{"id":"01KG8AK9ZHGXJ3CQJTXBCJ7W4G","cid":"bafkreie6cyboevcx2krmcxfemrqxlgearlibhumrrcbhylikfycs454llm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8705,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.725Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":8667,"text":"be but a cheat and a dream.\"\r\n\r\n\"You a little surprise me,\" answered the cosmopolitan; \"for, from an\r\noccasional profundity in you, and also from your allusions to a profound\r\nwork on the theology of Plato, it would seem but natural to surmise\r\nthat, if you are the originator of any philosophy, it must needs so\r\npartake of the abstruse, as to exalt it above the comparatively vile\r\nuses of life.\"\r\n\r\n\"No uncommon mistake with regard to me,\" rejoined the other. Then meekly\r\nstanding like a Raphael: \"If still in golden accents old Memnon murmurs\r\nhis riddle, none the less does the balance-sheet of every man's ledger\r\nunriddle the profit or loss of life. Sir,\" with calm energy, \"man came\r\ninto this world, not to sit down and muse, not to befog himself with\r\nvain subtleties, but to gird up his loins and to work. Mystery is in the\r\nmorning, and mystery in the night, and the beauty of mystery is\r\neverywhere; but still the plain truth remains, that mouth and purse must\r\nbe filled. If, hitherto, you have supposed me a visionary, be\r\nundeceived. I am no one-ideaed one, either; no more than the seers\r\nbefore me. Was not Seneca a usurer? Bacon a courtier? and Swedenborg,\r\nthough with one eye on the invisible, did he not keep the other on the\r\nmain chance? Along with whatever else it may be given me to be, I am a\r\nman of serviceable knowledge, and a man of the world. Know me for such.\r\nAnd as for my disciple here,\" turning towards him, \"if you look to find\r\nany soft Utopianisms and last year's sunsets in him, I smile to think\r\nhow he will set you right. The doctrines I have taught him will, I\r\ntrust, lead him neither to the mad-house nor the poor-house, as so many\r\nother doctrines have served credulous sticklers. Furthermore,\" glancing\r\nupon him paternally, \"Egbert is both my disciple and my poet. For poetry\r\nis not a thing of ink and rhyme, but of thought and act, and, in the\r\nlatter way, is by any one to be found anywhere, when in useful action\r\nsought. In a word, my disciple here is a thriving young merchant, a\r\npractical poet in the West India trade. There,\" presenting Egbert's hand\r\nto the cosmopolitan, \"I join you, and leave you.\" With which words, and\r\nwithout bowing, the master withdrew.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJMVSA4NXGJQR1B6SVQ0B","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9ZHMCT2HZ34309VX57M","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:59.985Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:13.757Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}