This triune structure, as much as anything else, imparts power
to the tail. To the student of old Roman walls, the middle layer
will furnish a curious parallel to the thin course of tiles always
alternating with the stone in those wonderful relics of the antique,
and which undoubtedly contribute so much to the great strength
of the masonry.
But as if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough,
the whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp and woof
of muscular fibres and filaments, which passing on either side
the loins and running down into the flukes, insensibly blend with them,
and largely contribute to their might; so that in the tail the confluent
measureless force of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point.
Could annihilation occur to matter, this were the thing to do it.
Nor does this--its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple
the graceful flexion of its motions; where infantileness of ease
undulates through a Titanism of power. On the contrary,
those motions derive their most appalling beauty from it.
Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it;
and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with
the magic.
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