Does not this whole head seem
to speak of an enormous practical resolution in facing death?
This Right Whale I take to have been a Stoic; the Sperm Whale,
a Platonian, who might have taken up Spinoza in his latter years.
CHAPTER 76
The Battering-Ram
Ere quitting, for the nonce, the Sperm Whale's head, I would have you,
as a sensible physiologist, simply--particularly remark its front aspect,
in all its compacted collectedness. I would have you investigate it
now with the sole view of forming to yourself some unexaggerated,
intelligent estimate of whatever battering-ram power may be lodged there.
Here is a vital point; for you must either satisfactorily settle
this matter with yourself, or for ever remain an infidel as to one
of the most appalling, but not the less true events, perhaps anywhere
to be found in all recorded history.
You observe that in the ordinary swimming position of the Sperm Whale,
the front of his head presents an almost wholly vertical plane
to the water; you observe that the lower part of that front
slopes considerably backwards, so as to furnish more of a retreat
for the long socket which receives the boom-like lower jaw;
you observe that the mouth is entirely under the head,
much in the same way, indeed, as though your own mouth were
entirely under your chin.
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