{"id":"01KG8AMXWERP20Y153D2FWCJ74","cid":"bafkreideo5hu6d2hzufdmyz74bi33hcxykzq4zuqn3wo24bslivkecx3me","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":302,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":247,"text":"picked and decorous library; where the Spenserian nymphs had early led\r\nhim into many a maze of all-bewildering beauty. Thus, with a graceful\r\nglow on his limbs, and soft, imaginative flames in his heart, did this\r\nPierre glide toward maturity, thoughtless of that period of remorseless\r\ninsight, when all these delicate warmths should seem frigid to him, and\r\nhe should madly demand more ardent fires.\r\n\r\nNor had that pride and love which had so bountifully provided for the\r\nyouthful nurture of Pierre, neglected his culture in the deepest element\r\nof all. It had been a maxim with the father of Pierre, that all\r\ngentlemanhood was vain; all claims to it preposterous and absurd, unless\r\nthe primeval gentleness and golden humanities of religion had been so\r\nthoroughly wrought into the complete texture of the character, that he\r\nwho pronounced himself gentleman, could also rightfully assume the meek,\r\nbut kingly style of Christian. At the age of sixteen, Pierre partook\r\nwith his mother of the Holy Sacraments.\r\n\r\nIt were needless, and more difficult, perhaps, to trace out precisely\r\nthe absolute motives which prompted these youthful vows. Enough, that as\r\nto Pierre had descended the numerous other noble qualities of his\r\nancestors; and as he now stood heir to their forests and farms; so by\r\nthe same insensible sliding process, he seemed to have inherited their\r\ndocile homage to a venerable Faith, which the first Glendinning had\r\nbrought over sea, from beneath the shadow of an English minister. Thus\r\nin Pierre was the complete polished steel of the gentleman, girded with\r\nReligion's silken sash; and his great-grandfather's soldierly fate had\r\ntaught him that the generous sash should, in the last bitter trial,\r\nfurnish its wearer with Glory's shroud; so that what through life had\r\nbeen worn for Grace's sake, in death might safely hold the man. But\r\nwhile thus all alive to the beauty and poesy of his father's faith,\r\nPierre little foresaw that this world hath a secret deeper than beauty,\r\nand Life some burdens heavier than death.\r\n\r\nSo perfect to Pierre had long seemed the illuminated scroll of his life\r\nthus far, that only one hiatus was discoverable by him in that\r\nsweetly-writ manuscript. A sister had been omitted from the text. He\r\nmourned that so delicious a feeling as fraternal love had been denied\r\nhim. Nor could the fictitious title, which he so often lavished upon his\r\nmother, at all supply the absent reality. This emotion was most natural;\r\nand the full cause and reason of it even Pierre did not at that time\r\nentirely appreciate. For surely a gentle sister is the second best gift\r\nto a man; and it is first in point of occurrence; for the wife comes\r\nafter. He who is sisterless, is as a bachelor before his time. For much\r\nthat goes to make up the deliciousness of a wife, already lies in the\r\nsister.\r\n\r\n\"Oh, had my father but had a daughter!\" cried Pierre; \"some one whom I\r\nmight love, and protect, and fight for, if need be. It must be a\r\nglorious thing to engage in a mortal quarrel on a sweet sister's behalf!\r\nNow, of all things, would to heaven, I had a sister!\"\r\n\r\nThus, ere entranced in the gentler bonds of a lover; thus often would\r\nPierre invoke heaven for a sister; but Pierre did not then know, that if\r\nthere be any thing a man might well pray against, that thing is the\r\nresponsive gratification of some of the devoutest prayers of his youth.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKK0KDVWMBNKBZ5DS6NFR","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMXWEBXBTZDHJBQEB6ATP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMXWE8SCWE13F51HN59S9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.134Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:01.201Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}