{"id":"01KF7FPMH6JYTP3XZBZFEZ3ZGF","cid":"bafkreif64bknyn5xu5apjon6vxugn3wuzcoc4so3t5jbgymalwgyv6zxue","type":"chapter","properties":{"end_line":4963,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:15.054Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Postscript.","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":4930,"text":"CHAPTER 25. Postscript.\r\n\r\nIn behalf of the dignity of whaling, I would fain advance naught but\r\nsubstantiated facts. But after embattling his facts, an advocate who\r\nshould wholly suppress a not unreasonable surmise, which might tell\r\neloquently upon his cause—such an advocate, would he not be\r\nblameworthy?\r\n\r\nIt is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens, even\r\nmodern ones, a certain curious process of seasoning them for their\r\nfunctions is gone through. There is a saltcellar of state, so called,\r\nand there may be a castor of state. How they use the salt,\r\nprecisely—who knows? Certain I am, however, that a king’s head is\r\nsolemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad. Can it be,\r\nthough, that they anoint it with a view of making its interior run\r\nwell, as they anoint machinery? Much might be ruminated here,\r\nconcerning the essential dignity of this regal process, because in\r\ncommon life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints\r\nhis hair, and palpably smells of that anointing. In truth, a mature man\r\nwho uses hair-oil, unless medicinally, that man has probably got a\r\nquoggy spot in him somewhere. As a general rule, he can’t amount to\r\nmuch in his totality.\r\n\r\nBut the only thing to be considered here, is this—what kind of oil is\r\nused at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar\r\noil, nor castor oil, nor bear’s oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil.\r\nWhat then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured,\r\nunpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils?\r\n\r\nThink of that, ye loyal Britons! we whalemen supply your kings and\r\nqueens with coronation stuff!\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 26. Knights and Squires.\r","title":"Postscript."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:16.013Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:16.013Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}