{"id":"01KG8AKQYKF9X47FVM12K1N1YG","cid":"bafkreicbee76qhq2obd2c3vdxg5rdk2sluxa3i36v3r2m47jxk6qbi2uzi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5209,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":5163,"text":"CHAPTER XXXIX.\r\nWherein Babbalanja Discourses Of Himself\r\n\r\n\r\nAn interval of silence was at last broken by Babbalanja.\r\n\r\nPointing to the sun, just gaining the horizon, he exclaimed, “As old\r\nBardianna says—shut your eyes, and believe.”\r\n\r\n“And what may Bardianna have to do with yonder orb?” said Media.\r\n\r\nThis much, my lord, the astronomers maintain that Mardi moves round the\r\nsun; which I, who never formally investigated the matter for myself,\r\ncan by no means credit; unless, plainly seeing one thing, I blindly\r\nbelieve another. Yet even thus blindly does all Mardi subscribe to an\r\nastronomical system, which not one in fifty thousand can astronomically\r\nprove. And not many centuries back, my lord, all Mardi did equally\r\nsubscribe to an astronomical system, precisely the reverse of that\r\nwhich they now believe. But the mass of Mardians have not as much\r\nreason to believe the first system, as the exploded one; for all who\r\nhave eyes must assuredly see, that the sun seems to move, and that\r\nMardi seems a fixture, eternally _here_. But doubtless there are\r\ntheories which may be true, though the face of things belie them.\r\nHence, in such cases, to the ignorant, disbelief would seem more\r\nnatural than faith; though they too often reject the testimony of their\r\nown senses, for what to them, is a mere hypothesis. And thus, my lord,\r\nis it, that the mass of Mardians do not believe because they know, but\r\nbecause they know not. And they are as ready to receive one thing as\r\nanother, if it comes from a canonical source. My lord, Mardi is as an\r\nostrich, which will swallow augh you offer, even a bar of iron, if\r\nplaced endwise. And though the iron be indigestible, yet it serves to\r\nfill: in feeding, the end proposed. For Mardi must have something to\r\nexercise its digestion, though that something be forever indigestible.\r\nAnd as fishermen for sport, throw two lumps of bait, united by a cord,\r\nto albatrosses floating on the sea; which are greedily attempted to be\r\nswallowed, one lump by this fowl, the other by that; but forever are\r\nkept reciprocally going up and down in them, by means of the cord; even\r\nso, my lord, do I sometimes fancy, that our theorists divert\r\nthem-selves with the greediness of Mardians to believe.”\r\n\r\n“Ha, ha,” cried Media, “methinks this must be Azzageddi who speaks.”\r\n\r\n“No, my lord; not long since, Azzageddi received a furlough to go home\r\nand warm himself for a while. But this leaves me not alone.”\r\n\r\n“How?”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJSXQ4NYSBNDXGDVJNG87","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKQYK4RB9BVWQDASH0XGF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.291Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:22.723Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}