And I know one, who coming into still closer contact with the spout,
whether with some scientific object in view, or otherwise, I cannot say,
the skin peeled off from his cheek and arm. Wherefore, among whalemen,
the spout is deemed poisonous; they try to evade it.
Another thing; I have heard it said, and I do not much doubt it,
that if the jet is fairly spouted into your eyes, it will blind you.
The wisest thing the investigator can do then, it seems to me,
is to let this deadly spout alone.
Still, we can hypothesize, even if we cannot prove and establish.
My hypothesis is this: that the spout is nothing but mist.
And besides other reasons, to this conclusion I am impelled,
by considerations touching the great inherent dignity and sublimity
of the Sperm Whale; I account him no common, shallow being,
inasmuch as it is an undisputed fact that he is never found
on soundings, or near shores; all other whales sometimes are.
He is both ponderous and profound. And I am convinced that from
the heads of all ponderous profound beings, such as Plato, Pyrrho,
the Devil, Jupiter, Dante, and so on, there always goes up a certain
semi-visible steam, while in the act of thinking deep thoughts.
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