{"id":"01KG8AKVMSYHW6511RRA084HCY","cid":"bafkreib454vl3pm6mfhhq65p2idcppyxbxvuhv3bpciydb4345zxnxngie","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12425,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.931Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":12349,"text":"its vans like East and West; a sunrise one, sunset the other. As\r\nsilver-fish in vases, so, in his azure eyes swam tears unshed.\r\n\r\n“Quick my guide close nested me; through its veins the waning light\r\nthrobbed hard.\r\n\r\n“‘Oh, spirit! archangel! god! whate’er thou art,’ it breathed; ‘leave\r\nme: I am but blessed, not glorified.’\r\n\r\n“So saying, as down from doves, from its wings dropped sounds. Still\r\nnesting me, it crouched its plumes.\r\n\r\n“Then, in a snow of softest syllables, thus breathed the greater and\r\nmore beautiful:—‘From far away, in fields beyond thy ken, I heard thy\r\nfond discourse with this lone Mardian. It pleased me well; for thy\r\nhumility was manifeat; no arrogance of knowing. Come _thou_ and learn\r\nnew things.’\r\n\r\n“And straight it overarched us with its plumes; which, then, down-\r\nsweeping, bore us up to regions where my first guide had sunk, but for\r\nthe power that buoyed us, trembling, both.\r\n\r\n“My eyes did wane, like moons eclipsed in overwhelming dawns: such\r\nradiance was around; such vermeil light, born of no sun, but pervading\r\nall the scene. Transparent, fleck-less, calm, all glowed one flame.\r\n\r\n“Then said the greater guide This is the night of all ye here behold—\r\nits day ye could not bide. Your utmost heaven is far below.’\r\n\r\n“Abashed, smote down, I, quaking, upward gazed; where, to and fro, the\r\nspirits sailed, like broad-winged crimson-dyed flamingos, spiraling in\r\nsunset-clouds. But a sadness glorified, deep-fringed their mystic\r\ntemples, crowned with weeping halos, bird-like, floating o’er them,\r\nwhereso’er they roamed.\r\n\r\n“Sights and odors blended. As when new-morning winds, in summer’s\r\nprime, blow down from hanging gardens, wafting sweets that never pall;\r\nso, from those flowery pinions, at every motion, came a flood of\r\nfragrance.\r\n\r\n“And now the spirits twain discoursed of things, whose very terms, to\r\nme, were dark. But my first guide grew wise. For me, I could but\r\nblankly list; yet comprehended naught; and, like the fish that’s mocked\r\nwith wings, and vainly seeks to fly;—again I sought my lower element.\r\n\r\n“As poised, we hung in this rapt ether, a sudden trembling seized the\r\nfour wings now folding me. And afar of, in zones still upward reaching,\r\nsuns’ orbits off, I, tranced, beheld an awful glory. Sphere in sphere,\r\nit burned:—the one Shekinah! The air was flaked with fire;—deep in\r\nwhich, fell showers of silvery globes, tears magnified —braiding the\r\nflame with rainbows. I heard a sound; but not for me, nor my first\r\nguide, was that unutterable utterance. Then, my second guide was swept\r\naloft, as rises a cloud of red-dyed leaves in autumn whirlwinds.\r\n\r\n“Fast clasping me, the other drooped, and, instant, sank, as in a\r\nvacuum; myriad suns’ diameters in a breath;—my five senses merged in\r\none, of falling; till we gained the nether sky, descending still.\r\n\r\n“Then strange things—soft, sad, and faint, I saw or heard; as, when, in\r\nsunny, summer seas, down, down, you dive, starting at pensive phantoms,\r\nthat you can not fix.\r\n\r\n“‘These,’ breathed my guide, ‘are spirits in their essences; sad, even\r\nin undevelopment. With these, all space is peopled;—all the air is\r\nvital with intelligence, which seeks embodiment. This it is, that\r\nunbeknown to Mardians, causes them to strangely start in solitudes of\r\nnight, and in the fixed flood of their enchanted noons. From hence, are\r\nformed your mortal souls; and all those sad and shadowy dreams, and\r\nboundless thoughts man hath, are vague remembrances of the time when\r\nthe soul’s sad germ, wide wandered through these realms. And hence it\r\nis, that when ye Mardians feel most sad, then ye feel most immortal.\r\n\r\n“Like a spark new-struck from flint, soon Mardi showed afar. It glowed\r\nwithin a sphere, which seemed, in space, a bubble, rising from vast\r\ndepths to the sea’s surface. Piercing it, my Mardian strength returned;\r\nbut the angel’s veins once more grew dim.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"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":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVMSW0956B2P9TCHAKK2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.073Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.657Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}