{"id":"01KFNR8BC3ZRHKZKPBMZHJQERV","cid":"bafkreia4v7rn5c56k46yug7egguvvhcadys746lsg2uhzfvfcqc4h3my3y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17936,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.401Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":17876,"text":"been very long prior to the Pequod’s sailing from Nantucket, that he\r\nhad been found one night lying prone upon the ground, and insensible;\r\nby some unknown, and seemingly inexplicable, unimaginable casualty, his\r\nivory limb having been so violently displaced, that it had stake-wise\r\nsmitten, and all but pierced his groin; nor was it without extreme\r\ndifficulty that the agonizing wound was entirely cured.\r\n\r\nNor, at the time, had it failed to enter his monomaniac mind, that all\r\nthe anguish of that then present suffering was but the direct issue of\r\na former woe; and he too plainly seemed to see, that as the most\r\npoisonous reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind as inevitably as\r\nthe sweetest songster of the grove; so, equally with every felicity,\r\nall miserable events do naturally beget their like. Yea, more than\r\nequally, thought Ahab; since both the ancestry and posterity of Grief\r\ngo further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy. For, not to hint of\r\nthis: that it is an inference from certain canonic teachings, that\r\nwhile some natural enjoyments here shall have no children born to them\r\nfor the other world, but, on the contrary, shall be followed by the\r\njoy-childlessness of all hell’s despair; whereas, some guilty mortal\r\nmiseries shall still fertilely beget to themselves an eternally\r\nprogressive progeny of griefs beyond the grave; not at all to hint of\r\nthis, there still seems an inequality in the deeper analysis of the\r\nthing. For, thought Ahab, while even the highest earthly felicities\r\never have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them, but, at\r\nbottom, all heartwoes, a mystic significance, and, in some men, an\r\narchangelic grandeur; so do their diligent tracings-out not belie the\r\nobvious deduction. To trail the genealogies of these high mortal\r\nmiseries, carries us at last among the sourceless primogenitures of the\r\ngods; so that, in the face of all the glad, hay-making suns, and soft\r\ncymballing, round harvest-moons, we must needs give in to this: that\r\nthe gods themselves are not for ever glad. The ineffaceable, sad\r\nbirth-mark in the brow of man, is but the stamp of sorrow in the\r\nsigners.\r\n\r\nUnwittingly here a secret has been divulged, which perhaps might more\r\nproperly, in set way, have been disclosed before. With many other\r\nparticulars concerning Ahab, always had it remained a mystery to some,\r\nwhy it was, that for a certain period, both before and after the\r\nsailing of the Pequod, he had hidden himself away with such\r\nGrand-Lama-like exclusiveness; and, for that one interval, sought\r\nspeechless refuge, as it were, among the marble senate of the dead.\r\nCaptain Peleg’s bruited reason for this thing appeared by no means\r\nadequate; though, indeed, as touching all Ahab’s deeper part, every\r\nrevelation partook more of significant darkness than of explanatory\r\nlight. But, in the end, it all came out; this one matter did, at least.\r\nThat direful mishap was at the bottom of his temporary recluseness. And\r\nnot only this, but to that ever-contracting, dropping circle ashore,\r\nwho, for any reason, possessed the privilege of a less banned approach\r\nto him; to that timid circle the above hinted casualty—remaining, as it\r\ndid, moodily unaccounted for by Ahab—invested itself with terrors, not\r\nentirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails. So that,\r\nthrough their zeal for him, they had all conspired, so far as in them\r\nlay, to muffle up the knowledge of this thing from others; and hence it\r\nwas, that not till a considerable interval had elapsed, did it\r\ntranspire upon the Pequod’s decks.\r\n\r\nBut be all this as it may; let the unseen, ambiguous synod in the air,\r\nor the vindictive princes and potentates of fire, have to do or not\r\nwith earthly Ahab, yet, in this present matter of his leg, he took\r\nplain practical procedures;—he called the carpenter.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR849CZ5JV4WG9T06CDQN9","peer_label":"A Bower in the Arsacides","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR849CZ5JV4WG9T06CDQN9","peer_label":"A Bower in the Arsacides","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":"01KFNR8B5593ENTNYHGEG8KAEM","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8B4GWKKNKA6M0HEFYM8M","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:07.069Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.846Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}