{"id":"01KG8AN386HM7H7F7N33CQHV0X","cid":"bafkreigqfl3pauhr4zwjcwkamvmcbuqsqifivnnxs5i3hqudgijva3uiqq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4626,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":4553,"text":"\"Should the legitimate child shun the illegitimate, when one father is\r\nfather to both?\" rejoined Pierre, bending his head still further over\r\nhis plate.\r\n\r\nThe clergyman looked a little down again, and was silent; but still\r\nturned his head slightly sideways toward his hostess, as if awaiting\r\nsome reply to Pierre from her.\r\n\r\n\"Ask the world, Pierre\"--said Mrs. Glendinning warmly--\"and ask your own\r\nheart.\"\r\n\r\n\"My own heart? I will, Madam\"--said Pierre, now looking up steadfastly;\r\n\"but what do _you_ think, Mr. Falsgrave?\" letting his glance drop\r\nagain--\"should the one shun the other; should the one refuse his highest\r\nsympathy and perfect love for the other, especially if that other be\r\ndeserted by all the rest of the world? What think you would have been\r\nour blessed Savior's thoughts on such a matter? And what was that he so\r\nmildly said to the adulteress?\"\r\n\r\nA swift color passed over the clergyman's countenance, suffusing even\r\nhis expanded brow; he slightly moved in his chair, and looked\r\nuncertainly from Pierre to his mother. He seemed as a shrewd,\r\nbenevolent-minded man, placed between opposite opinions--merely\r\nopinions--who, with a full, and doubly-differing persuasion in himself,\r\nstill refrains from uttering it, because of an irresistible dislike to\r\nmanifesting an absolute dissent from the honest convictions of any\r\nperson, whom he both socially and morally esteems.\r\n\r\n\"Well, what do you reply to my son?\"--said Mrs. Glendinning at last.\r\n\r\n\"Madam and sir\"--said the clergyman, now regaining his entire\r\nself-possession. \"It is one of the social disadvantages which we of the\r\npulpit labor under, that we are supposed to know more of the moral\r\nobligations of humanity than other people. And it is a still more\r\nserious disadvantage to the world, that our unconsidered, conversational\r\nopinions on the most complex problems of ethics, are too apt to be\r\nconsidered authoritative, as indirectly proceeding from the church\r\nitself. Now, nothing can be more erroneous than such notions; and\r\nnothing so embarrasses me, and deprives me of that entire serenity,\r\nwhich is indispensable to the delivery of a careful opinion on moral\r\nsubjects, than when sudden questions of this sort are put to me in\r\ncompany. Pardon this long preamble, for I have little more to say. It is\r\nnot every question, however direct, Mr. Glendinning, which can be\r\nconscientiously answered with a yes or no. Millions of circumstances\r\nmodify all moral questions; so that though conscience may possibly\r\ndictate freely in any known special case; yet, by one universal maxim,\r\nto embrace all moral contingencies,--this is not only impossible, but\r\nthe attempt, to me, seems foolish.\"\r\n\r\nAt this instant, the surplice-like napkin dropped from the clergyman's\r\nbosom, showing a minute but exquisitely cut cameo brooch, representing\r\nthe allegorical union of the serpent and dove. It had been the gift of\r\nan appreciative friend, and was sometimes worn on secular occasions like\r\nthe present.\r\n\r\n\"I agree with you, sir\"--said Pierre, bowing. \"I fully agree with you.\r\nAnd now, madam, let us talk of something else.\"\r\n\r\n\"You madam me very punctiliously this morning, Mr. Glendinning\"--said\r\nhis mother, half-bitterly smiling, and half-openly offended, but still\r\nmore surprised at Pierre's frigid demeanor.\r\n\r\n\"'Honor thy father and mother;'\" said Pierre--\"_both_ father and\r\nmother,\" he unconsciously added. \"And now that it strikes me, Mr.\r\nFalsgrave, and now that we have become so strangely polemical this\r\nmorning, let me say, that as that command is justly said to be the only\r\none with a promise, so it seems to be without any contingency in the\r\napplication. It would seem--would it not, sir?--that the most deceitful\r\nand hypocritical of fathers should be equally honored by the son, as the\r\npurest.\"\r\n\r\n\"So it would certainly seem, according to the strict letter of the\r\nDecalogue--certainly.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKHMZ21RV7ZMW1WNW7ETK","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN3860H84VJT7068N0C47","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN38FR9A45ZVHNDM35TYB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:58.630Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:14.645Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}