Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

I pondered some time without fully comprehending the reason for this.

 

[Old Thunder]

Father Mapple enjoyed such a wide reputation for sincerity and sanctity, that I could not suspect him of courting notoriety by any mere tricks of the stage.

 

[Old Thunder]

No, thought I, there must be some sober reason for this thing; furthermore, it must symbolize something unseen.

 

[Old Thunder]

Can it be, then, that by that act of physical isolation, he signifies his spiritual withdrawal for the time, from all outward worldly ties and connections?

 

[Old Thunder]

Yes, for replenished with the meat and wine of the world, to the faithful man of God, this pulpit, I see, is a self-containing stronghold -- a lofty Ehrenbreitstein,* with a perennial well of water within the walls.

*Castle sited high above the Rhine River.

 

[Old Thunder]

But the side ladder was not the only strange feature of the place, borrowed from the chaplain's former seafarings.

 

[Old Thunder]

Between the marble cenotaphs on either hand of the pulpit, the wall which formed its back was adorned with a large painting representing a gallant ship beating against a terrible storm off a lee coast of black rocks and snowy breakers.

 

[Old Thunder]

But high above the flying scud and dark-rolling clouds, there floated a little isle of sunlight, from which beamed forth an angel's face; and this bright face shed a distinct spot of radiance upon the ship's tossed deck, something like that silver plate now inserted into the Victory's plank where Nelson* fell.

*Horatio Nelson, great British admiral killed on his ship Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

 

[Old Thunder]

"Ah, noble ship," the angel seemed to say, "beat on, beat on, thou noble ship, and bear a hardy helm; for lo! the sun is breaking through; the clouds are rolling off serenest azure is at hand."

 

[Old Thunder]

Nor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same sea-taste that had achieved the ladder and the picture.