Herman Melville, Mariner and Mystic

DEVIL’S ADVOCATE “If ever, my dear Hawthorne,” wrote Melville in the summer of 1851, “we shall sit down in Paradise in some little shady corner by ourselves; and if we shall by an...

to come by. I think it is his first romance, and I believe it has never been reprinted here. It is the romance of his own boyhood. I mean _Redburn_. Any number of good pens will pr...

GHOSTS “We are full of ghosts and spirits; we are as grave-yards full of buried dead, that start to life before us. And all our dead sires, verily, are in us; _that_ is thei...

PARENTS AND EARLY YEARS “In general terms we have been thus decided in asserting the great genealogical and real-estate dignity of some families in America, because in so do...

A SUBSTITUTE FOR PISTOL AND BALL “When I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right before the mast, plumb down into the forecastle, aloft there to the royal mast-head. True,...

DISCOVERIES ON TWO CONTINENTS “If you read of St. Peter’s, they say, and then go and visit it, ten to one, you account it a dwarf compared to your high-raised ideal. And, do...

PEDAGOGY, PUGILISM AND LETTERS “It is often to be observed, that as in digging for precious metals in the mines, much earthly rubbish has first to be troublesomely handled a...

BLUBBER AND MYSTICISM “And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me; if I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but ...

LEVIATHAN “At the battle of Breviex in Flanders, my glorious old gossiping ancestor Froissart informs me, ten good knights, being suddenly unhorsed, fell stiff and powerless...

THE PACIFIC “There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gentle awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those fabled undulations...

MAN-EATING EPICURES--THE MARQUESAS “‘Why, they are cannibals!’ said Toby on one occasion when I eulogised the tribe. ‘Granted,’ I replied, ‘but a more humane, gentlemanly an...

MUTINY AND MISSIONARIES--TAHITI “Ah, truant humour. But to me That vine-wreathed urn of Ver, in sea Of halcyons, where no tides do flow Or ebb, but waves bide peacefully ...

ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR “Oh, give me the rover’s life--the joy, the thrill, the whirl! Let me feel thee again, old sea! let me leap into the saddle once more. I am sick of the...

INTO THE RACING TIDE “As the vine flourishes, and the grape empurples close up to the very walls and muzzles of cannoned Ehrenbreitstein; so do the sweetest joys of life gro...

ACROSS THE ATLANTIC AGAIN “You said you were married, I think? Well, I suppose it is wise, after all. It settles, centralises, and confirms a man, I have heard. Yes, it make...

A NEIGHBOUR OF HAWTHORNE’S “And here again, not unreasonably, might invocation go up to those three Weird Ones, that tend Life’s loom. Again we might ask them, what threads ...

THE GREAT REFUSAL “My towers at last! These rovings end, Their thirst is slacked in larger dearth: The yearning infinite recoils, For terrible is earth.” --HERM...

after which he was taken Prisoner by the British, conveyed to England, where for thirty years he obtained a livelihood for himself and family, by crying ‘_Old Chairs to Mend_’ thro...

THE LONG QUIETUS “The round face of the grub-man peered upon me now. ‘His dinner is ready. Won’t he dine to-day, either? Or does he live without dining?’ “‘Lives without di...