{"id":"01KFNR89NJKT0A5F0B5QXBBYWT","cid":"bafkreiftzd4wff3ofeluvku3bxomvsds5rsby7apyx7qssjierlazbt4fe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13616,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.746Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":13568,"text":"and sanctum sanctorum of the whale. Only one sweeter end can readily be\r\nrecalled—the delicious death of an Ohio honey-hunter, who seeking honey\r\nin the crotch of a hollow tree, found such exceeding store of it, that\r\nleaning too far over, it sucked him in, so that he died embalmed. How\r\nmany, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato’s honey head, and\r\nsweetly perished there?\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 79. The Prairie.\r\n\r\nTo scan the lines of his face, or feel the bumps on the head of this\r\nLeviathan; this is a thing which no Physiognomist or Phrenologist has\r\nas yet undertaken. Such an enterprise would seem almost as hopeful as\r\nfor Lavater to have scrutinized the wrinkles on the Rock of Gibraltar,\r\nor for Gall to have mounted a ladder and manipulated the Dome of the\r\nPantheon. Still, in that famous work of his, Lavater not only treats of\r\nthe various faces of men, but also attentively studies the faces of\r\nhorses, birds, serpents, and fish; and dwells in detail upon the\r\nmodifications of expression discernible therein. Nor have Gall and his\r\ndisciple Spurzheim failed to throw out some hints touching the\r\nphrenological characteristics of other beings than man. Therefore,\r\nthough I am but ill qualified for a pioneer, in the application of\r\nthese two semi-sciences to the whale, I will do my endeavor. I try all\r\nthings; I achieve what I can.\r\n\r\nPhysiognomically regarded, the Sperm Whale is an anomalous creature. He\r\nhas no proper nose. And since the nose is the central and most\r\nconspicuous of the features; and since it perhaps most modifies and\r\nfinally controls their combined expression; hence it would seem that\r\nits entire absence, as an external appendage, must very largely affect\r\nthe countenance of the whale. For as in landscape gardening, a spire,\r\ncupola, monument, or tower of some sort, is deemed almost indispensable\r\nto the completion of the scene; so no face can be physiognomically in\r\nkeeping without the elevated open-work belfry of the nose. Dash the\r\nnose from Phidias’s marble Jove, and what a sorry remainder!\r\nNevertheless, Leviathan is of so mighty a magnitude, all his\r\nproportions are so stately, that the same deficiency which in the\r\nsculptured Jove were hideous, in him is no blemish at all. Nay, it is\r\nan added grandeur. A nose to the whale would have been impertinent. As\r\non your physiognomical voyage you sail round his vast head in your\r\njolly-boat, your noble conceptions of him are never insulted by the\r\nreflection that he has a nose to be pulled. A pestilent conceit, which\r\nso often will insist upon obtruding even when beholding the mightiest\r\nroyal beadle on his throne.\r\n\r\nIn some particulars, perhaps the most imposing physiognomical view to\r\nbe had of the Sperm Whale, is that of the full front of his head. This\r\naspect is sublime.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","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":"01KFNR89N0F48SNPJAGKX5C4MP","peer_label":"Chunk 7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89NH0YHGFMPNRTHFZFB6","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.146Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.864Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}