Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood?

 

[Old Thunder]

But what is worship? thought I.

 

[Old Thunder]

Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth -- pagans and all included -- can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood?

 

[Old Thunder]

Impossible!

 

[Old Thunder]

But what is worship? -- to do the will of God -- that is worship.

 

[Old Thunder]

And what is the will of God? -- to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me -- that is the will of God.

 

[Old Thunder]

Now, Queequeg is my fellow man.

 

[Old Thunder]

And what do I wish that Queequeg would do to me?

 

[Old Thunder]

Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship.

 

[Old Thunder]

Consequently, I must then unite him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator.