{"id":"01KG8AM4MBSMGYT353NQ82BNG7","cid":"bafkreidkbihacfjdt6sxb45akodemiip6qbayfqx2zknghkbzavdvxlqqe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12398,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.988Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":12342,"text":"the waist; and finally, winding up the operation by kissing round the\r\nwhole circle to the great edification of the fair, and to the unbounded\r\nhorror, amazement, and ill-suppressed chagrin of the aforesaid sheepish\r\nmultitude, who, with eyes wide open and mouths distended, afforded good\r\nsubjects on whom to exercise my polished wit, which like the glittering\r\nedge of a Damascus sabre ‘dazzled all it shone upon.’\r\n\r\nAnd then, when the folding-doors are thrown open, as the lacquey\r\nannounces supper to be ready, how often have I stepped forward and with\r\na profound obeisance to the ladies, bowing by the bow of Cupid, and\r\nappealing to Venus for my sincerity, when I wished I had an hundred arms\r\nat their service, escorted them right gallantly and merrily to the\r\nbanquet; while those poor, bashful creatures, like a drove of dumb\r\ncattle, strayed into the apartment, stumbling, blushing, stammering, and\r\nalone.\r\n\r\nVerily, by my elegant accomplishments and superior parts, by my graceful\r\naddress, and above all by my easy self-possession, I have unwittingly\r\nprovoked to an irreconcilable degree the resentment of half a score of\r\nthese village beaux; whom, although I had rather have their esteem, I\r\nvalue too little to dread their malice.\r\n\r\nBy my halidome, sir, this same village of Lansingburgh contains within\r\nits pretty limits as fair a set of blushing damsels as one would wish to\r\nlook upon on a dreamy summer day! When I traverse the broad pavements of\r\nmy own metropolis, my eyes are arrested by beautiful forms flitting\r\nhither and thither; and I pause to admire the elegance of their attire,\r\nthe taste displayed in their embellishments; the rich mesh of the\r\nmaterial; and sometimes, it may be, the loveliness of the features,\r\nwhich no art can heighten and no negligence conceal.\r\n\r\nBut here, sir, here, where woman seems to have erected her throne, and\r\nestablished her empire; here, where all feel and acknowledge her sway,\r\nshe blooms in unborrowed charms; and the eye, undazzled by the profusion\r\nof extraneous ornament, settles at once upon the loveliest faces which\r\nour clayey natures can assume. The poet has sung:--\r\n\r\n        ‘When first the Rhodian’s mimic art array’d\r\n         The queen of Beauty in her Cyprian shade,\r\n         The happy master mingled on his piece\r\n         Each look that charm’d him in the fair of Greece.\r\n         To faultless nature true, he stole a grace\r\n         From every finer form and sweeter face;\r\n         And, as he sojourn’d on the Ægean isles,\r\n         Woo’d all their love and treasured all their smiles;\r\n         Then glow’d the tints, pure, precious, and refined,\r\n         And mortal charms seemed heavenly when combined.’\r\n\r\nNow, had this same Apelles flourished in our own enlightened day, and\r\nmore particularly, had he taken up his domicile in this goodly village,\r\nI could with ease have presented him with many a Hebe, in whom were\r\nunited all the requisite graces which make up the beau-ideal of female\r\nloveliness. Nor, my dear M----, does there reign in all this bright\r\ndisplay that same monotony of feature, form, complexion, which elsewhere\r\nis beheld; no, here are all varieties, all the orders of Beauty’s\r\narchitecture; the Doric, the Ionic, the Corinthian, all are here.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWC5G0HBHACB7H31MXQ6","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM4MG0HMDA1SYHGMS0YZS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM4MGR40WES5328RCDA3F","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.275Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.558Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}