{"id":"01KG8AMYEB1YQ0Q7SBB8FT01Z7","cid":"bafkreiaoc4smg5p3no2h7swuv3c6utrclg5fnzm4fwnzy3clauwi4iaksu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6273,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.921Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":6208,"text":"piercing as he was; how could he fail to acknowledge the existence of\r\nthat all-controlling and all-permeating wonderfulness, which, when\r\nimperfectly and isolatedly recognized by the generality, is so\r\nsignificantly denominated The Finger of God? But it is not merely the\r\nFinger, it is the whole outspread Hand of God; for doth not Scripture\r\nintimate, that He holdeth all of us in the hollow of His hand?--a\r\nHollow, truly!\r\n\r\nStill wandering through the forest, his eye pursuing its ever-shifting\r\nshadowy vistas; remote from all visible haunts and traces of that\r\nstrangely wilful race, who, in the sordid traffickings of clay and mud,\r\nare ever seeking to denationalize the natural heavenliness of their\r\nsouls; there came into the mind of Pierre, thoughts and fancies never\r\nimbibed within the gates of towns; but only given forth by the\r\natmosphere of primeval forests, which, with the eternal ocean, are the\r\nonly unchanged general objects remaining to this day, from those that\r\noriginally met the gaze of Adam. For so it is, that the apparently most\r\ninflammable or evaporable of all earthly things, wood and water, are, in\r\nthis view, immensely the most endurable.\r\n\r\nNow all his ponderings, however excursive, wheeled round Isabel as their\r\ncenter; and back to her they came again from every excursion; and again\r\nderived some new, small germs for wonderment.\r\n\r\nThe question of Time occurred to Pierre. How old was Isabel? According\r\nto all reasonable inferences from the presumed circumstances of her\r\nlife, she was his elder, certainly, though by uncertain years; yet her\r\nwhole aspect was that of more than childlikeness; nevertheless, not only\r\ndid he feel his muscular superiority to her, so to speak, which made him\r\nspontaneously alive to a feeling of elderly protectingness over her; not\r\nonly did he experience the thoughts of superior world-acquaintance, and\r\ngeneral cultured knowledge; but spite of reason's self, and irrespective\r\nof all mere computings, he was conscious of a feeling which\r\nindependently pronounced him her senior in point of Time, and Isabel a\r\nchild of everlasting youngness. This strange, though strong conceit of\r\nhis mysterious persuasion, doubtless, had its untraced, and but\r\nlittle-suspected origin in his mind, from ideas born of his devout\r\nmeditations upon the artless infantileness of her face; which, though\r\nprofoundly mournful in the general expression, yet did not, by any\r\nmeans, for that cause, lose one whit in its singular infantileness; as\r\nthe faces of real infants, in their earliest visibleness, do oft-times\r\nwear a look of deep and endless sadness. But it was not the sadness, nor\r\nindeed, strictly speaking, the infantileness of the face of Isabel which\r\nso singularly impressed him with the idea of her original and changeless\r\nyouthfulness. It was something else; yet something which entirely eluded\r\nhim.\r\n\r\nImaginatively exalted by the willing suffrages of all mankind into\r\nhigher and purer realms than men themselves inhabit; beautiful\r\nwomen--those of them at least who are beautiful in soul as well as\r\nbody--do, notwithstanding the relentless law of earthly fleetingness,\r\nstill seem, for a long interval, mysteriously exempt from the\r\nincantations of decay; for as the outward loveliness touch by touch\r\ndeparts, the interior beauty touch by touch replaces that departing\r\nbloom, with charms, which, underivable from earth, possess the\r\nineffaceableness of stars. Else, why at the age of sixty, have some\r\nwomen held in the strongest bonds of love and fealty, men young enough\r\nto be their grandsons? And why did all-seducing Ninon unintendingly\r\nbreak scores of hearts at seventy? It is because of the perennialness of\r\nwomanly sweetness.\r\n\r\nOut from the infantile, yet eternal mournfulness of the face of Isabel,\r\nthere looked on Pierre that angelic childlikeness, which our Savior\r\nhints is the one only investiture of translated souls; for of such--even\r\nof little children--is the other world.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKSA07DQFH4QAEFJZ6ZJN","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMYEJCNS182D1K305WK6S","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMYE7QEMWHA09Y3FK19TK","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.707Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:19.259Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}