{"id":"01KG8AKE250DRV6FAQ8ZPZ1KEA","cid":"bafkreiadrfsjvidegvfqaj4ry6n467vaymhpab7zsqyne3qfadhgrfvjoi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6271,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":6206,"text":"\"No you don't. No more little arguments for me. Had too many little\r\narguments to-day.\"\r\n\r\n\"But put a case. Can you deny--I dare you to deny--that the man leading\r\na solitary life is peculiarly exposed to the sorriest misconceptions\r\ntouching strangers?\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes, I _do_ deny it,\" again, in his impulsiveness, snapping at the\r\ncontroversial bait, \"and I will confute you there in a trice. Look,\r\nyou----\"\r\n\r\n\"Now, now, now, my dear fellow,\" thrusting out both vertical palms for\r\ndouble shields, \"you crowd me too hard. You don't give one a chance. Say\r\nwhat you will, to shun a social proposition like mine, to shun society\r\nin any way, evinces a churlish nature--cold, loveless; as, to embrace\r\nit, shows one warm and friendly, in fact, sunshiny.\"\r\n\r\nHere the other, all agog again, in his perverse way, launched forth into\r\nthe unkindest references to deaf old worldlings keeping in the deafening\r\nworld; and gouty gluttons limping to their gouty gormandizings; and\r\ncorseted coquets clasping their corseted cavaliers in the waltz, all for\r\ndisinterested society's sake; and thousands, bankrupt through\r\nlavishness, ruining themselves out of pure love of the sweet company of\r\nman--no envies, rivalries, or other unhandsome motive to it.\r\n\r\n\"Ah, now,\" deprecating with his pipe, \"irony is so unjust: never could\r\nabide irony: something Satanic about irony. God defend me from Irony,\r\nand Satire, his bosom friend.\"\r\n\r\n\"A right knave's prayer, and a right fool's, too,\" snapping his\r\nrifle-lock.\r\n\r\n\"Now be frank. Own that was a little gratuitous. But, no, no, you didn't\r\nmean it; any way, I can make allowances. Ah, did you but know it, how\r\nmuch pleasanter to puff at this philanthropic pipe, than still to keep\r\nfumbling at that misanthropic rifle. As for your worldling, glutton,\r\nand coquette, though, doubtless, being such, they may have their little\r\nfoibles--as who has not?--yet not one of the three can be reproached\r\nwith that awful sin of shunning society; awful I call it, for not seldom\r\nit presupposes a still darker thing than itself--remorse.\"\r\n\r\n\"Remorse drives man away from man? How came your fellow-creature, Cain,\r\nafter the first murder, to go and build the first city? And why is it\r\nthat the modern Cain dreads nothing so much as solitary confinement?\r\n\r\n\"My dear fellow, you get excited. Say what you will, I for one must have\r\nmy fellow-creatures round me. Thick, too--I must have them thick.\"\r\n\r\n\"The pick-pocket, too, loves to have his fellow-creatures round him.\r\nTut, man! no one goes into the crowd but for his end; and the end of too\r\nmany is the same as the pick-pocket's--a purse.\"\r\n\r\n\"Now, my dear fellow, how can you have the conscience to say that, when\r\nit is as much according to natural law that men are social as sheep\r\ngregarious. But grant that, in being social, each man has his end, do\r\nyou, upon the strength of that, do you yourself, I say, mix with man,\r\nnow, immediately, and be your end a more genial philosophy. Come, let's\r\ntake a turn.\"\r\n\r\nAgain he offered his fraternal arm; but the bachelor once more flung it\r\noff, and, raising his rifle in energetic invocation, cried: \"Now the\r\nhigh-constable catch and confound all knaves in towns and rats in\r\ngrain-bins, and if in this boat, which is a human grain-bin for the\r\ntime, any sly, smooth, philandering rat be dodging now, pin him, thou\r\nhigh rat-catcher, against this rail.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM4MATQP3GZQR23SYFAP","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKE1SRXJPCNTKYTJ2XB89","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKE21Z82QD9GJ7VBSKFKQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:04.165Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:10.738Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}