登陆注册
15291000000015

第15章

The Chapel In the same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman's Chapel, and few are the moody fishermen, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot. I am sure that Idid not.

Returning from my first morning stroll, I again sallied out upon this special errand. The sky had changed from clear, sunny cold, to driving sleet and mist. Wrapping myself in my shaggy jacket of the cloth called bearskin, I fought my way against the stubborn storm.

Entering, I found a small scattered congregation of sailors, and sailors' wives and widows. A muffled silence reigned, only broken at times by the shrieks of the storm. Each silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart from the other, as if each silent grief were insular and incommunicable. The chaplain had not yet arrived; and there these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets, with black borders, masoned into the wall on either side the pulpit. Three of them ran something like the following, but I do not pretend to quote:

SACRED TO THE MEMORYOF

JOHN TALBOT, Who, at the age of eighteen, was lost overboard Near the Isle of Desolation, off Patagonia, November 1st, 1836.

THIS TABLET Is erected to his Memory BY HIS SISTER.

SACRED TO THE MEMORYOF

ROBERT LONG, WILLIS ELLERY, NATHAN COLEMAN, WALTER CANNY, SETH MACY, AND SAMUEL GLEIG, Forming one of the boats' crews OFTHE SHIP ELIZA

Who were towed out of sight by a Whale, On the Off-shore Ground in the PACIFIC, December 31st, 1839.

THIS MARBLE

Is here placed by their surviving SHIPMATES.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

The late CAPTAIN EZEKIEL HARDY, Who in the bows of his boat was killed by a Sperm Whale on the coast of Japan, August 3d, 1833.

THIS TABLET

Is erected to his Memory BY

HIS WIDOW.

Shaking off the sleet from my ice-glazed hat and jacket, I seated myself near the door, and turning sideways was surprised to see Queequeg near me. Affected by the solemnity of the scene, there was a wondering gaze of incredulous curiosity in his countenance. This savage was the only person present who seemed to notice my entrance;because he was the only one who could not read, and, therefore, was not reading those frigid inscriptions on the wall. Whether any of the relatives of the seamen whose names appeared there were now among the congregation, I knew not; but so many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery, and so plainly did several women present wear the countenance if not the trappings of some unceasing grief, that I feel sure that here before me were assembled those, in whose unhealing hearts the sight of those bleak tablets sympathetically caused the old wounds to bleed afresh.

Oh! ye whose dead lie buried beneath the green grass; who standing among flowers can say- here, here lies my beloved; ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these. What bitter blanks in those black-bordered marbles which cover no ashes! What despair in those immovable inscriptions! What deadly voids and unbidden infidelities in the lines that seem to gnaw upon all Faith, and refuse resurrections to the beings who have placelessly perished without a grave. As well might those tablets stand in the cave of Elephanta as here.

In what census of living creatures, the dead of mankind are included; why it is that a universal proverb says of them, that they tell no tales, though containing more secrets than the Goodwin Sands! how it is that to his name who yesterday departed for the other world, we prefix so significant and infidel a word, and yet do not thus entitle him, if he but embarks for the remotest Indies of this living earth; why the Life Insurance Companies pay death-forfeitures upon immortals; in what eternal, unstirring paralysis, and deadly, hopeless trance, yet lies antique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago; how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss; why all the living so strive to hush all the dead; wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city. All these things are not without their meanings.

But Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

It needs scarcely to be told, with what feelings, on the eve of a Nantucket voyage, I regarded those marble tablets, and by the murky light of that darkened, doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who had gone before me. Yes, Ishmael, the same fate may be thine.

But somehow I grew merry again. Delightful inducements to embark, fine chance for promotion, it seems- aye, a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet. Yes, there is death in this business of whaling- a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.

同类推荐
  • 前七国志

    前七国志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 东巡记

    东巡记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 遺山先生新樂府

    遺山先生新樂府

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 梦幻居画学简明

    梦幻居画学简明

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 徐氏笔精

    徐氏笔精

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 我和模特的同居生涯

    我和模特的同居生涯

    在我的心里,刻着一个人的名字和关于那个人的一切,她的笑声,她的背影,她的话以及她曾经说过的山盟海誓,就算是漫长的岁月,也无法把她的记忆从我的心里抹去,似曾做过一件蠢事,到老仍清晰地记得,鹿雪,你在那?真的,我想你,你回来吧我求求你,求你了,本小说讲述了男主人公与一位美丽善良的模特同居时的点点滴滴感人肺腑的故事,当一份真爱摆在面前你不懂得珍惜,失去了,可能就真的失去了,没有挽回的余地,〔同时借用三十老师的,与空姐同居的日子里的主人公当配角〕感人的事情接踵而来。
  • 玄宇劫

    玄宇劫

    新书《末世有天堂》已上传,欢迎喜欢爽文的朋友位临指导。
  • 寻仙冕

    寻仙冕

    新婚燕尔,正如胶似膝。但美丽绝伦,好似天仙一般的妻子,竟然觉醒记忆,真的是仙界的仙女,身负血海深仇,妻子强忍离别之痛,返回仙界。一介凡人之躯,根本没有修仙资质的萧寒,要怎样才能够飞升仙界,找寻妻子?修仙路上,危险重重,满是荆棘,诸多坎坷,百般磨难,萧寒又是否能够一一克服?此生不能相见欢,纵使轮回也不甘!这是妻子离开之后,萧寒对自己立下的誓言!
  • 四叶草是橙色的

    四叶草是橙色的

    他们三个意外收到超能学院的入学通知书,在“”神族后人“”羽莹公主的帮助下渐渐获取了“”神族人“”的认可。
  • 蜜汁青春:丫头,钻戒带上

    蜜汁青春:丫头,钻戒带上

    多幸运在最美的年纪,遇见你没有遗憾和可惜多幸运爱你这件事情,成为我今生最对的决定多年以后,他说对她说:我的青春有你的参与,你的人生由我来剧终。这辈子,让我放弃你,除非我死。丫头,乖,回家造人儿去!~宠文呀
  • 武道皇帝

    武道皇帝

    小说介绍:异界杀神赵宇重生罗天大陆水浒宗外门弟子……黑脸宋江,行者武松,独火星孔亮,母大虫顾倩,病尉迟孙立等等人物还在蛰伏!大宋王朝野心勃勃,一心吞并天下宗门,成就王道帝国,西北霸主的水浒宗,难逃一劫!!(PS:该出手时就出手,风风火火闯九州,部分水浒人物和情节,勿认真对待,看的爽就666666走起,每天保底两章更新,万水千山总是情,求点收藏、推荐行不行!!)
  • 寒仙道

    寒仙道

    他不过就是个普普通通的山野少年,偏偏得玄宝,有仙缘。他以为自己很幸运,很幸福。但命运为何总是把他捉弄?少年初恋无果,唯默默伤心不能视人,所信之人欺他,所爱之人弃他,终于为人所爱,但当他知道,当他看清自己内心的时候,爱他之人又为他而死,人世沧桑,人生百味,他又能如何?又能何去何从?何处栖心?唯有沉沦吧,疯狂吧,为这寒尘所误,在这悲凉人世。已经忘了最初的梦想,也已经没有了梦想,难道一切就只是为了那么一个寻仙之道,长生之果么?……红尘滚滚,轮回不止,这一世有少许的欢喜,多年的苦悲,当寒仙道现,是开始,还是结局?而天地不仁,又该如何面对?
  • 飞过繁华的温暖

    飞过繁华的温暖

    小说是一名即将踏入大学的学生对自己高中三年的回忆。高中三年她经历了很多,收获了很多。一名纯情乖巧的普通女生将带你重返校园生活,感受青春的滋味。那些美好的感情风吹不化,雨打不散,温暖内心疲惫的你
  • 圆觉经佚文

    圆觉经佚文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 陌路仙缘

    陌路仙缘

    一个小小的五尾灵狐和落魄少年苏长安签下一段三生三世的灵魂血契,从此少年迈入了修仙大道。