{"id":"01KFNR86WATFH0H5FEBSPFWQP0","cid":"bafkreic5fwlu7o5biv6fjwzz7he3k6v4ziasq3gclzrnrymw3fvtiuvcpy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2145,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.899Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":2103,"text":"desolation that broods in bosoms like these. What bitter blanks in\r\nthose black-bordered marbles which cover no ashes! What despair in\r\nthose immovable inscriptions! What deadly voids and unbidden\r\ninfidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw upon all Faith, and refuse\r\nresurrections to the beings who have placelessly perished without a\r\ngrave. As well might those tablets stand in the cave of Elephanta as\r\nhere.\r\n\r\nIn what census of living creatures, the dead of mankind are included;\r\nwhy it is that a universal proverb says of them, that they tell no\r\ntales, though containing more secrets than the Goodwin Sands; how it is\r\nthat to his name who yesterday departed for the other world, we prefix\r\nso significant and infidel a word, and yet do not thus entitle him, if\r\nhe but embarks for the remotest Indies of this living earth; why the\r\nLife Insurance Companies pay death-forfeitures upon immortals; in what\r\neternal, unstirring paralysis, and deadly, hopeless trance, yet lies\r\nantique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago; how it is that we\r\nstill refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are\r\ndwelling in unspeakable bliss; why all the living so strive to hush all\r\nthe dead; wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify\r\na whole city. All these things are not without their meanings.\r\n\r\nBut Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these\r\ndead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.\r\n\r\nIt needs scarcely to be told, with what feelings, on the eve of a\r\nNantucket voyage, I regarded those marble tablets, and by the murky\r\nlight of that darkened, doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who\r\nhad gone before me. Yes, Ishmael, the same fate may be thine. But\r\nsomehow I grew merry again. Delightful inducements to embark, fine\r\nchance for promotion, it seems—aye, a stove boat will make me an\r\nimmortal by brevet. Yes, there is death in this business of whaling—a\r\nspeechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what\r\nthen? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death.\r\nMethinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true\r\nsubstance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too\r\nmuch like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking\r\nthat thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees\r\nof my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is\r\nnot me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat\r\nand stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84926R6YD9YV8PRXY9ZJ","peer_label":"Chapter 7. The Chapel","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84926R6YD9YV8PRXY9ZJ","peer_label":"Chapter 7. The Chapel","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV","peer_label":"Moby Dick","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KFNR86TFJEYV1MR6XMV7P490","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.419Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:18.956Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}