If this be so, fancy the irresistibleness of that might, to which
the most impalpable and destructive of all elements contributes.
Now, mark. Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall,
and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a mass
of tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is--
by the cord; and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest insect.
So that when I shall hereafter detail to you all the specialities and
concentrations of potency everywhere lurking in this expansive monster;
when I shall show you some of his more inconsiderable braining feats;
I trust you will have renounced all ignorant incredulity, and be ready
to abide by this; that though the Sperm Whale stove a passage through
the Isthmus of Darien, and mixed the Atlantic with the Pacific, you would
not elevate one hair of your eye-brow. For unless you own the whale,
you are but a provincial and sentimentalist in Truth. But clear
Truth is a thing for salamander giants only to encounter; how small
the chances for the provincials then? What befell the weakling youth
lifting the dread goddess's veil at Lais?
CHAPTER 77
The Great Heidelburgh Tun
Now comes the Baling of the Case.
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