{"id":"01KG8AKKX2PVZCGBAVDZ5VG0R9","cid":"bafkreieco5xdm3aicep7qhnuohck5tuqimtimqkcoyqdzlijyq6hzksdgq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":775,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":708,"text":"simple to discern.”\r\n\r\n“He is mad,” said the chief Divino; “never before heard I such words.”\r\n\r\n“They are thoughts,” muttered the guide.\r\n\r\n“Poor fool!” cried Fauna.\r\n\r\n“Lost youth!” sighed the maiden.\r\n\r\n“He is but a child,” said the beggar. These whims will soon depart;\r\nonce I was like him; but, praise be to Alma, in the hour of sickness I\r\nrepented, feeble old man that I am!”\r\n\r\n“It is because I am young and in health,” said the boy, “that I more\r\nnourish the thoughts, that are born of my youth and my health. I am\r\nfresh from my Maker, soul and body unwrinkled. On thy sick couch, old\r\nman, they took thee at advantage.”\r\n\r\n“Turn from the blasphemer,” cried Pani. “Hence! thou evil one, to the\r\nperdition in store.”\r\n\r\n“I will go my ways,” said the boy, “but Oro will shape the end.”\r\n\r\nAnd he quitted the Morai.\r\n\r\nAfter conducting the party round the sacred inclosure, assisting his\r\nway with his staff, for his child had left him, Pani seated himself on\r\na low, mossy stone, grimly surrounded by idols; and directed the\r\npilgrims to return to his habitation; where, ere long he would rejoin\r\nthem.\r\n\r\nThe pilgrims departed, he remained in profound meditation; while,\r\nbackward and forward, an invisible ploughshare turned up the long\r\nfurrows on his brow.\r\n\r\nLong he was silent; then muttered to himself, “That boy, that wild,\r\nwise boy, has stabbed me to the heart. His thoughts are my suspicions.\r\nBut he is honest. Yet I harm none. Multitudes must have unspoken\r\nmeditations as well as I. Do we then mutually deceive? Off masks,\r\nmankind, that I may know what warranty of fellowship with others, my\r\nown thoughts possess. Why, upon this one theme, oh Oro! must all\r\ndissemble? Our thoughts are not our own. Whate’er it be, an honest\r\nthought must have some germ of truth. But we must set, as flows the\r\ngeneral stream; I blindly follow, where I seem to lead; the crowd of\r\npilgrims is so great, they see not there is none to guide.—It hinges\r\nupon this: Have we angelic spirits? But in vain, in vain, oh Oro! I\r\nessay to live out of this poor, blind body, fit dwelling for my\r\nsightless soul. Death, death:—blind, am I dead? for blindness seems a\r\nconsciousness of death. Will my grave be more dark, than all is now?—\r\nFrom dark to dark!—What is this subtle something that is in me, and\r\neludes me? Will it have no end? When, then, did it begin? All, all is\r\nchaos! What is this shining light in heaven, this sun they tell me of?\r\nOr, do they lie? Methinks, it might blaze convictions; but I brood and\r\ngrope in blackness; I am dumb with doubt; yet, ’tis not doubt, but\r\nworse: I doubt my doubt. Oh, ye all-wise spirits in the air, how can ye\r\nwitness all this woe, and give no sign? Would, would that mine were a\r\nsettled doubt, like that wild boy’s, who without faith, seems full of\r\nit. The undoubting doubter believes the most. Oh! that I were he.\r\nMethinks that daring boy hath Alma in him, struggling to be free. But\r\nthose pilgrims: that trusting girl.—What, if they saw me as I am?\r\nPeace, peace, my soul; on, mask, again.”\r\n\r\nAnd he staggered from the Morai.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNK0SRQXJTP5TJ1QJQ4K","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKKX5PNFH0HRXGT3YX2BM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:10.146Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.576Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}