{"id":"01KG8AKPBC67RW9MBKMTKAYM9Q","cid":"bafkreihyyyorm2kk42z5xmfwawdqad4aqxtdlkrkv723m44rrufcp4scke","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4095,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":4007,"text":"CHAPTER XXXI.\r\nBabbalanja Discourses In The Dark\r\n\r\n\r\nNext day came and went; and still we onward sailed. At last, by night,\r\nthere fell a calm, becalming the water of the wide lagoon, and\r\nbecalming all the clouds in heaven, wailing the constellations. But\r\nthough our sails were useless, our paddlers plied their broad stout\r\nblades. Thus sweeping by a rent and hoar old rock, Vee-Vee, impatient\r\nof the calm, sprang to his crow’s nest in the shark’s mouth, and\r\nseizing his conch, sounded a blast which ran in and out among the\r\nhollows, reverberating with the echoes.\r\n\r\nBe sure, it was startling. But more so with respect to one of our\r\npaddlers, upon whose shoulders, elevated Vee-Vee, his balance lost, all\r\nat once came down by the run. But the heedless little bugler himself\r\nwas most injured by the fall; his arm nearly being broken.\r\n\r\nSome remedies applied, and the company grown composed, Babbalanja\r\nthus:—“My lord Media, was there any human necessity for that accident?”\r\n\r\n“None that I know, or care to tell, Babbalanja.”\r\n\r\n“Vee-Vee,” said Babbalanja, “did you fall on purpose?”\r\n\r\n“Not I,” sobbed little Vee-Vee, slinging his ailing arm in its mate.\r\n\r\n“Woe! woe to us all, then,” cried Babbalanja; “for what direful events\r\nmay be in store for us which we can not avoid.”\r\n\r\n“How now, mortal?” cried Media; “what now?”\r\n\r\n“My lord, think of it. Minus human inducement from without, and minus\r\nvolition from within, Vee-Vee has met with an accident, which has\r\nalmost maimed him for life. Is it not terrifying to think of? Are not\r\nall mortals exposed to similar, nay, worse calamities, ineffably\r\nunavoidable? Woe, woe, I say, to us Mardians! Here, take my last\r\nbreath; let me give up this beggarly ghost!”\r\n\r\n“Nay,” said Media; “pause, Babbalanja. Turn it not adrift prematurely.\r\nLet it house till midnight; the proper time for you mortals to\r\ndissolve. But, philosopher, if you harp upon Vee-Vee’s mishap, know\r\nthat it was owing to nothing but his carelessness.”\r\n\r\n“And what was that owing to, my lord?”\r\n\r\n“To Vee-Vee himself.”\r\n\r\n“Then, my lord, what brought such a careless being into Mardi?”\r\n\r\n“A long course of generations. He’s some one’s great-great-grandson,\r\ndoubtless; who was great-great-grandson to some one else; who also had\r\ngrandsires.”\r\n\r\n“Many thanks then to your highness; for you establish the doctrine of\r\nPhilosophical Necessity.”\r\n\r\n“No. I establish nothing; I but answer your questions.”\r\n\r\n“All one, my lord: you are a Necessitarian; in other words, you hold\r\nthat every thing takes place through absolute necessity.”\r\n\r\n“Do you take me, then, for a fool, and a Fatalist? Pardie! a bad creed\r\nfor a monarch, the distributor of rewards and punishments.”\r\n\r\n“Right there, my lord. But, for all that, your highness is a\r\nNecessitarian, yet no Fatalist. Confound not the distinct. Fatalism\r\npresumes express and irrevocable edicts of heaven concerning particular\r\nevents. Whereas, Necessity holds that all events are naturally linked,\r\nand inevitably follow each other, without providential interposition,\r\nthough by the eternal letting of Providence.”\r\n\r\n“Well, well, Babbalanja, I grant it all. Go on.”\r\n\r\n“On high authority, we are told that in times past the fall of certain\r\nnations in Mardi was prophesied of seers.”\r\n\r\n“Most true, my lord,” said Mohi; “it is all down in the chronicles.”\r\n\r\n“Ha! ha!” cried Media. “Go on, philosopher.”\r\n\r\nContinued Babbalanja, “Previous to the time assigned to their\r\nfulfillment, those prophecies were bruited through Mardi; hence,\r\nprevious to the time assigned to their fulfillment, full knowledge of\r\nthem may have come to the nations concerned. Now, my lord, was it\r\npossible for those nations, thus forwarned, so to conduct their\r\naffairs, as at, the prophesied time, to prove false the events revealed\r\nto be in store for them?”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBVMTTT67SE8KFJCTVQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKPBK3HFXAH0Q7SE6N6SJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:12.652Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:22.016Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}