{"id":"01KG8AKBZMBW05FG9WNEAAJXCG","cid":"bafkreiemb2h4mnxwvks2p4q2rvljlu5u5rhnfrz2a5fumvblkruwhiwquq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5471,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:56.336Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","start_line":5395,"text":"would they applaud the poet as they applaud the clown? No! They would\r\nhoot me, and call me doting or mad. Then what does this prove? Your\r\ninfatuation or their insensibility? Perhaps both; but indubitably the\r\nfirst. But why wail? Do you seek admiration from the admirers of a\r\nbuffoon? Call to mind the saying of the Athenian, who, when the people\r\nvociferously applauded in the forum, asked his friend in a whisper,\r\nwhat foolish thing had he said?\r\n\r\nAgain my eye swept the circus, and fell on the ruddy radiance of the\r\ncountenance of Hautboy. But its clear honest cheeriness disdained my\r\ndisdain. My intolerant pride was rebuked. And yet Hautboy dreamed not\r\nwhat magic reproof to a soul like mine sat on his laughing brow. At the\r\nvery instant I felt the dart of the censure, his eye twinkled, his hand\r\nwaved, his voice was lifted in jubilant delight at another joke of the\r\ninexhaustible clown.\r\n\r\nCircus over, we went to Taylor's. Among crowds of others, we sat down\r\nto our stews and punches at one of the small marble tables. Hautboy\r\nsat opposite to me. Though greatly subdued from its former hilarity,\r\nhis face still shone with gladness. But added to this was a quality\r\nnot so prominent before; a certain serene expression of leisurely,\r\ndeep good sense. Good sense and good humor in him joined hands. As\r\nthe conversation proceeded between the brisk Standard and him--for I\r\nsaid little or nothing--I was more and more struck with the excellent\r\njudgment he evinced. In most of his remarks upon a variety of topics\r\nHautboy seemed intuitively to hit the exact line between enthusiasm and\r\napathy. It was plain that while Hautboy saw the world pretty much as it\r\nwas, yet he did not theoretically espouse its bright side nor its dark\r\nside. Rejecting all solutions, he but acknowledged facts. What was sad\r\nin the world he did not superficially gainsay; what was glad in it he\r\ndid not cynically slur; and all which was to him personally enjoyable,\r\nhe gratefully took to his heart. It was plain, then--so it seemed at\r\nthat moment, at least--that his extraordinary cheerfulness did not\r\narise either from deficiency of feeling or thought.\r\n\r\nSuddenly remembering an engagement, he took up his hat, bowed\r\npleasantly, and left us.\r\n\r\n\"Well, Helmstone,\" said Standard, inaudibly drumming on the slab, \"what\r\ndo you think of your new acquaintance?\"\r\n\r\nThe last two words tingled with a peculiar and novel significance.\r\n\r\n\"New acquaintance indeed,\" echoed I. \"Standard, I owe you a thousand\r\nthanks for introducing me to one of the most singular men I have ever\r\nseen. It needed the optical sight of such a man to believe in the\r\npossibility of his existence.\"\r\n\r\n\"You rather like him, then,\" said Standard, with ironical dryness.\r\n\r\n\"I hugely love and admire him, Standard. I wish I were Hautboy.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ah? That's a pity now. There's only one Hautboy in the world.\"\r\n\r\nThis last remark set me to pondering again, and somehow it revived my\r\ndark mood.\r\n\r\n\"His wonderful cheerfulness, I suppose,\" said I, sneering with spleen,\r\n\"originates not less in a felicitous fortune than in a felicitous\r\ntemper. His great good sense is apparent; but great good sense may\r\nexist without sublime endowments. Nay, I take it, in certain cases,\r\nthat good sense is simply owing to the absence of those. Much more,\r\ncheerfulness. Unpossessed of genius, Hautboy is eternally blessed.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ah? You would not think him an extraordinary genius then?\"\r\n\r\n\"Genius? What! Such a short, fat fellow a genius! Genius, like Cassius,\r\nis lank.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ah? But could you not fancy that Hautboy might formerly have had\r\ngenius, but luckily getting rid of it, at last fatted up?\"\r\n\r\n\"For a genius to get rid of his genius is as impossible as for a man in\r\nthe galloping consumption to get rid of that.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ah? You speak very decidedly.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJK5EG57W2NF2EKDGD944","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKBZQ8XGGD4XTNVY114WV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKCKGQKV8XG30J2QSGH2K","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:02.036Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.682Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}