{"id":"01KG8AN11CSZ6CEZ063FC34502","cid":"bafkreidvxu2vkqyfksnmrdiqzuwdkvyifkpmcunpgvzvbxlrs2pfz7oqiu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9151,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.921Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":9082,"text":"BOOK XIV.\r\n\r\nTHE JOURNEY AND THE PAMPHLET.\r\n\r\n\r\nI.\r\n\r\nAll profound things, and emotions of things are preceded and attended by\r\nSilence. What a silence is that with which the pale bride precedes the\r\nresponsive _I will_, to the priest's solemn question, _Wilt thou have\r\nthis man for thy husband?_ In silence, too, the wedded hands are\r\nclasped. Yea, in silence the child Christ was born into the world.\r\nSilence is the general consecration of the universe. Silence is the\r\ninvisible laying on of the Divine Pontiff's hands upon the world.\r\nSilence is at once the most harmless and the most awful thing in all\r\nnature. It speaks of the Reserved Forces of Fate. Silence is the only\r\nVoice of our God.\r\n\r\nNor is this so august Silence confined to things simply touching or\r\ngrand. Like the air, Silence permeates all things, and produces its\r\nmagical power, as well during that peculiar mood which prevails at a\r\nsolitary traveler's first setting forth on a journey, as at the\r\nunimaginable time when before the world was, Silence brooded on the face\r\nof the waters.\r\n\r\nNo word was spoken by its inmates, as the coach bearing our young\r\nEnthusiast, Pierre, and his mournful party, sped forth through the dim\r\ndawn into the deep midnight, which still occupied, unrepulsed, the\r\nhearts of the old woods through which the road wound, very shortly after\r\nquitting the village.\r\n\r\nWhen first entering the coach, Pierre had pressed his hand upon the\r\ncushioned seat to steady his way, some crumpled leaves of paper had met\r\nhis fingers. He had instinctively clutched them; and the same strange\r\nclutching mood of his soul which had prompted that instinctive act, did\r\nalso prevail in causing him now to retain the crumpled paper in his hand\r\nfor an hour or more of that wonderful intense silence, which the rapid\r\ncoach bore through the heart of the general stirless morning silence of\r\nthe fields and the woods.\r\n\r\nHis thoughts were very dark and wild; for a space there was rebellion\r\nand horrid anarchy and infidelity in his soul. This temporary mood may\r\nbest be likened to that, which--according to a singular story once told\r\nin the pulpit by a reverend man of God--invaded the heart of an\r\nexcellent priest. In the midst of a solemn cathedral, upon a cloudy\r\nSunday afternoon, this priest was in the act of publicly administering\r\nthe bread at the Holy Sacrament of the Supper, when the Evil One\r\nsuddenly propounded to him the possibility of the mere moonshine of the\r\nChristian Religion. Just such now was the mood of Pierre; to him the\r\nEvil One propounded the possibility of the mere moonshine of all his\r\nself-renouncing Enthusiasm. The Evil One hooted at him, and called him a\r\nfool. But by instant and earnest prayer--closing his two eyes, with his\r\ntwo hands still holding the sacramental bread--the devout priest had\r\nvanquished the impious Devil. Not so with Pierre. The imperishable\r\nmonument of his holy Catholic Church; the imperishable record of his\r\nHoly Bible; the imperishable intuition of the innate truth of\r\nChristianity;--these were the indestructible anchors which still held\r\nthe priest to his firm Faith's rock, when the sudden storm raised by the\r\nEvil One assailed him. But Pierre--where could _he_ find the Church, the\r\nmonument, the Bible, which unequivocally said to him--\"Go on; thou art\r\nin the Right; I endorse thee all over; go on.\"--So the difference\r\nbetween the Priest and Pierre was herein:--with the priest it was a\r\nmatter, whether certain bodiless thoughts of his were true or not true;\r\nbut with Pierre it was a question whether certain vital acts of his were\r\nright or wrong. In this little nut lie germ-like the possible solution\r\nof some puzzling problems; and also the discovery of additional, and\r\nstill more profound problems ensuing upon the solution of the former.\r\nFor so true is this last, that some men refuse to solve any present\r\nproblem, for fear of making still more work for themselves in that way.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTDYVK8J8YE00DK13XV8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN11C30JZBF56ZAEBPE6P","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:56.364Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:24.021Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}