{"id":"01KFNR870236V39CNMRR3CAR9G","cid":"bafkreibfx5rklmfbeyn732sdif4fxoeherazmftg3lgsq76kqqeuiuofim","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2208,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.899Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":2146,"text":"CHAPTER 8. The Pulpit.\r\n\r\nI had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable\r\nrobustness entered; immediately as the storm-pelted door flew back upon\r\nadmitting him, a quick regardful eyeing of him by all the congregation,\r\nsufficiently attested that this fine old man was the chaplain. Yes, it\r\nwas the famous Father Mapple, so called by the whalemen, among whom he\r\nwas a very great favourite. He had been a sailor and a harpooneer in\r\nhis youth, but for many years past had dedicated his life to the\r\nministry. At the time I now write of, Father Mapple was in the hardy\r\nwinter of a healthy old age; that sort of old age which seems merging\r\ninto a second flowering youth, for among all the fissures of his\r\nwrinkles, there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing\r\nbloom—the spring verdure peeping forth even beneath February’s snow. No\r\none having previously heard his history, could for the first time\r\nbehold Father Mapple without the utmost interest, because there were\r\ncertain engrafted clerical peculiarities about him, imputable to that\r\nadventurous maritime life he had led. When he entered I observed that\r\nhe carried no umbrella, and certainly had not come in his carriage, for\r\nhis tarpaulin hat ran down with melting sleet, and his great pilot\r\ncloth jacket seemed almost to drag him to the floor with the weight of\r\nthe water it had absorbed. However, hat and coat and overshoes were one\r\nby one removed, and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner;\r\nwhen, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.\r\n\r\nLike most old fashioned pulpits, it was a very lofty one, and since a\r\nregular stairs to such a height would, by its long angle with the\r\nfloor, seriously contract the already small area of the chapel, the\r\narchitect, it seemed, had acted upon the hint of Father Mapple, and\r\nfinished the pulpit without a stairs, substituting a perpendicular side\r\nladder, like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea. The wife\r\nof a whaling captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of\r\nred worsted man-ropes for this ladder, which, being itself nicely\r\nheaded, and stained with a mahogany colour, the whole contrivance,\r\nconsidering what manner of chapel it was, seemed by no means in bad\r\ntaste. Halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder, and with both\r\nhands grasping the ornamental knobs of the man-ropes, Father Mapple\r\ncast a look upwards, and then with a truly sailor-like but still\r\nreverential dexterity, hand over hand, mounted the steps as if\r\nascending the main-top of his vessel.\r\n\r\nThe perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case\r\nwith swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of\r\nwood, so that at every step there was a joint. At my first glimpse of\r\nthe pulpit, it had not escaped me that however convenient for a ship,\r\nthese joints in the present instance seemed unnecessary. For I was not\r\nprepared to see Father Mapple after gaining the height, slowly turn\r\nround, and stooping over the pulpit, deliberately drag up the ladder\r\nstep by step, till the whole was deposited within, leaving him\r\nimpregnable in his little Quebec.\r\n\r\nI pondered some time without fully comprehending the reason for this.\r\nFather Mapple enjoyed such a wide reputation for sincerity and\r\nsanctity, that I could not suspect him of courting notoriety by any\r\nmere tricks of the stage. No, thought I, there must be some sober\r\nreason for this thing; furthermore, it must symbolize something unseen.\r\nCan it be, then, that by that act of physical isolation, he signifies\r\nhis spiritual withdrawal for the time, from all outward worldly ties\r\nand connexions? Yes, for replenished with the meat and wine of the\r\nword, to the faithful man of God, this pulpit, I see, is a\r\nself-containing stronghold—a lofty Ehrenbreitstein, with a perennial\r\nwell of water within the walls.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR8497QBMJ9F5SPM5P5MD1","peer_label":"Chapter 8. The Pulpit","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR8497QBMJ9F5SPM5P5MD1","peer_label":"Chapter 8. The Pulpit","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":"01KFNR86VV5ETYP4ACA4ZFZZ55","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.663Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:14.997Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}