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- Герман Мелвилл
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- Моби Дик
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That
great
America
on
the
other
side
of
the
sphere
,
Australia
,
was
given
to
the
enlightened
world
by
whaleman
.
After
its
first
blunder-born
discovery
by
a
Dutchman
,
all
other
ships
,
long
shunned
those
shores
as
pestiferously
barbarous
;
but
the
whale-ship
touched
there
.
The
whale-ship
is
the
true
mother
of
that
now
mighty
colony
.
Moreover
,
in
the
infancy
of
the
first
Australian
settlement
,
the
emigrants
were
several
times
saved
from
starvation
by
the
benevolent
biscuit
of
the
whale-ship
luckily
dropping
an
anchor
in
their
waters
.
The
uncounted
isles
of
all
Polynesia
confess
the
same
truth
,
and
do
commercial
homage
to
the
whale-ship
,
that
cleared
the
way
for
the
missionary
and
the
merchant
,
and
in
many
cases
carried
the
primitive
missionaries
to
their
first
destinations
.
If
that
double-bolted
land
,
Japan
,
is
ever
to
become
hospitable
,
it
is
the
whale-ship
alone
to
whom
the
credit
will
be
due
;
for
already
she
is
on
the
threshold
.
But
if
,
in
the
face
of
all
this
,
you
still
declare
that
whaling
has
no
aesthetically
noble
associations
connected
with
it
,
then
am
I
ready
to
shiver
fifty
lances
with
you
there
,
and
unhorse
you
with
a
split
helmet
every
time
.
The
whale
has
no
famous
author
,
and
whaling
no
famous
chronicler
,
you
will
say
.
The
whale
no
famous
author
,
and
whaling
no
famous
chronicler
?
Who
wrote
the
first
account
of
our
Leviathan
?
Who
but
mighty
Job
?
And
who
composed
the
first
narrative
of
a
whaling-voyage
?
Who
,
but
no
less
a
prince
than
Alfred
the
Great
,
who
,
with
his
own
royal
pen
,
took
down
the
words
from
Other
,
the
Norwegian
whale-hunter
of
those
times
!
And
who
pronounced
our
glowing
eulogy
in
Parliament
?
Who
,
but
Edmund
Burke
!
True
enough
,
but
then
whalemen
themselves
are
poor
devils
;
they
have
no
good
blood
in
their
veins
.
No
good
blood
in
their
veins
?
They
have
something
better
than
royal
blood
there
.
The
grandmother
of
Benjamin
Franklin
was
Mary
Morrel
;
afterwards
,
by
marriage
,
Mary
Folger
,
one
of
the
old
settlers
of
Nantucket
,
and
the
ancestress
to
a
long
line
of
Folgers
and
harpooneers
--
all
kith
and
kin
to
noble
Benjamin
--
this
day
darting
the
barbed
iron
from
one
side
of
the
world
to
the
other
.
Good
again
;
but
then
all
confess
that
somehow
whaling
is
not
respectable
.
Whaling
not
respectable
?
Whaling
is
imperial
!
By
old
English
statutory
law
,
the
whale
is
declared
"
a
royal
fish
.
"
Oh
,
that
's
only
nominal
!
The
whale
himself
has
never
figured
in
any
grand
imposing
way
.
