{"id":"01KG8AKSEZ8N6Q8YMSRHREVJHK","cid":"bafkreibqisjlcqkklidyxwyl2vr4o4jwxdmogqzl5ywtawu27fnn27dtp4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10838,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.931Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":10756,"text":"BABBALANJA.—Call it as you will, Yoomy, it was a sort of sleep- walking\r\nof the mind. Lombardo never threw down his pen: it dropped from him;\r\nand then, he sat disenchanted: rubbing his eyes; staring; and feeling\r\nfaint—sometimes, almost unto death.\r\n\r\nMEDIA—But pray, Babbalanja, tell us how he made acquaintance with some\r\nof those rare worthies, he introduces us to, in his Koztanza.\r\n\r\nBABBALANJA—He first met them in his reveries; they were walking about\r\nin him, sour and moody: and for a long time, were shy of his advances;\r\nbut still importuned, they at last grew ashamed of their reserve;\r\nstepped forward; and gave him their hands. After that, they were frank\r\nand friendly. Lombardo set places for them at his board; when he died,\r\nhe left them something in his will.\r\n\r\nMEDIA—What! those imaginary beings?\r\n\r\nABRAZZA—Wondrous witty! infernal fine!\r\n\r\nMEDIA—But, Babbalanja; after all, the Koztanza found no favor in the\r\neyes of some Mardians.\r\n\r\nABRAZZA—Ay: the arch-critics Verbi and Batho denounced it.\r\n\r\nBABBALANJA—Yes: on good authority, Verbi is said to have detected a\r\nsuperfluous comma; and Batho declared that, with the materials he could\r\nhave constructed a far better world than Lombardo’s. But, didst ever\r\nhear of his laying his axis?\r\n\r\nABRAZZA—But the unities; Babbalanja, the unities! they are wholly\r\nwanting in the Koztanza.\r\n\r\nBABBALANJA—Your Highness; upon that point, Lombardo was frank. Saith\r\nhe, in his autobiography: “For some time, I endeavored to keep in the\r\ngood graces of those nymphs; but I found them so captious, and\r\nexacting; they threw me into such a violent passion with their\r\nfault-findings; that, at last, I renounced them.”\r\n\r\nABRAZZA—Very rash!\r\n\r\nBABBALANJA—No, your Highness; for though Lombardo abandoned all\r\nmonitors from without; he retained one autocrat within—his crowned and\r\nsceptered instinct. And what, if he pulled down one gross world, and\r\nransacked the etherial spheres, to build up something of his own—a\r\ncomposite:—what then? matter and mind, though matching not, are mates;\r\nand sundered oft, in his Koztanza they unite:—the airy waist, embraced\r\nby stalwart arms.\r\n\r\nMEDIA—Incoherent again! I thought we were to have no more of this!\r\n\r\nBABBALANJA—My lord Media, there are things infinite in the finite; and\r\ndualities in unities. Our eyes are pleased with the redness of the\r\nrose, but another sense lives upon its fragrance. Its redness you must\r\napproach, to view: its invisible fragrance pervades the field. So, with\r\nthe Koztanza. Its mere beauty is restricted to its form: its expanding\r\nsoul, past Mardi does embalm. Modak is Modako; but fogle-foggle is not\r\nfugle-fi.\r\n\r\nMEDIA (_to Abrazza_)—My lord, you start again; but ’tis only another\r\nphase of Azzageeddi; sometimes he’s quite mad. But all this you must\r\nneeds overlook.\r\n\r\nABRAZZA—I will, my dear prince; what one can not see through, one must\r\nneeds look over, as you say.\r\n\r\nYOOMY—But trust me, your Highness, some of those strange things fall\r\nfar too melodiously upon the ear, to be wholly deficient in meaning.\r\n\r\nABRAZZA—Your gentle minstrel, _this_ must be, my lord. But Babbalanja,\r\nthe Koztanza lacks cohesion; it is wild, unconnected, all episode.\r\n\r\nBABBALANJA—And so is Mardi itself:—nothing but episodes; valleys and\r\nhills; rivers, digressing from plains; vines, roving all over; boulders\r\nand diamonds; flowers and thistles; forests and thickets; and, here and\r\nthere, fens and moors. And so, the world in the Koztanza.\r\n\r\nABRAZZA—Ay, plenty of dead-desert chapters there; horrible sands to\r\nwade through.\r\n\r\nMEDIA—Now, Babbalanja, away with your tropes; and tell us of the work,\r\ndirectly it was done. What did Lombardo then? Did he show it to any one\r\nfor an opinion?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJW03Z0Q25AN0GF175AXF","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSEMSEY9G50056Q50B56","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSF05SAG2A52HMNTCZHV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.839Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:28.200Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}