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- Герман Мелвилл
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- Моби Дик
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Inasmuch
,
then
,
as
this
Leviathan
comes
floundering
down
upon
us
from
the
head-waters
of
the
Eternities
,
it
may
be
fitly
inquired
,
whether
,
in
the
long
course
of
his
generations
,
he
has
not
degenerated
from
the
original
bulk
of
his
sires
.
But
upon
investigation
we
find
,
that
not
only
are
the
whales
of
the
present
day
superior
in
magnitude
to
those
whose
fossil
remains
are
found
in
the
Tertiary
system
(
embracing
a
distinct
geological
period
prior
to
man
)
,
but
of
the
whales
found
in
that
Tertiary
system
,
those
belonging
to
its
latter
formations
exceed
in
size
those
of
its
earlier
ones
.
Of
all
the
pre-adamite
whale
yet
exhumed
,
by
far
the
largest
is
the
Alabama
one
mentioned
in
the
last
chapter
,
and
that
was
less
than
seventy
feet
in
length
in
the
skeleton
.
Whereas
,
we
have
already
seen
,
that
the
tape-measure
gives
seventy-two
feet
for
the
skeleton
of
a
large
sized
modern
whale
.
And
I
have
heard
,
on
whalemen
's
authority
,
that
Sperm
Whales
have
been
captured
near
a
hundred
feet
long
at
the
time
of
capture
.
But
may
it
not
be
,
that
while
the
whales
of
the
present
hour
are
an
advance
in
magnitude
upon
those
of
all
previous
geological
periods
;
may
it
not
be
,
that
since
Adam
's
time
they
have
degenerated
?
Assuredly
,
we
must
conclude
so
,
if
we
are
to
credit
the
accounts
of
such
gentlemen
as
Pliny
,
and
the
ancient
naturalists
generally
.
For
Pliny
tells
us
of
Whales
that
embraced
acres
of
living
bulk
,
and
Aldrovandus
of
others
which
measured
eight
hundred
feet
in
length
--
Rope
Walks
and
Thames
Tunnels
of
Whales
!
And
even
in
the
days
of
Banks
and
Solander
,
Cooke
's
naturalists
,
we
find
a
Danish
member
of
the
Academy
of
Sciences
setting
down
certain
Iceland
Whales
(
reydan-siskur
,
or
Wrinkled
Bellies
)
at
one
hundred
and
twenty
yards
;
that
is
,
three
hundred
and
sixty
feet
.
And
Lacepede
,
the
French
naturalist
,
in
his
elaborate
history
of
whales
,
in
the
very
beginning
of
his
work
(
page
3
)
,
sets
down
the
Right
Whale
at
one
hundred
metres
,
three
hundred
and
twenty-eight
feet
.
And
this
work
was
published
so
late
as
A.D.
1825
.
But
will
any
whaleman
believe
these
stories
?
No
.
The
whale
of
to-day
is
as
big
as
his
ancestors
in
Pliny
's
time
.
And
if
ever
I
go
where
Pliny
is
,
I
,
a
whaleman
(
more
than
he
was
)
,
will
make
bold
to
tell
him
so
.
Because
I
can
not
understand
how
it
is
,
that
while
the
Egyptian
mummies
that
were
buried
thousands
of
years
before
even
Pliny
was
born
,
do
not
measure
so
much
in
their
coffins
as
a
modern
Kentuckian
in
his
socks
;
and
while
the
cattle
and
other
animals
sculptured
on
the
oldest
Egyptian
and
Nineveh
tablets
,
by
the
relative
proportions
in
which
they
are
drawn
,
just
as
plainly
prove
that
the
high-bred
,
stall-fed
,
prize
cattle
of
Smithfield
,
not
only
equal
,
but
far
exceed
in
magnitude
the
fattest
of
Pharaoh
's
fat
kine
;
in
the
face
of
all
this
,
I
will
not
admit
that
of
all
animals
the
whale
alone
should
have
degenerated
.
But
still
another
inquiry
remains
;
one
often
agitated
by
the
more
recondite
Nantucketers
.
Whether
owing
to
the
almost
omniscient
look-outs
at
the
mast-heads
of
the
whaleships
,
now
penetrating
even
through
Behring
's
straits
,
and
into
the
remotest
secret
drawers
and
lockers
of
the
world
;
and
the
thousand
harpoons
and
lances
darted
along
all
continental
coasts
;
the
moot
point
is
,
whether
Leviathan
can
long
endure
so
wide
a
chase
,
and
so
remorseless
a
havoc
;
whether
he
must
not
at
last
be
exterminated
from
the
waters
,
and
the
last
whale
,
like
the
last
man
,
smoke
his
last
pipe
,
and
then
himself
evaporate
in
the
final
puff
.
Comparing
the
humped
herds
of
whales
with
the
humped
herds
of
buffalo
,
which
,
not
forty
years
ago
,
overspread
by
tens
of
thousands
the
prairies
of
Illinois
and
Missouri
,
and
shook
their
iron
manes
and
scowled
with
their
thunder-clotted
brows
upon
the
sites
of
populous
river-capitals
,
where
now
the
polite
broker
sells
you
land
at
a
dollar
an
inch
;
in
such
a
comparison
an
irresistible
argument
would
seem
furnished
,
to
show
that
the
hunted
whale
can
not
now
escape
speedy
extinction
.
But
you
must
look
at
this
matter
in
every
light
.
Though
so
short
a
period
ago
--
not
a
good
lifetime
--
the
census
of
the
buffalo
in
Illinois
exceeded
the
census
of
men
now
in
London
,
and
though
at
the
present
day
not
one
horn
or
hoof
of
them
remains
in
all
that
region
;
and
though
the
cause
of
this
wondrous
extermination
was
the
spear
of
man
;
yet
the
far
different
nature
of
the
whale-hunt
peremptorily
forbids
so
inglorious
an
end
to
the
Leviathan
.
