{"id":"01KG8AMGGS2PWS9QPVABVAQ53A","cid":"bafkreihote3c3z7afm4jzmzecbncguwo74yofpjue3eic75n46drfzz3om","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15313,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":15252,"text":"never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright; and she\r\nis but one craft in a Milky-Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High\r\nAdmiral. The port we sail from is for ever astern. And though far out\r\nof sight of land, for ages and ages we continue to sail with sealed\r\norders, and our last destination remains a secret to ourselves and our\r\nofficers; yet our final haven was predestinated ere we slipped from the\r\nstocks at Creation.\r\n\r\nThus sailing with sealed orders, we ourselves are the repositories of\r\nthe secret packet, whose mysterious contents we long to learn. There\r\nare no mysteries out of ourselves. But let us not give ear to the\r\nsuperstitious, gun-deck gossip about whither we may be gliding, for, as\r\nyet, not a soul on board of us knows—not even the Commodore himself;\r\nassuredly not the Chaplain; even our Professor’s scientific surmisings\r\nare vain. On that point, the smallest cabin-boy is as wise as the\r\nCaptain. And believe not the hypochondriac dwellers below hatches, who\r\nwill tell you, with a sneer, that our world-frigate is bound to no\r\nfinal harbour whatever; that our voyage will prove an endless\r\ncircumnavigation of space. Not so. For how can this world-frigate prove\r\nour eventual abiding place, when upon our first embarkation, as infants\r\nin arms, her violent rolling—in after life unperceived—makes every soul\r\nof us sea-sick? Does not this show, too, that the very air we here\r\ninhale is uncongenial, and only becomes endurable at last through\r\ngradual habituation, and that some blessed, placid haven, however\r\nremote at present, must be in store for us all?\r\n\r\nGlance fore and aft our flush decks. What a swarming crew! All told,\r\nthey muster hard upon eight hundred millions of souls. Over these we\r\nhave authoritative Lieutenants, a sword-belted Officer of Marines, a\r\nChaplain, a Professor, a Purser, a Doctor, a Cook, a Master-at-arms.\r\n\r\nOppressed by illiberal laws, and partly oppressed by themselves, many\r\nof our people are wicked, unhappy, inefficient. We have skulkers and\r\nidlers all round, and brow-beaten waisters, who, for a pittance, do our\r\ncraft’s shabby work. Nevertheless, among our people we have gallant\r\nfore, main, and mizzen top-men aloft, who, well treated or ill, still\r\ntrim our craft to the blast.\r\n\r\nWe have a _brig_ for trespassers; a bar by our main-mast, at which they\r\nare arraigned; a cat-o’-nine-tails and a gangway, to degrade them in\r\ntheir own eyes and in ours. These are not always employed to convert\r\nSin to Virtue, but to divide them, and protect Virtue and legalised Sin\r\nfrom unlegalised Vice.\r\n\r\nWe have a Sick-bay for the smitten and helpless, whither we hurry them\r\nout of sight, and however they may groan beneath hatches, we hear\r\nlittle of their tribulations on deck; we still sport our gay streamer\r\naloft. Outwardly regarded, our craft is a lie; for all that is\r\noutwardly seen of it is the clean-swept deck, and oft-painted planks\r\ncomprised above the waterline; whereas, the vast mass of our fabric,\r\nwith all its storerooms of secrets, for ever slides along far under the\r\nsurface.\r\n\r\nWhen a shipmate dies, straightway we sew him up, and overboard he goes;\r\nour world-frigate rushes by, and never more do we behold him again;\r\nthough, sooner or later, the everlasting under-tow sweeps him toward\r\nour own destination.\r\n\r\nWe have both a quarter-deck to our craft and a gun-deck; subterranean\r\nshot-lockers and gunpowder magazines; and the Articles of War form our\r\ndomineering code.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWG17TEBKS4V1SR41TF7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGGHQECRY3K5Z548P6ZA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGGS8X1E96Q16FJYHS7J","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.449Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:57.438Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}