{"id":"01KG8AN1SFEX2CGW6Q0MSPTPVC","cid":"bafkreiayu5pav3mzsj35fdxrmukbmrjcw7ueci4eohowekmsqpk6eqmxum","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9552,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.921Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":9496,"text":"its ways to the instinctively known ways of Heaven. But it is not, and\r\ncan not be so; nor will he who regards this chronometrical conceit\r\naright, ever more be conscious of that horrible idea. For he will then\r\nsee, or seem to see, that this world's seeming incompatibility with God,\r\nabsolutely results from its meridianal correspondence with him.\r\n\r\n       *       *       *       *       *\r\n\r\n\"This chronometrical conceit does by no means involve the justification\r\nof all the acts which wicked men may perform. For in their wickedness\r\ndownright wicked men sin as much against their own horologes, as against\r\nthe heavenly chronometer. That this is so, their spontaneous liability\r\nto remorse does plainly evince. No, this conceit merely goes to show,\r\nthat for the mass of men, the highest abstract heavenly righteousness is\r\nnot only impossible, but would be entirely out of place, and positively\r\nwrong in a world like this. To turn the left cheek if the right be\r\nsmitten, is chronometrical; hence, no average son of man ever did such a\r\nthing. To give _all_ that thou hast to the poor, this too is\r\nchronometrical; hence no average son of man ever did such a thing.\r\nNevertheless, if a man gives with a certain self-considerate generosity\r\nto the poor; abstains from doing downright ill to any man; does his\r\nconvenient best in a general way to do good to his whole race; takes\r\nwatchful loving care of his wife and children, relatives, and friends;\r\nis perfectly tolerant to all other men's opinions, whatever they may be;\r\nis an honest dealer, an honest citizen, and all that; and more\r\nespecially if he believe that there is a God for infidels, as well as\r\nfor believers, and acts upon that belief; then, though such a man falls\r\ninfinitely short of the chronometrical standard, though all his actions\r\nare entirely horologic;--yet such a man need never lastingly despond,\r\nbecause he is sometimes guilty of some minor offense:--hasty words,\r\nimpulsively returning a blow, fits of domestic petulance, selfish\r\nenjoyment of a glass of wine while he knows there are those around him\r\nwho lack a loaf of bread. I say he need never lastingly despond on\r\naccount of his perpetual liability to these things; because _not_ to do\r\nthem, and their like, would be to be an angel, a chronometer; whereas,\r\nhe is a man and a horologe.\r\n\r\n\"Yet does the horologe itself teach, that all liabilities to these\r\nthings should be checked as much as possible, though it is certain they\r\ncan never be utterly eradicated. They are only to be checked, then,\r\nbecause, if entirely unrestrained, they would finally run into utter\r\nselfishness and human demonism, which, as before hinted, are not by any\r\nmeans justified by the horologe.\r\n\r\n\"In short, this Chronometrical and Horological conceit, in sum, seems to\r\nteach this:--That in things terrestrial (horological) a man must not be\r\ngoverned by ideas celestial (chronometrical); that certain minor\r\nself-renunciations in this life his own mere instinct for his own\r\nevery-day general well-being will teach him to make, but he must by no\r\nmeans make a complete unconditional sacrifice of himself in behalf of\r\nany other being, or any cause, or any conceit. (For, does aught else\r\ncompletely and unconditionally sacrifice itself for him? God's own sun\r\ndoes not abate one tittle of its heat in July, however you swoon with\r\nthat heat in the sun. And if it _did_ abate its heat on your behalf,\r\nthen the wheat and the rye would not ripen; and so, for the incidental\r\nbenefit of one, a whole population would suffer.)\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTDYVK8J8YE00DK13XV8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN1S49RRHJQH7R3BR4HBC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN1SFR84BGRMCGSCAEXQS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:57.135Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:24.881Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}