{"id":"01KJNXJV9022887AFG2WBJ4G3G","cid":"bafkreiavrfyoewttfcez6dnqar7ql4z4eujabhhocff2nr7mygdnpu5qr4","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":1035925,"char_start":1028118,"chunk_index":145,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1952,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"parvo_, Sheffield contrivances, assuming the exterior—though a little\r\nswelled—of a common pocket knife; but containing, not only blades of\r\nvarious sizes, but also screw-drivers, cork-screws, tweezers, awls,\r\npens, rulers, nail-filers, countersinkers. So, if his superiors wanted\r\nto use the carpenter for a screw-driver, all they had to do was to open\r\nthat part of him, and the screw was fast: or if for tweezers, take him\r\nup by the legs, and there they were.\r\n\r\nYet, as previously hinted, this omnitooled, open-and-shut carpenter,\r\nwas, after all, no mere machine of an automaton. If he did not have a\r\ncommon soul in him, he had a subtle something that somehow anomalously\r\ndid its duty. What that was, whether essence of quicksilver, or a few\r\ndrops of hartshorn, there is no telling. But there it was; and there it\r\nhad abided for now some sixty years or more. And this it was, this same\r\nunaccountable, cunning life-principle in him; this it was, that kept\r\nhim a great part of the time soliloquizing; but only like an\r\nunreasoning wheel, which also hummingly soliloquizes; or rather, his\r\nbody was a sentry-box and this soliloquizer on guard there, and talking\r\nall the time to keep himself awake.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 108. Ahab and the Carpenter.\r\n\r\nThe Deck—First Night Watch.\r\n\r\n(_Carpenter standing before his vice-bench, and by the light of two\r\nlanterns busily filing the ivory joist for the leg, which joist is\r\nfirmly fixed in the vice. Slabs of ivory, leather straps, pads, screws,\r\nand various tools of all sorts lying about the bench. Forward, the red\r\nflame of the forge is seen, where the blacksmith is at work._)\r\n\r\nDrat the file, and drat the bone! That is hard which should be soft,\r\nand that is soft which should be hard. So we go, who file old jaws and\r\nshinbones. Let’s try another. Aye, now, this works better (_sneezes_).\r\nHalloa, this bone dust is (_sneezes_)—why it’s (_sneezes_)—yes it’s\r\n(_sneezes_)—bless my soul, it won’t let me speak! This is what an old\r\nfellow gets now for working in dead lumber. Saw a live tree, and you\r\ndon’t get this dust; amputate a live bone, and you don’t get it\r\n(_sneezes_). Come, come, you old Smut, there, bear a hand, and let’s\r\nhave that ferule and buckle-screw; I’ll be ready for them presently.\r\nLucky now (_sneezes_) there’s no knee-joint to make; that might puzzle\r\na little; but a mere shinbone—why it’s easy as making hop-poles; only I\r\nshould like to put a good finish on. Time, time; if I but only had the\r\ntime, I could turn him out as neat a leg now as ever (_sneezes_)\r\nscraped to a lady in a parlor. Those buckskin legs and calves of legs\r\nI’ve seen in shop windows wouldn’t compare at all. They soak water,\r\nthey do; and of course get rheumatic, and have to be doctored\r\n(_sneezes_) with washes and lotions, just like live legs. There; before\r\nI saw it off, now, I must call his old Mogulship, and see whether the\r\nlength will be all right; too short, if anything, I guess. Ha! that’s\r\nthe heel; we are in luck; here he comes, or it’s somebody else, that’s\r\ncertain.\r\n\r\nAHAB (_advancing_). (_During the ensuing scene, the carpenter continues\r\nsneezing at times._)\r\n\r\nWell, manmaker!\r\n\r\nJust in time, sir. If the captain pleases, I will now mark the length.\r\nLet me measure, sir.\r\n\r\nMeasured for a leg! good. Well, it’s not the first time. About it!\r\nThere; keep thy finger on it. This is a cogent vice thou hast here,\r\ncarpenter; let me feel its grip once. So, so; it does pinch some.\r\n\r\nOh, sir, it will break bones—beware, beware!\r\n\r\nNo fear; I like a good grip; I like to feel something in this slippery\r\nworld that can hold, man. What’s Prometheus about there?—the\r\nblacksmith, I mean—what’s he about?\r\n\r\nHe must be forging the buckle-screw, sir, now.\r\n\r\nRight. It’s a partnership; he supplies the muscle part. He makes a\r\nfierce red flame there!\r\n\r\nAye, sir; he must have the white heat for this kind of fine work.\r\n\r\nUm-m. So he must. I do deem it now a most meaning thing, that that old\r\nGreek, Prometheus, who made men, they say, should have been a\r\nblacksmith, and animated them with fire; for what’s made in fire must\r\nproperly belong to fire; and so hell’s probable. How the soot flies!\r\nThis must be the remainder the Greek made the Africans of. Carpenter,\r\nwhen he’s through with that buckle, tell him to forge a pair of steel\r\nshoulder-blades; there’s a pedlar aboard with a crushing pack.\r\n\r\nSir?\r\n\r\nHold; while Prometheus is about it, I’ll order a complete man after a\r\ndesirable pattern. Imprimis, fifty feet high in his socks; then, chest\r\nmodelled after the Thames Tunnel; then, legs with roots to ’em, to stay\r\nin one place; then, arms three feet through the wrist; no heart at all,\r\nbrass forehead, and about a quarter of an acre of fine brains; and let\r\nme see—shall I order eyes to see outwards? No, but put a sky-light on\r\ntop of his head to illuminate inwards. There, take the order, and away.\r\n\r\nNow, what’s he speaking about, and who’s he speaking to, I should like\r\nto know? Shall I keep standing here? (_aside_).\r\n\r\n’Tis but indifferent architecture to make a blind dome; here’s one. No,\r\nno, no; I must have a lantern.\r\n\r\nHo, ho! That’s it, hey? Here are two, sir; one will serve my turn.\r\n\r\nWhat art thou thrusting that thief-catcher into my face for, man?\r\nThrusted light is worse than presented pistols.\r\n\r\nI thought, sir, that you spoke to carpenter.\r\n\r\nCarpenter? why that’s—but no;—a very tidy, and, I may say, an extremely\r\ngentlemanlike sort of business thou art in here, carpenter;—or would’st\r\nthou rather work in clay?\r\n\r\nSir?—Clay? clay, sir? That’s mud; we leave clay to ditchers, sir.\r\n\r\nThe fellow’s impious! What art thou sneezing about?\r\n\r\nBone is rather dusty, sir.\r\n\r\nTake the hint, then; and when thou art dead, never bury thyself under\r\nliving people’s noses.\r\n\r\nSir?—oh! ah!—I guess so;—yes—oh, dear!\r\n\r\nLook ye, carpenter, I dare say thou callest thyself a right good\r\nworkmanlike workman, eh? Well, then, will it speak thoroughly well for\r\nthy work, if, when I come to mount this leg thou makest, I shall\r\nnevertheless feel another leg in the same identical place with it; that\r\nis, carpenter, my old lost leg; the flesh and blood one, I mean. Canst\r\nthou not drive that old Adam away?\r\n\r\nTruly, sir, I begin to understand somewhat now. Yes, I have heard\r\nsomething curious on that score, sir; how that a dismasted man never\r\nentirely loses the feeling of his old spar, but it will be still\r\npricking him at times. May I humbly ask if it be really so, sir?\r\n\r\nIt is, man. Look, put thy live leg here in the place where mine once\r\nwas; so, now, here is only one distinct leg to the eye, yet two to the\r\nsoul. Where thou feelest tingling life; there, exactly there, there to\r\na hair, do I. Is’t a riddle?\r\n\r\nI should humbly call it a poser, sir.\r\n\r\nHist, then. How dost thou know that some entire, living, thinking thing\r\nmay not be invisibly and uninterpenetratingly standing precisely where\r\nthou now standest; aye, and standing there in thy spite? In thy most\r\nsolitary hours, then, dost thou not fear eavesdroppers? Hold, don’t\r\nspeak! And if I still feel the smart of my crushed leg, though it be\r\nnow so long dissolved; then, why mayst not thou, carpenter, feel the\r\nfiery pains of hell for ever, and without a body? Hah!\r\n\r\nGood Lord! Truly, sir, if it comes to that, I must calculate over\r\nagain; I think I didn’t carry a small figure, sir.\r\n\r\nLook ye, pudding-heads should never grant premises.—How long before the\r\nleg is done?\r\n\r\nPerhaps an hour, sir.\r\n\r\nBungle away at it then, and bring it to me (_turns to go_). Oh, Life!\r\nHere I am, proud as Greek god, and yet standing debtor to this\r\nblockhead for a bone to stand on! Cursed be that mortal\r\ninter-indebtedness which will not do away with ledgers. I would be free\r\nas air; and I’m down in the whole world’s books."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3DZQ5YTC2NQ9Q7VBWR","peer_label":"ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMZ929S4RXS57BZ9CJAA2","peer_label":"blacksmith","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN9X3XCSY100R3STE0A85","peer_label":"ahabs ivory leg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"prosthetic_limb","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMXE4JFX8X8DC53YPZT3V","peer_label":"carpenter","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN7VHQF88KM6TV4NAAYPR","peer_label":"vice-bench","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"work_tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN917JW40DN2HKYARJ3M8","peer_label":"prometheus mythological figure","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"mythological_figure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFQ33PYK9F2JX3PMBRBA","peer_label":"pedlar","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXQ26155BJYQEXE23EJDJ7","peer_label":"forge","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"work_location","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNDR7PB7XE52EHSJTERT1","peer_label":"thames tunnel","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNG476H1MYSKEV93PDB57","peer_label":"steel shoulder-blades","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFASGJ6EDSYDZZJP8MWV","peer_label":"old adam phantom limb sensation","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFS4BDPEP8D1N8WWABFC","peer_label":"chapter 108 ahab and the carpenter","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_chapter","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFR9VAPFJ42723BXY93K","peer_label":"life-principle carpenters","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP7CAKQ2D9NGHS1PNM632","peer_label":"sheffield contrivances","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:11.382Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.136Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:12.346Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}