r\nmind, too much consorting with a mature one, except on the ground of\r\nfirst principles in common.\"\r\n\r\n\"Really and truly,\" cried the other with a kind of tickled modesty and\r\npleased concern, \"mine is an understanding too weak to throw out\r\ngrapnels and hug another to it. I have indeed heard of some great\r\nscholars in these days, whose boast is less that they have made\r\ndisciples than victims. But for me, had I the power to do such things, I\r\nhave not the heart to desire.\"\r\n\r\n\"I believe you, my dear Charlie. And yet, I repeat, by your commentaries\r\non Polonius you have, I know not how, unsettled me; so that now I don't\r\nexactly see how Shakespeare meant the words he puts in Polonius' mouth.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJMV9MSRGN5AE81C6QV95","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8NX4ZHRXEN1C3EN813N","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8NP2C6HPF6AXTQ1JV57","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.653Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:12.508Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}