{"id":"01KG8AMXWNZV06WM1ZMKY5A58B","cid":"bafkreif2x4sc3sgvyh7za65n3p2uvtgjvjfvoibmghuet7b2l4ezu5qrqm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6115,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.921Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":6059,"text":"VII.\r\n\r\nAs Pierre went on through the woods, all thoughts now left him but those\r\ninvesting Isabel. He strove to condense her mysterious haze into some\r\ndefinite and comprehensible shape. He could not but infer that the\r\nfeeling of bewilderment, which she had so often hinted of during their\r\ninterview, had caused her continually to go aside from the straight line\r\nof her narration; and finally to end it in an abrupt and enigmatical\r\nobscurity. But he also felt assured, that as this was entirely\r\nunintended, and now, doubtless, regretted by herself, so their coming\r\nsecond interview would help to clear up much of this mysteriousness;\r\nconsidering that the elapsing interval would do much to tranquilize her,\r\nand rally her into less of wonderfulness to him; he did not therefore\r\nso much accuse his unthinkingness in naming the postponing hour he had.\r\nFor, indeed, looking from the morning down the vista of the day, it\r\nseemed as indefinite and interminable to him. He could not bring himself\r\nto confront any face or house; a plowed field, any sign of tillage, the\r\nrotted stump of a long-felled pine, the slightest passing trace of man\r\nwas uncongenial and repelling to him. Likewise in his own mind all\r\nremembrances and imaginings that had to do with the common and general\r\nhumanity had become, for the time, in the most singular manner\r\ndistasteful to him. Still, while thus loathing all that was common in\r\nthe two different worlds--that without, and that within--nevertheless,\r\neven in the most withdrawn and subtlest region of his own essential\r\nspirit, Pierre could not now find one single agreeable twig of thought\r\nwhereon to perch his weary soul.\r\n\r\nMen in general seldom suffer from this utter pauperism of the spirit. If\r\nGod hath not blessed them with incurable frivolity, men in general have\r\nstill some secret thing of self-conceit or virtuous gratulation; men in\r\ngeneral have always done some small self-sacrificing deed for some other\r\nman; and so, in those now and then recurring hours of despondent\r\nlassitude, which must at various and differing intervals overtake almost\r\nevery civilized human being; such persons straightway bethink them of\r\ntheir one, or two, or three small self-sacrificing things, and suck\r\nrespite, consolation, and more or less compensating deliciousness from\r\nit. But with men of self-disdainful spirits; in whose chosen souls\r\nheaven itself hath by a primitive persuasion unindoctrinally fixed that\r\nmost true Christian doctrine of the utter nothingness of good works; the\r\ncasual remembrance of their benevolent well-doings, does never distill\r\none drop of comfort for them, even as (in harmony with the correlative\r\nScripture doctrine) the recalling of their outlived errors and\r\nmis-deeds, conveys to them no slightest pang or shadow of reproach.\r\n\r\nThough the clew-defying mysteriousness of Isabel's narration, did now\r\nfor the time, in this particular mood of his, put on a repelling aspect\r\nto our Pierre; yet something must occupy the soul of man; and Isabel was\r\nnearest to him then; and Isabel he thought of; at first, with great\r\ndiscomfort and with pain, but anon (for heaven eventually rewards the\r\nresolute and duteous thinker) with lessening repugnance, and at last\r\nwith still-increasing willingness and congenialness. Now he recalled his\r\nfirst impressions, here and there, while she was rehearsing to him her\r\nwild tale; he recalled those swift but mystical corroborations in his\r\nown mind and memory, which by shedding another twinkling light upon her\r\nhistory, had but increased its mystery, while at the same time\r\nremarkably substantiating it.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKSA6G141E24E4X4BCAR6","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMXWNKDMVM52750R5N6DQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.141Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:19.020Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}