{"id":"01KG8AMXVP78ZY7VYJ8AEYEFHM","cid":"bafkreifx4wrloeygiobcrub444uwzlsk5w72sbjvftrbs4hgoj3exmwiou","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11738,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.924Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":11696,"text":"distinguished favor of being permitted to have it for a brooch; and\r\nousted a cameo-head of Homer, to replace it with the more invaluable\r\ngem. He became inconsolable, when being caught in a rain, the dot\r\n(_tear_) disappeared from over the _i_ (_eye_); so that the strangeness\r\nand wonderfulness of the sonnet was still conspicuous; in that though\r\nthe least fragment of it could weep in a drought, yet did it become all\r\ntearless in a shower.\r\n\r\nBut this indifferent and supercilious amateur--deaf to the admiration of\r\nthe world; the enigmatically merry and renowned author of \"The Tear;\"\r\nthe pride of the Gazelle Magazine, on whose flaunting cover his name\r\nfigured at the head of all contributors--(no small men either; for their\r\nlives had all been fraternally written by each other, and they had\r\nclubbed, and had their likenesses all taken by the aggregate job, and\r\npublished on paper, all bought at one shop) this high-prestiged\r\nPierre--whose future popularity and voluminousness had become so\r\nstartlingly announced by what he had already written, that certain\r\nspeculators came to the Meadows to survey its water-power, if any, with\r\na view to start a paper-mill expressly for the great author, and so\r\nmonopolize his stationery dealings;--this vast being,--spoken of with\r\nawe by all merely youthful aspirants for fame; this age-neutralizing\r\nPierre;--before whom an old gentleman of sixty-five, formerly librarian\r\nto Congress, on being introduced to him at the Magazine publishers',\r\ndevoutly took off his hat, and kept it so, and remained standing, though\r\nPierre was socially seated with his hat on;--this wonderful, disdainful\r\ngenius--but only life-amateur as yet--is now soon to appear in a far\r\ndifferent guise. He shall now learn, and very bitterly learn, that\r\nthough the world worship Mediocrity and Common Place, yet hath it fire\r\nand sword for all cotemporary Grandeur; that though it swears that it\r\nfiercely assails all Hypocrisy, yet hath it not always an ear for\r\nEarnestness.\r\n\r\nAnd though this state of things, united with the ever multiplying\r\nfreshets of new books, seems inevitably to point to a coming time, when\r\nthe mass of humanity reduced to one level of dotage, authors shall be\r\nscarce as alchymists are to-day, and the printing-press be reckoned a\r\nsmall invention:--yet even now, in the foretaste of this let us hug\r\nourselves, oh, my Aurelian! that though the age of authors be passing,\r\nthe hours of earnestness shall remain!\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTDSB3ER53PCEAPSR7B2","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMXVN6KCTAD4RVQ7B75V8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.110Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:28.335Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}