{"id":"01KG8AK9A33F0080P9QNSC6MTX","cid":"bafkreifqpbvzpsrclfvey2me3y5u6xb6ey7qjl5luoizt7r5rrwiwjfcdm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1815,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":1756,"text":"is not permitted to be; and even if it were, no judicious moralist would\r\nmake proclamation of it.\r\n\r\nThis gentleman, therefore, there is reason to affirm, was one who, like\r\nthe Hebrew governor, knew how to keep his hands clean, and who never in\r\nhis life happened to be run suddenly against by hurrying house-painter,\r\nor sweep; in a word, one whose very good luck it was to be a very good\r\nman.\r\n\r\nNot that he looked as if he were a kind of Wilberforce at all; that\r\nsuperior merit, probably, was not his; nothing in his manner bespoke him\r\nrighteous, but only good, and though to be good is much below being\r\nrighteous, and though there is a difference between the two, yet not, it\r\nis to be hoped, so incompatible as that a righteous man can not be a\r\ngood man; though, conversely, in the pulpit it has been with much\r\ncogency urged, that a merely good man, that is, one good merely by his\r\nnature, is so far from there by being righteous, that nothing short of a\r\ntotal change and conversion can make him so; which is something which no\r\nhonest mind, well read in the history of righteousness, will care to\r\ndeny; nevertheless, since St. Paul himself, agreeing in a sense with the\r\npulpit distinction, though not altogether in the pulpit deduction, and\r\nalso pretty plainly intimating which of the two qualities in question\r\nenjoys his apostolic preference; I say, since St. Paul has so meaningly\r\nsaid, that, \"scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure\r\nfor a good man some would even dare to die;\" therefore, when we repeat\r\nof this gentleman, that he was only a good man, whatever else by severe\r\ncensors may be objected to him, it is still to be hoped that his\r\ngoodness will not at least be considered criminal in him. At all events,\r\nno man, not even a righteous man, would think it quite right to commit\r\nthis gentleman to prison for the crime, extraordinary as he might deem\r\nit; more especially, as, until everything could be known, there would be\r\nsome chance that the gentleman might after all be quite as innocent of\r\nit as he himself.\r\n\r\nIt was pleasant to mark the good man's reception of the salute of the\r\nrighteous man, that is, the man in gray; his inferior, apparently, not\r\nmore in the social scale than in stature. Like the benign elm again, the\r\ngood man seemed to wave the canopy of his goodness over that suitor, not\r\nin conceited condescension, but with that even amenity of true majesty,\r\nwhich can be kind to any one without stooping to it.\r\n\r\nTo the plea in behalf of the Seminole widows and orphans, the gentleman,\r\nafter a question or two duly answered, responded by producing an ample\r\npocket-book in the good old capacious style, of fine green French\r\nmorocco and workmanship, bound with silk of the same color, not to omit\r\nbills crisp with newness, fresh from the bank, no muckworms' grime upon\r\nthem. Lucre those bills might be, but as yet having been kept unspotted\r\nfrom the world, not of the filthy sort. Placing now three of those\r\nvirgin bills in the applicant's hands, he hoped that the smallness of\r\nthe contribution would be pardoned; to tell the truth, and this at last\r\naccounted for his toilet, he was bound but a short run down the river,\r\nto attend, in a festive grove, the afternoon wedding of his niece: so\r\ndid not carry much money with him.\r\n\r\nThe other was about expressing his thanks when the gentleman in his\r\npleasant way checked him: the gratitude was on the other side. To him,\r\nhe said, charity was in one sense not an effort, but a luxury; against\r\ntoo great indulgence in which his steward, a humorist, had sometimes\r\nadmonished him.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRSD8D6KH52EB3K3B42","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9AC18VJSPEG6VMFW2PB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9ACJ0XNJ0ZJCJRXSYBA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:59.299Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:07.140Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}