{"id":"01KG8AKKW6W6A83AYF62NJJ4DG","cid":"bafkreigxtxutns7botzrkdxjgo66hcziao2grd4tgtdtfh3dnpjnnelb3i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8111,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.931Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":8038,"text":"to-morrow transmute her bond into free; though lawlessness may\r\ntransform them into brutes. Freedom is the name for a thing that is\r\n_not_ freedom; this, a lesson never learned in an hour or an age. By\r\nsome tribes it will never be learned.\r\n\r\n“Yet, if it please you, there may be such a thing as being free under\r\nCaesar. Ages ago, there were as many vital freemen, as breathe vital\r\nair to-day.\r\n\r\n“Names make not distinctions; some despots rule without swaying\r\nscepters. Though King Bello’s palace was not put together by yoked men;\r\nyour federal temple of freedom, sovereign-kings! was the handiwork of\r\nslaves.\r\n\r\n“It is not gildings, and gold maces, and crown jewels alone, that make\r\na people servile. There is much bowing and cringing among you\r\nyourselves, sovereign-kings! Poverty is abased before riches, all Mardi\r\nover; any where, it is hard to be a debtor; any where, the wise will\r\nlord it over fools; every where, suffering is found.\r\n\r\n“Thus, freedom is more social than political. And its real felicity is\r\nnot to be shared. _That_ is of a man’s own individual getting and\r\nholding. It is not, who rules the state, but who rules me. Better be\r\nsecure under one king, than exposed to violence from twenty millions of\r\nmonarchs, though oneself be of the number.\r\n\r\n“But superstitious notions you harbor, sovereign kings! Did you visit\r\nDominora, you would not be marched straight into a dungeon. And though\r\nyou would behold sundry sights displeasing, you would start to inhale\r\nsuch liberal breezes; and hear crowds boasting of their privileges; as\r\nyou, of yours. Nor has the wine of Dominora, a monarchical flavor.\r\n\r\n“Now, though far and wide, to keep equal pace with the times, great\r\nreforms, of a verity, be needed; nowhere are bloody revolutions\r\nrequired. Though it be the most certain of remedies, no prudent invalid\r\nopens his veins, to let out his disease with his life. And though all\r\nevils may be assuaged; all evils can not be done away. For evil is the\r\nchronic malady of the universe; and checked in one place, breaks forth\r\nin another.\r\n\r\n“Of late, on this head, some wild dreams have departed.\r\n\r\n“There are many, who erewhile believed that the age of pikes and\r\njavelins was passed; that after a heady and blustering youth, old Mardi\r\nwas at last settling down into a serene old age; and that the Indian\r\nsummer, first discovered in your land, sovereign kings! was the hazy\r\nvapor emitted from its tranquil pipe. But it has not so proved. Mardi’s\r\npeaces are but truces. Long absent, at last the red comets have\r\nreturned. And return they must, though their periods be ages. And\r\nshould Mardi endure till mountain melt into mountain, and all the isles\r\nform one table-land; yet, would it but expand the old battle-plain.\r\n\r\n“Students of history are horror-struck at the massacres of old; but in\r\nthe shambles, men are being murdered to-day. Could time be reversed,\r\nand the future change places with the past, the past would cry out\r\nagainst us, and our future, full as loudly, as we against the ages\r\nforegone. All the Ages are his children, calling each other names.\r\n\r\n“Hark ye, sovereign-kings! cheer not on the yelping pack too furiously:\r\nHunters have been torn by their hounds. Be advised; wash your hands.\r\nHold aloof. Oro has poured out an ocean for an everlasting barrier\r\nbetween you and the worst folly which other republics have perpetrated.\r\nThat barrier hold sacred. And swear never to cross over to Porpheero,\r\nby manifesto or army, unless you traverse dry land.\r\n\r\n“And be not too grasping, nearer home. It is not freedom to filch.\r\nExpand not your area too widely, now. Seek you proselytes? Neighboring\r\nnations may be free, without coming under your banner. And if you can\r\nnot lay your ambition, know this: that it is best served, by waiting\r\nevents.\r\n\r\n“Time, but Time only, may enable you to cross the equator; and give you\r\nthe Arctic Circles for your boundaries.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTP2KTDMNH4M9X9D0N8X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKKW6627MHT0HT4GTF1QA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKKW6CJT0V3CQ5174Z5A0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:10.118Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.799Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}