See! that thing rests on two line-tubs, full of tow-lines.
A most malicious wag, that fellow. Rat-tat! So man's
seconds tick! Oh! how immaterial are all materials!
What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts?
Here now's the very dreaded symbol of grim death, by a mere hap,
made the expressive sign of the help and hope of most
endangered life. A life-buoy of a coffin! Does it go further?
Can it be that in some spiritual sense the coffin is, after all,
but an immortality-preserver! I'll think of that. But no.
So far gone am I in the dark side of earth, that its other side,
the theoretic bright one, seems but uncertain twilight to me.
Will ye never have done, Carpenter, with that accursed sound?
I go below; let me not see that thing here when I return again.
Now, then, Pip, we'll talk this over; I do suck most wondrous
philosophies from thee! Some unknown conduits from the unknown
worlds must empty into thee!"
CHAPTER 128
The Pequod Meets The Rachel
Next day, a large ship, the Rachel, was descried, bearing directly
down upon the Pequod, all her spars thickly clustering with men.
At the time the Pequod was making good speed through the water;
but as the broad-winged windward stranger shot nigh to her,
the boastful sails all fell together as blank bladders that are burst,
and all life fled from the smitten hull.
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