{"id":"01KG8AKS9QH9ZQEMZ5PGYMRTGY","cid":"bafkreiakaaezuut252j6j7escpbpvwx7bod2ozjiduepw4f35np2vqctrm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6561,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":6482,"text":"sober me; its magic fumes breathe over me like the Indian summer, which\r\nsteeps all nature in repose. To me, wine is no vulgar fire, no fosterer\r\nof base passions; my heart, ever open, is opened still wider; and\r\nglorious visions are born in my brain; it is then that I have all Mardi\r\nunder my feet, and the constellations of the firmament in my soul.”\r\n\r\n“Superb!” cried Yoomy.\r\n\r\n“Pooh, pooh!” said Mohi, “who does not see stars at such times? I see\r\nthe Great Bear now, and the little one, its cub; and Andromeda, and\r\nPerseus’ chain-armor, and Cassiopea in her golden chair, and the\r\nbright, scaly Dragon, and the glittering Lyre, and all the jewels in\r\nOrion’s sword-hilt.”\r\n\r\n“Ay,” cried Media, “the study of astronomy is wonderfully facilitated\r\nby wine. Fill up, old Ptolemy, and tell us should you discover a new\r\nplanet. Methinks this fluid needs stirring. Ho, Vee-Vee, my scepter! be\r\nwe sociable. But come, Babbalanja, my gold-headed aquila, return to\r\nyour theme;—the imagination, if you please.”\r\n\r\n“Well, then, my lord, I was about to say, that the imagination is the\r\nVoli-Donzini; or, to speak plainer, the unical, rudimental, and all-\r\ncomprehending abstracted essence of the infinite remoteness of things.\r\nWithout it, we were grass-hoppers.”\r\n\r\n“And with it, you mortals are little else; do you not chirp all over,\r\nMohi? By my demi-god soul, were I not what I am, this wine would almost\r\nget the better of me.”\r\n\r\n“Without it—” continued Babbalanja.\r\n\r\n“Without what?” demanded Media, starting to his feet. “This wine?\r\nTraitor, I’ll stand by this to the last gasp, you are inebriated,\r\nBabbalanja.”\r\n\r\n“Perhaps so, my lord; but I was treating of the imagination, may it\r\nplease you.”\r\n\r\n“My lord,” added Mohi, “of the unical, and rudimental fundament of\r\nthings, you remember.”\r\n\r\n“Ah! there’s none of them sober; proceed, proceed, Azzageddi!”\r\n\r\n“My lord waves his hand like a banner,” murmured Yoomy.\r\n\r\n“Without imagination, I say, an armless man, born, blind, could not be\r\nmade to believe, that he had a head of hair, since he could neither see\r\nit, nor feel it, nor has hair any feeling of itself.”\r\n\r\n“Methinks though,” said Mohi, “if the cripple had a Tartar for a wife,\r\nhe would not remain skeptical long.”\r\n\r\n“You all fly off at tangents,” cried Media, “but no wonder: your mortal\r\nbrains can not endure much quaffing. Return to your subject,\r\nBabbalanja. Assume now, Babbalanja,—assume, my dear prince—assume it,\r\nassume it, I say!—Why don’t you?”\r\n\r\n“I am willing to assume any thing you please, my lord: what is it?”\r\n\r\n“Ah! yes!—Assume that—that upon returning home, you should find your\r\nwife had newly wedded, under the—the—the metaphysical presumption, that\r\nbeing no longer visible, you—_you_ Azzageddi, had departed this life;\r\nin other words, out of sight, out of mind; what then, my dear prince?”\r\n\r\n“Why then, my lord, I would demolish my rival in a trice.”\r\n\r\n“Would you?—then—then so much for your metaphysics, Bab—Babbalanja.”\r\n\r\nBabbalanja rose to his feet, muttering to himself—“Is this assumed, or\r\nreal?—Can a demi-god be mastered by wine? Yet, the old mythologies make\r\nbacchanals of the gods. But he was wondrous keen! He felled me, ere he\r\nfell himself.”\r\n\r\n“Yoomy, my lord Media is in a very merry mood to-day,” whispered Mohi,\r\n“but his counterfeit was not well done. No, no, a bacchanal is not used\r\nto be so logical in his cups.”\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJSY0QRGFVSXCEAR0PXHV","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKS9KQ1ER0V78EZ1T1B9E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.671Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.696Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}