{"id":"01KG8AKB8E6ZPYMNXQZAA0XDQ2","cid":"bafkreihbj4s2bjy5zrp6bu5i4dhvoovaiwqr7gesw7wzwz4m6mry5nvmlq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3752,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":3682,"text":"\"How?--the price of this medicine?\"\r\n\r\n\"I thought it was confidence you meant; how much confidence you should\r\nhave. The medicine,--that is half a dollar a vial. Your box holds six.\"\r\n\r\nThe money was paid.\r\n\r\n\"Now, sir,\" said the herb-doctor, \"my business calls me away, and it may\r\nso be that I shall never see you again; if then----\"\r\n\r\nHe paused, for the sick man's countenance fell blank.\r\n\r\n\"Forgive me,\" cried the other, \"forgive that imprudent phrase 'never see\r\nyou again.' Though I solely intended it with reference to myself, yet I\r\nhad forgotten what your sensitiveness might be. I repeat, then, that it\r\nmay be that we shall not soon have a second interview, so that\r\nhereafter, should another of my boxes be needed, you may not be able to\r\nreplace it except by purchase at the shops; and, in so doing, you may\r\nrun more or less risk of taking some not salutary mixture. For such is\r\nthe popularity of the Omni-Balsamic Reinvigorator--thriving not by the\r\ncredulity of the simple, but the trust of the wise--that certain\r\ncontrivers have not been idle, though I would not, indeed, hastily\r\naffirm of them that they are aware of the sad consequences to the\r\npublic. Homicides and murderers, some call those contrivers; but I do\r\nnot; for murder (if such a crime be possible) comes from the heart, and\r\nthese men's motives come from the purse. Were they not in poverty, I\r\nthink they would hardly do what they do. Still, the public interests\r\nforbid that I should let their needy device for a living succeed. In\r\nshort, I have adopted precautions. Take the wrapper from any of my vials\r\nand hold it to the light, you will see water-marked in capitals the word\r\n'_confidence_,' which is the countersign of the medicine, as I wish it\r\nwas of the world. The wrapper bears that mark or else the medicine is\r\ncounterfeit. But if still any lurking doubt should remain, pray enclose\r\nthe wrapper to this address,\" handing a card, \"and by return mail I will\r\nanswer.\"\r\n\r\nAt first the sick man listened, with the air of vivid interest, but\r\ngradually, while the other was still talking, another strange caprice\r\ncame over him, and he presented the aspect of the most calamitous\r\ndejection.\r\n\r\n\"How now?\" said the herb-doctor.\r\n\r\n\"You told me to have confidence, said that confidence was indispensable,\r\nand here you preach to me distrust. Ah, truth will out!\"\r\n\r\n\"I told you, you must have confidence, unquestioning confidence, I meant\r\nconfidence in the genuine medicine, and the genuine _me_.\"\r\n\r\n\"But in your absence, buying vials purporting to be yours, it seems I\r\ncannot have unquestioning confidence.\"\r\n\r\n\"Prove all the vials; trust those which are true.\"\r\n\r\n\"But to doubt, to suspect, to prove--to have all this wearing work to\r\nbe doing continually--how opposed to confidence. It is evil!\"\r\n\r\n\"From evil comes good. Distrust is a stage to confidence. How has it\r\nproved in our interview? But your voice is husky; I have let you talk\r\ntoo much. You hold your cure; I will leave you. But stay--when I hear\r\nthat health is yours, I will not, like some I know, vainly make boasts;\r\nbut, giving glory where all glory is due, say, with the devout\r\nherb-doctor, Japus in Virgil, when, in the unseen but efficacious\r\npresence of Venus, he with simples healed the wound of Æneas:--\r\n\r\n    'This is no mortal work, no cure of mine,\r\n    Nor art's effect, but done by power divine.'\"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJKFNSEMZR9R73KH4K4N9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKB7P6HT7PQWB1N4MQR6Q","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:01.294Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:08.746Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}