{"id":"01KG8AK9ZH0XMEDC92VAJ49W2E","cid":"bafkreibovqcdjcyvz4fckzkvsbrzjn7vjb7wg7lb2csrta3j5b2leyrlmm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8558,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.725Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":8487,"text":"upon a reef, he turned upon the cosmopolitan, and, in a manner the most\r\ncool, self-possessed, and matter-of-fact possible, said: \"I hold to the\r\nmetempsychosis; and whoever I may be now, I feel that I was once the\r\nstoic Arrian, and have inklings of having been equally puzzled by a word\r\nin the current language of that former time, very probably answering to\r\nyour word _favor_.\"\r\n\r\n\"Would you favor me by explaining?\" said the cosmopolitan, blandly.\r\n\r\n\"Sir,\" responded the stranger, with a very slight degree of severity, \"I\r\nlike lucidity, of all things, and am afraid I shall hardly be able to\r\nconverse satisfactorily with you, unless you bear it in mind.\"\r\n\r\nThe cosmopolitan ruminatingly eyed him awhile, then said: \"The best way,\r\nas I have heard, to get out of a labyrinth, is to retrace one's steps. I\r\nwill accordingly retrace mine, and beg you will accompany me. In short,\r\nonce again to return to the point: for what reason did you warn me\r\nagainst my friend?\"\r\n\r\n\"Briefly, then, and clearly, because, as before said, I conjecture him\r\nto be what, among the ancient Egyptians----\"\r\n\r\n\"Pray, now,\" earnestly deprecated the cosmopolitan, \"pray, now, why\r\ndisturb the repose of those ancient Egyptians? What to us are their\r\nwords or their thoughts? Are we pauper Arabs, without a house of our\r\nown, that, with the mummies, we must turn squatters among the dust of\r\nthe Catacombs?\"\r\n\r\n\"Pharaoh's poorest brick-maker lies proudlier in his rags than the\r\nEmperor of all the Russias in his hollands,\" oracularly said the\r\nstranger; \"for death, though in a worm, is majestic; while life, though\r\nin a king, is contemptible. So talk not against mummies. It is a part of\r\nmy mission to teach mankind a due reverence for mummies.\"\r\n\r\nFortunately, to arrest these incoherencies, or rather, to vary them, a\r\nhaggard, inspired-looking man now approached--a crazy beggar, asking\r\nalms under the form of peddling a rhapsodical tract, composed by\r\nhimself, and setting forth his claims to some rhapsodical apostleship.\r\nThough ragged and dirty, there was about him no touch of vulgarity; for,\r\nby nature, his manner was not unrefined, his frame slender, and appeared\r\nthe more so from the broad, untanned frontlet of his brow, tangled over\r\nwith a disheveled mass of raven curls, throwing a still deeper tinge\r\nupon a complexion like that of a shriveled berry. Nothing could exceed\r\nhis look of picturesque Italian ruin and dethronement, heightened by\r\nwhat seemed just one glimmering peep of reason, insufficient to do him\r\nany lasting good, but enough, perhaps, to suggest a torment of latent\r\ndoubts at times, whether his addled dream of glory were true.\r\n\r\nAccepting the tract offered him, the cosmopolitan glanced over it, and,\r\nseeming to see just what it was, closed it, put it in his pocket, eyed\r\nthe man a moment, then, leaning over and presenting him with a shilling,\r\nsaid to him, in tones kind and considerate: \"I am sorry, my friend, that\r\nI happen to be engaged just now; but, having purchased your work, I\r\npromise myself much satisfaction in its perusal at my earliest leisure.\"\r\n\r\nIn his tattered, single-breasted frock-coat, buttoned meagerly up to his\r\nchin, the shutter-brain made him a bow, which, for courtesy, would not\r\nhave misbecome a viscount, then turned with silent appeal to the\r\nstranger. But the stranger sat more like a cold prism than ever, while\r\nan expression of keen Yankee cuteness, now replacing his former mystical\r\none, lent added icicles to his aspect. His whole air said: \"Nothing\r\nfrom me.\" The repulsed petitioner threw a look full of resentful pride\r\nand cracked disdain upon him, and went his way.\r\n\r\n\"Come, now,\" said the cosmopolitan, a little reproachfully, \"you ought\r\nto have sympathized with that man; tell me, did you feel no\r\nfellow-feeling? Look at his tract here, quite in the transcendental\r\nvein.\"\r\n\r\n\"Excuse me,\" said the stranger, declining the tract, \"I never patronize\r\nscoundrels.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJMVHXZ1WH9JRWME9D7FK","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9ZHCCN1GS61RRV090KD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9ZHSJQR765FVH1N3JVC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:59.985Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:13.396Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}