Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

Euroclydon,* nevertheless, is a mighty pleasant zephyr to any one in-doors, with his feet on the hob quietly toasting for bed.

*Wind that shipwrecked Saint Paul; see the Bible, Acts 27.

 

[Old Thunder]

"In judging of that tempestuous wind called Euroclydon," says an old writer -- of whose works I possess only the copy extent -- "it maketh a marvellous difference, whether thou lookest out at it from a glass window where the frost is all on the outside, or whether thou observest it from that ashless window, where the frost is on both sides, and of which the wight Death is the only glazier."

 

[Old Thunder]

True enough, thought I, as this passage occurred to my mind -- old black-letter, thou reasonest well.

 

[Old Thunder]

Yes, these eyes are windows, and this body of mine is the house.

 

[Old Thunder]

What a pity they didn't stop up the chinks and the crannies though, and thrust in a little lint here and there.

 

[Old Thunder]

But it's too late to make any improvements now.

 

[Old Thunder]

The universe is finished; the copestone is on, and the chips were carted off a million years ago.

 

[Old Thunder]

Poor Lazarus* there, chattering his teeth against the curbstone for his pillow, and shaking off his tatters with his shiverings, he might plug up both ears with rags, and put a corn-cob into his mouth, and yet that would not keep out the tempestuous Euroclydon.

*Raised from the dead by Christ; see the Bible, John 11-12 and Luke 16:19-31.

 

[Old Thunder]

Euroclydon! says old Dives, in his red silken wrapper -- (he had a redder one afterwards) pooh, pooh!

 

[Old Thunder]

What a fine frosty night; how Orion glitters; what northern lights!