CHAPTER 24. The Advocate.
As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whalingnd as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded amonandsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, m all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice hereby dono us hunters of whales.
In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous to establishe fact, that among people at large, the business of whaling is noccounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions. If tranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan societyt would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits, were presented to the company as a harpooneer, say; and if in emulatiof the naval officers he should append the initials S.W.F. (Sperhale Fishery) to his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemere-eminently presuming and ridiculous.
Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring uhalemen, is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to utchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein, wre surrounded by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that irue. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have beell Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honour. Ans for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shaloon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknownnd which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm whale-shit least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth. But everanting the charge in question to be true; what disordered slipperecks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of thosattle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladieslaudits? And if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceif the soldier's profession; let me assure ye that many a veteraho has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at thpparition of the sperm whale's vast tail, fanning into eddies the aiver his head. For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compareith the interlinked terrors and wonders of God!
But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does inwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-aboundindoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn rounhe globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!
But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts ocales; see what we whalemen are, and have been.
Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals of their whalinleets? Why did Louis XVI. of France, at his own personal expense, fiut whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town somcore or two of families from our own island of Nantucket? Why diritain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bountiepwards of L1,000,000? And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen omerica now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the worldail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteehousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships wortht the time of sailing, $20,000,000! and every year importing into ouarbors a well reaped harvest of $7,000,000. How comes all this, ihere be not something puissant in whaling?
But this is not the half; look again.
As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whalingnd as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded amonandsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, m all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice hereby dono us hunters of whales.
In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous to establishe fact, that among people at large, the business of whaling is noccounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions. If tranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan societyt would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits, were presented to the company as a harpooneer, say; and if in emulatiof the naval officers he should append the initials S.W.F. (Sperhale Fishery) to his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemere-eminently presuming and ridiculous.
Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring uhalemen, is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to utchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein, wre surrounded by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that irue. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have beell Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honour. Ans for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shaloon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknownnd which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm whale-shit least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth. But everanting the charge in question to be true; what disordered slipperecks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of thosattle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladieslaudits? And if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceif the soldier's profession; let me assure ye that many a veteraho has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at thpparition of the sperm whale's vast tail, fanning into eddies the aiver his head. For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compareith the interlinked terrors and wonders of God!
But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does inwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-aboundindoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn rounhe globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!
But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts ocales; see what we whalemen are, and have been.
Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals of their whalinleets? Why did Louis XVI. of France, at his own personal expense, fiut whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town somcore or two of families from our own island of Nantucket? Why diritain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bountiepwards of L1,000,000? And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen omerica now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the worldail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteehousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships wortht the time of sailing, $20,000,000! and every year importing into ouarbors a well reaped harvest of $7,000,000. How comes all this, ihere be not something puissant in whaling?
But this is not the half; look again.