{"id":"01KG8AKYV1TS4D3WM104NKFKBT","cid":"bafkreifywku6m7hydo5dbcm7qkbb6q3bwfraqn4gjj4ufwiab6ycg3gen4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10631,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":10557,"text":"CHAPTER XCVII.\r\nFaith And Knowledge\r\n\r\n\r\nA thing incredible is about to be related; but a thing may be\r\nincredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is\r\ntrue. And many infidels but disbelieve the least incredible things; and\r\nmany bigots reject the most obvious. But let us hold fast to all we\r\nhave; and stop all leaks in our faith; lest an opening, but of a hand’s\r\nbreadth, should sink our seventy-fours. The wide Atlantic can rush in\r\nat one port-hole; and if we surrender a plank, we surrender the fleet.\r\nPanoplied in all the armor of St. Paul, morion, hauberk, and greaves,\r\nlet us fight the Turks inch by inch, and yield them naught but our\r\ncorpse.\r\n\r\nBut let us not turn round upon friends, confounding them with foes. For\r\ndissenters only assent to more than we. Though Milton was a heretic to\r\nthe creed of Athanasius, his faith exceeded that of Athanasius himself;\r\nand the faith of Athanasius that of Thomas, the disciple, who with his\r\nown eyes beheld the mark of the nails. Whence it comes that though we\r\nbe all Christians now, the best of us had perhaps been otherwise in the\r\ndays of Thomas.\r\n\r\nThe higher the intelligence, the more faith, and the less credulity:\r\nGabriel rejects more than we, but out-believes us all. The greatest\r\nmarvels are first truths; and first truths the last unto which we\r\nattain. Things nearest are furthest off. Though your ear be next-door\r\nto your brain, it is forever removed from your sight. Man has a more\r\ncomprehensive view of the moon, than the man in the moon himself. We\r\nknow the moon is round; he only infers it. It is because we ourselves\r\nare in ourselves, that we know ourselves not. And it is only of our\r\neasy faith, that we are not infidels throughout; and only of our lack\r\nof faith, that we believe what we do.\r\n\r\nIn some universe-old truths, all mankind are disbelievers. Do you\r\nbelieve that you lived three thousand years ago? That you were at the\r\ntaking of Tyre, were overwhelmed in Gomorrah? No. But for me, I was at\r\nthe subsiding of the Deluge, and helped swab the ground, and build the\r\nfirst house. With the Israelites, I fainted in the wilderness; was in\r\ncourt, when Solomon outdid all the judges before him. I, it was, who\r\nsuppressed the lost work of Manetho, on the Egyptian theology, as\r\ncontaining mysteries not to be revealed to posterity, and things at war\r\nwith the canonical scriptures; I, who originated the conspiracy against\r\nthat purple murderer, Domitian; I, who in the senate moved, that great\r\nand good Aurelian be emperor. I instigated the abdication of\r\nDiocletian, and Charles the Fifth; I touched Isabella’s heart, that she\r\nhearkened to Columbus. I am he, that from the king’s minions hid the\r\nCharter in the old oak at Hartford; I harbored Goffe and Whalley: I am\r\nthe leader of the Mohawk masks, who in the Old Commonwealth’s harbor,\r\noverboard threw the East India Company’s Souchong; I am the Vailed\r\nPersian Prophet; I, the man in the iron mask; I, Junius.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XCVIII.\r\nThe Tale Of A Traveler\r\n\r\n\r\nIt was Samoa, who told the incredible tale; and he told it as a\r\ntraveler. But stay-at-homes say travelers lie. Yet a voyage to Ethiopia\r\nwould cure them of that; for few skeptics are travelers; fewer\r\ntravelers liars, though the proverb respecting them lies. It is false,\r\nas some say, that Bruce was cousin-german to Baron Munchausen; but\r\ntrue, as Bruce said, that the Abysinnians cut live steaks from their\r\ncattle. It was, in good part, his villainous transcribers, who made\r\nmonstrosities of Mandeville’s travels. And though all liars go to\r\nGehenna; yet, assuming that Mandeville died before Dante; still, though\r\nDante took the census of Hell, we find not Sir John, under the likeness\r\nof a roasted neat’s tongue, in that infernalest of infernos, The\r\nInferno.\r\n\r\nBut let not the truth be postponed. To the stand, Samoa, and through\r\nyour interpreter, speak.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWVXMWPHPX0CZVACG69Q","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKYV1ADM5JK6HD9KGYZ48","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:21.345Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:33.637Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}