Mardi, and a voyage thither, Vol. 1 (of 2)Melville, Herman
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Mardi, and a voyage thither, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Melville, Herman
Adventure stories; Polynesia -- Description and travel -- Fiction
How his cold-blooded, gentlemanly air, contrasted with the rude, savage
swagger of the Tiger Shark; a round, portly gourmand; with distended
mouth and collapsed conscience, swimming about seeking whom he might
devour. These gluttons are the scavengers of navies, following ships in
the South Seas, picking up odds and ends of garbage, and sometimes a
tit-bit, a stray sailor. No wonder, then, that sailors denounce them.
In substance, Jarl once assured me, that under any temporary
misfortune, it was one of his sweetest consolations to remember, that
in his day, he had murdered, not killed, shoals of Tiger Sharks.
Yet this is all wrong. As well hate a seraph, as a shark. Both were
made by the same hand. And that sharks are lovable, witness their
domestic endearments. No Fury so ferocious, as not to have some amiable
side. In the wild wilderness, a leopard-mother caresses her cub, as
Hagar did Ishmael; or a queen of France the dauphin. We know not what
we do when we hate. And I have the word of my gentlemanly friend
Stanhope, for it; that he who declared he loved a good hater was but a
respectable sort of Hottentot, at best. No very genteel epithet this,
though coming from the genteelest of men. But when the digger of
dictionaries said that saying of his, he was assuredly not much of a
Christian. However, it is hard for one given up to constitutional hypos
like him; to be filled with the milk and meekness of the gospels. Yet,
with deference, I deny that my old uncle Johnson really believed in the
sentiment ascribed to him. Love a hater, indeed! Who smacks his lips
over gall? Now hate is a thankless thing. So, let us only hate hatred;
and once give love play, we will fall in love with a unicorn. Ah! the
easiest way is the best; and to hate, a man must work hard. Love is a
delight; but hate a torment. And haters are thumbscrews, Scotch boots,
and Spanish inquisitions to themselves. In five words—would they were a
Siamese diphthong—he who hates is a fool.
For several days our Chamois was followed by two of these aforesaid
Tiger Sharks. A brace of confidential inseparables, jogging along in
our wake, side by side, like a couple of highwaymen, biding their time
till you come to the cross-roads. But giving it up at last, for a
bootless errand, they dropped farther and farther astern, until
completely out of sight. Much to the Skyeman’s chagrin; who long stood
in the stern, lance poised for a dart.
But of all sharks, save me from the ghastly White Shark. For though we
should hate naught, yet some dislikes are spontaneous; and disliking is
not hating. And never yet could I bring myself to be loving, or even
sociable, with a White Shark. He is not the sort of creature to enlist
young affections.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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