{"id":"01KG8AKTVBY7G8SYEF916W2FNT","cid":"bafkreiffeeu36ae7bl6uixtqox6zngvaid3nloa2pwn6p5jrbwbwoftsgq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12291,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.931Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":12210,"text":"CHAPTER LXXXIV.\r\nBabbalanja Relates To Them A Vision\r\n\r\n\r\nLeaving Babbalanja in the old man’s bower, deep in meditation;\r\nthoughtfully we strolled along the beach, inspiring the musky, midnight\r\nair; the tropical stars glistening in heaven, like drops of dew among\r\nviolets.\r\n\r\nThe waves were phosphorescent, and laved the beach with a fire that\r\ncooled it.\r\n\r\nReturning, we espied Babbalanja advancing in his snow-white mantle. The\r\nfiery tide was ebbing; and in the soft, moist sand, at every step, he\r\nleft a lustrous foot-print.\r\n\r\n“Sweet friends! this isle is full of mysteries,” he said. “I have\r\ndreamed of wondrous things. After I had laid me down, thought pressed\r\nhard upon me. By my eyes passed pageant visions. I started at a low,\r\nstrange melody, deep in my inmost soul. At last, methought my eyes were\r\nfixed on heaven; and there, I saw a shining spot, unlike a star.\r\nThwarting the sky, it grew, and grew, descending; till bright wings\r\nwere visible: between them, a pensive face angelic, downward beaming;\r\nand, for one golden moment, gauze-vailed in spangled Berenice’s Locks.\r\n\r\n“Then, as white flame from yellow, out from that starry cluster it\r\nemerged; and brushed the astral Crosses, Crowns, and Cups. And as in\r\nviolet, tropic seas, ships leave a radiant-white, and fire-fly wake;\r\nso, in long extension tapering, behind the vision, gleamed another\r\nMilky-Way.\r\n\r\n“Strange throbbings seized me; my soul tossed on its own tides. But\r\nsoon the inward harmony bounded in exulting choral strains. I heard a\r\nfeathery rush; and straight beheld a form, traced all over with veins\r\nof vivid light. The vision undulated round me.\r\n\r\n“‘Oh! Spirit!! angel! god! whate’er thou art,’—I cried, ‘leave me; I am\r\nbut man.’\r\n\r\n“Then, I heard a low, sad sound, no voice. It said, or breathed upon\r\nme,—‘Thou hast proved the grace of Alma: tell me what thou’st learned.’\r\n\r\n“Silent replied my soul, for voice was gone,—‘This have I learned, oh!\r\nspirit!—In things mysterious, to seek no more; but rest content, with\r\nknowing naught but Love.’\r\n\r\n“‘Blessed art thou for that: thrice blessed,’ then I heard, and since\r\nhumility is thine, thou art one apt to learn. That which thy own wisdom\r\ncould not find, thy ignorance confessed shall gain. Come, and see new\r\nthings.’\r\n\r\n“Once more it undulated round me; its lightning wings grew dim; nearer,\r\nnearer; till I felt a shock electric,—and nested ’neath its wing.\r\n\r\n“We clove the air; passed systems, suns, and moons: what seem from\r\nMardi’s isles, the glow-worm stars.\r\n\r\n“By distant fleets of worlds we sped, as voyagers pass far sails at\r\nsea, and hail them not. Foam played before them as they darted on; wild\r\nmusic was their wake; and many tracks of sound we crossed, where worlds\r\nhad sailed before.\r\n\r\n“Soon, we gained a point, where a new heaven was seen; whence all our\r\nfirmament seemed one nebula. Its glories burned like thousand\r\nsteadfast-flaming lights.\r\n\r\n“Here hived the worlds in swarms: and gave forth sweets ineffable.\r\n\r\n“We lighted on a ring, circling a space, where mornings seemed forever\r\ndawning over worlds unlike.\r\n\r\n“‘Here,’ I heard, ‘thou viewest thy Mardi’s Heaven. Herein each world\r\nis portioned.’\r\n\r\n“As he who climbs to mountain tops pants hard for breath; so panted I\r\nfor Mardi’s grosser air. But that which caused my flesh to faint, was\r\nnew vitality to my soul. My eyes swept over all before me. The spheres\r\nwere plain as villages that dot a landscape. I saw most beauteous\r\nforms, yet like our own. Strange sounds I heard of gladness that seemed\r\nmixed with sadness:—a low, sweet harmony of both. Else, I know not how\r\nto phrase what never man but me e’er heard.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWKBS24N1V86KZVJ3HKZ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTVB12BWR96E59NC0KTQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.259Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.518Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}