{"id":"01KJNXJV78Q8FJZ1KC8GXJWNN8","cid":"bafkreiflqwxdss4syeypco5xatkff6edyh5uiyfnfeqjzqknfvjazgvvqy","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":838438,"char_start":830463,"chunk_index":117,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1994,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"\r\nNor does this—its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple the graceful\r\nflexion of its motions; where infantileness of ease undulates through a\r\nTitanism of power. On the contrary, those motions derive their most\r\nappalling beauty from it. Real strength never impairs beauty or\r\nharmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly\r\nbeautiful, strength has much to do with the magic. Take away the tied\r\ntendons that all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved\r\nHercules, and its charm would be gone. As devout Eckerman lifted the\r\nlinen sheet from the naked corpse of Goethe, he was overwhelmed with\r\nthe massive chest of the man, that seemed as a Roman triumphal arch.\r\nWhen Angelo paints even God the Father in human form, mark what\r\nrobustness is there. And whatever they may reveal of the divine love in\r\nthe Son, the soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian pictures, in which\r\nhis idea has been most successfully embodied; these pictures, so\r\ndestitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of any power, but\r\nthe mere negative, feminine one of submission and endurance, which on\r\nall hands it is conceded, form the peculiar practical virtues of his\r\nteachings.\r\n\r\nSuch is the subtle elasticity of the organ I treat of, that whether\r\nwielded in sport, or in earnest, or in anger, whatever be the mood it\r\nbe in, its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace. Therein\r\nno fairy’s arm can transcend it.\r\n\r\nFive great motions are peculiar to it. First, when used as a fin for\r\nprogression; Second, when used as a mace in battle; Third, in sweeping;\r\nFourth, in lobtailing; Fifth, in peaking flukes.\r\n\r\nFirst: Being horizontal in its position, the Leviathan’s tail acts in a\r\ndifferent manner from the tails of all other sea creatures. It never\r\nwriggles. In man or fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority. To the\r\nwhale, his tail is the sole means of propulsion. Scroll-wise coiled\r\nforwards beneath the body, and then rapidly sprung backwards, it is\r\nthis which gives that singular darting, leaping motion to the monster\r\nwhen furiously swimming. His side-fins only serve to steer by.\r\n\r\nSecond: It is a little significant, that while one sperm whale only\r\nfights another sperm whale with his head and jaw, nevertheless, in his\r\nconflicts with man, he chiefly and contemptuously uses his tail. In\r\nstriking at a boat, he swiftly curves away his flukes from it, and the\r\nblow is only inflicted by the recoil. If it be made in the unobstructed\r\nair, especially if it descend to its mark, the stroke is then simply\r\nirresistible. No ribs of man or boat can withstand it. Your only\r\nsalvation lies in eluding it; but if it comes sideways through the\r\nopposing water, then partly owing to the light buoyancy of the\r\nwhale-boat, and the elasticity of its materials, a cracked rib or a\r\ndashed plank or two, a sort of stitch in the side, is generally the\r\nmost serious result. These submerged side blows are so often received\r\nin the fishery, that they are accounted mere child’s play. Some one\r\nstrips off a frock, and the hole is stopped.\r\n\r\nThird: I cannot demonstrate it, but it seems to me, that in the whale\r\nthe sense of touch is concentrated in the tail; for in this respect\r\nthere is a delicacy in it only equalled by the daintiness of the\r\nelephant’s trunk. This delicacy is chiefly evinced in the action of\r\nsweeping, when in maidenly gentleness the whale with a certain soft\r\nslowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface of\r\nthe sea; and if he feel but a sailor’s whisker, woe to that sailor,\r\nwhiskers and all. What tenderness there is in that preliminary touch!\r\nHad this tail any prehensile power, I should straightway bethink me of\r\nDarmonodes’ elephant that so frequented the flower-market, and with low\r\nsalutations presented nosegays to damsels, and then caressed their\r\nzones. On more accounts than one, a pity it is that the whale does not\r\npossess this prehensile virtue in his tail; for I have heard of yet\r\nanother elephant, that when wounded in the fight, curved round his\r\ntrunk and extracted the dart.\r\n\r\nFourth: Stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the\r\nmiddle of solitary seas, you find him unbent from the vast corpulence\r\nof his dignity, and kitten-like, he plays on the ocean as if it were a\r\nhearth. But still you see his power in his play. The broad palms of his\r\ntail are flirted high into the air; then smiting the surface, the\r\nthunderous concussion resounds for miles. You would almost think a\r\ngreat gun had been discharged; and if you noticed the light wreath of\r\nvapor from the spiracle at his other extremity, you would think that\r\nthat was the smoke from the touch-hole.\r\n\r\nFifth: As in the ordinary floating posture of the leviathan the flukes\r\nlie considerably below the level of his back, they are then completely\r\nout of sight beneath the surface; but when he is about to plunge into\r\nthe deeps, his entire flukes with at least thirty feet of his body are\r\ntossed erect in the air, and so remain vibrating a moment, till they\r\ndownwards shoot out of view. Excepting the sublime _breach_—somewhere\r\nelse to be described—this peaking of the whale’s flukes is perhaps the\r\ngrandest sight to be seen in all animated nature. Out of the bottomless\r\nprofundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the\r\nhighest heaven. So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting\r\nforth his tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in\r\ngazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in the\r\nDantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the\r\narchangels. Standing at the mast-head of my ship during a sunrise that\r\ncrimsoned sky and sea, I once saw a large herd of whales in the east,\r\nall heading towards the sun, and for a moment vibrating in concert with\r\npeaked flukes. As it seemed to me at the time, such a grand embodiment\r\nof adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of\r\nthe fire worshippers. As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African\r\nelephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most\r\ndevout of all beings. For according to King Juba, the military\r\nelephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks\r\nuplifted in the profoundest silence.\r\n\r\nThe chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the\r\nelephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk\r\nof the other are concerned, should not tend to place those two opposite\r\norgans on an equality, much less the creatures to which they\r\nrespectively belong. For as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to\r\nLeviathan, so, compared with Leviathan’s tail, his trunk is but the\r\nstalk of a lily. The most direful blow from the elephant’s trunk were\r\nas the playful tap of a fan, compared with the measureless crush and\r\ncrash of the sperm whale’s ponderous flukes, which in repeated\r\ninstances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all their\r\noars and crews into the air, very much as an Indian juggler tosses his\r\nballs.*\r\n\r\n*Though all comparison in the way of general bulk between the whale and\r\nthe elephant is preposterous, inasmuch as in that particular the\r\nelephant stands in much the same respect to the whale that a dog does\r\nto the elephant; nevertheless, there are not wanting some points of\r\ncurious similitude; among these is the spout. It is well known that the\r\nelephant will often draw up water or dust in his trunk, and then\r\nelevating it, jet it forth in a stream.\r\n\r\nThe more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my\r\ninability to express it. At times there are gestures in it, which,\r\nthough they would well grace the hand of man, remain wholly\r\ninexplicable. In an extensive herd, so remarkable, occasionally, are\r\nthese mystic gestures, that I have heard hunters who have declared them\r\nakin to Free-Mason signs and symbols; that the whale, indeed, by these\r\nmethods intelligently conversed with the world."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.080Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.080Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}