{"id":"01KG8AKZ9R8J96D4EGGPHDTJ8H","cid":"bafkreihc2bnxxstpxjbpcecwftg62igobmajb7pt3tv46vrq5mdwbimoou","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11598,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.843Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":11531,"text":"from a visit to an only brother in London. She had no friend or\r\nrelative on board, hence, as there is little mourning for a stranger\r\ndying among strangers, her memory had been buried with her body.\r\n\r\nBut the thing most worthy of note among these now light-hearted people\r\nin feathers, was the gay way in which some of them bantered others,\r\nupon the panic into which nearly all had been thrown.\r\n\r\nAnd since, if the extremest fear of a crowd in a panic of peril, proves\r\ngrounded on causes sufficient, they must then indeed come to\r\nperish;—therefore it is, that at such times they must make up their\r\nminds either to die, or else survive to be taunted by their fellow-men\r\nwith their fear. For except in extraordinary instances of exposure,\r\nthere are few living men, who, at bottom, are not very slow to admit\r\nthat any other living men have ever been very much nearer death than\r\nthemselves. Accordingly, _craven_ is the phrase too often applied to\r\nany one who, with however good reason, has been appalled at the\r\nprospect of sudden death, and yet lived to escape it. Though, should he\r\nhave perished in conformity with his fears, not a syllable of _craven_\r\nwould you hear. This is the language of one, who more than once has\r\nbeheld the scenes, whence these principles have been deduced. The\r\nsubject invites much subtle speculation; for in every being’s ideas of\r\ndeath, and his behavior when it suddenly menaces him, lies the best\r\nindex to his life and his faith. Though the Christian era had not then\r\nbegun, Socrates died the death of the Christian; and though Hume was\r\nnot a Christian in theory, yet he, too, died the death of the\r\nChristian,—humble, composed, without bravado; and though the most\r\nskeptical of philosophical skeptics, yet full of that firm, creedless\r\nfaith, that embraces the spheres. Seneca died dictating to posterity;\r\nPetronius lightly discoursing of essences and love-songs; and Addison,\r\ncalling upon Christendom to behold how calmly a Christian could die;\r\nbut not even the last of these three, perhaps, died the best death of\r\nthe Christian.\r\n\r\nThe cabin passenger who had used to read prayers while the rest kneeled\r\nagainst the transoms and settees, was one of the merry young sparks,\r\nwho had occasioned such agonies of jealousy to the poor tailor, now no\r\nmore. In his rakish vest, and dangling watch-chain, this same youth,\r\nwith all the awfulness of fear, had led the earnest petitions of his\r\ncompanions; supplicating mercy, where before he had never solicited the\r\nslightest favor. More than once had he been seen thus engaged by the\r\nobservant steersman at the helm: who looked through the little glass in\r\nthe cabin bulk-head.\r\n\r\nBut this youth was an April man; the storm had departed; and now he\r\nshone in the sun, none braver than he.\r\n\r\nOne of his jovial companions ironically advised him to enter into holy\r\norders upon his arrival in New York.\r\n\r\n“Why so?” said the other, “have I such an orotund voice?”\r\n\r\n“No;” profanely returned his friend—“but you are a coward—just the man\r\nto be a parson, and pray.”\r\n\r\nHowever this narrative of the circumstances attending the fever among\r\nthe emigrants on the Highland may appear; and though these things\r\nhappened so long ago; yet just such events, nevertheless, are perhaps\r\ntaking place to-day. But the only account you obtain of such events, is\r\ngenerally contained in a newspaper paragraph, under the shipping-head.\r\n_There_ is the obituary of the destitute dead, who die on the sea. They\r\ndie, like the billows that break on the shore, and no more are heard or\r\nseen. But in the events, thus merely initialized in the catalogue of\r\npassing occurrences, and but glanced at by the readers of news, who are\r\nmore taken up with paragraphs of fuller flavor; what a world of life\r\nand death, what a world of humanity and its woes, lies shrunk into a\r\nthree-worded sentence!\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJT5SAHKG6V354KE5GRJR","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKZ9RWKVSM68ED4NEKCPR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKZ9RAX3JDSD3YPAD1FGP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:21.816Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:35.061Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}