{"id":"01KG8AKQ1A7NM4HNADA90AHQSM","cid":"bafkreiefcxy7nvct2i46u24t566tengosszzls7erzdyqkykneavyrxv7m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4237,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":4169,"text":"“Then, all thanks and all honor to your generosity, my lord, in\r\ngranting us the immunities you did at the outset of this voyage. But,\r\nmy lord, permit me one word more. Is not Oro omnipresent—absolutely\r\nevery where?”\r\n\r\n“So you mortals teach, Babbalanja.”\r\n\r\n“But so do they _mean_, my lord. Often do we Mardians stick to terms\r\nfor ages, yet truly apply not their meanings.”\r\n\r\n“Well, Oro is every where. What now?”\r\n\r\n“Then, if that be absolutely so, Oro is not merely a universal\r\non-looker, but occupies and fills all space; and no vacancy is left for\r\nany being, or any thing but Oro. Hence, Oro is _in_ all things, and\r\nhimself _is_ all things—the time-old creed. But since evil abounds, and\r\nOro is all things, then he can not be perfectly good; wherefore, Oro’s\r\nomnipresence and moral perfection seem incompatible. Furthermore, my\r\nlord those orthodox systems which ascribe to Oro almighty and universal\r\nattributes every way, those systems, I say, destroy all intellectual\r\nindividualities but Oro, and resolve the universe into him. But this is\r\na heresy; wherefore, orthodoxy and heresy are one. And thus is it, my\r\nlord, that upon these matters we Mardians all agree and disagree\r\ntogether, and kill each other with weapons that burst in our hands. Ah,\r\nmy lord, with what mind must blessed Oro look down upon this scene!\r\nThink you he discriminates between the deist and atheist? Nay; for the\r\nSearcher of the cores of all hearts well knoweth that atheists there\r\nare none. For in things abstract, men but differ in the sounds that\r\ncome from their mouths, and not in the wordless thoughts lying at the\r\nbottom of their beings. The universe is all of one mind. Though my\r\ntwin-brother sware to me, by the blazing sun in heaven at noon-day,\r\nthat Oro is not; yet would he belie the thing he intended to express.\r\nAnd who lives that blasphemes? What jargon of human sounds so puissant\r\nas to insult the unutterable majesty divine? Is Oro’s honor in the\r\nkeeping of Mardi?— Oro’s conscience in man’s hands? Where our warrant,\r\nwith Oro’s sign-manual, to justify the killing, burning, and\r\ndestroying, or far worse, the social persecutions we institute in his\r\nbehalf? Ah! how shall these self-assumed attorneys and vicegerents be\r\nastounded, when they shall see all heaven peopled with heretics and\r\nheathens, and all hell nodding over with miters! Ah! let us Mardians\r\nquit this insanity. Let us be content with the theology in the grass\r\nand the flower, in seed-time and harvest. Be it enough for us to know\r\nthat Oro indubitably is. My lord! my lord! sick with the spectacle of\r\nthe madness of men, and broken with spontaneous doubts, I sometimes see\r\nbut two things in all Mardi to believe:—that I myself exist, and that I\r\ncan most happily, or least miserably exist, by the practice of\r\nrighteousness. All else is in the clouds; and naught else may I learn,\r\ntill the firmament be split from horizon to horizon. Yet, alas! too\r\noften do I swing from these moorings.”\r\n\r\n“Alas! his fit is coming upon him again,” whispered Yoomy.\r\n\r\n“Why, Babbalanja,” said Media, “I almost pity you. You are too warm,\r\ntoo warm. Why fever your soul with these things? To no use you mortals\r\nwax earnest. No thanks, but curses, will you get for your earnestness.\r\nYou yourself you harm most. Why not take creeds as they come? It is not\r\nso hard to be persuaded; never mind about believing.”\r\n\r\n“True, my lord; not very hard; no act is required; only passiveness.\r\nStand still and receive. Faith is to the thoughtless, doubts to the\r\nthinker.”\r\n\r\n“Then, why think at all? Is it not better for you mortals to clutch\r\nerror as in a vice, than have your fingers meet in your hand? And to\r\nwhat end your eternal inquisitions? You have nothing to substitute. You\r\nsay all is a lie; then out with the truth. Philosopher, your devil is\r\nbut a foolish one, after all. I, a demi-god, never say nay to these\r\nthings.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBVMTTT67SE8KFJCTVQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKQ1A66ENFECN6YABWYCF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKQ15P8MCHEJR0MJZ0PPV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:13.354Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:22.084Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}