DANTE, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise

DARK WOOOD
Dante wrote:
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself in a dark wood, where the right way was lost.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto I, pg 1


CHANGE COURSE
Dante wrote:
“ It behooves thee to hold another course,” he replied when he saw me weeping.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto I, pg 2



FEAR ONLY POWER TO HARM
Dante wrote:
One need be afraid only of those thing that have power to do one harm,…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto II pg 3



NO SIN, BUT NO BAPTISM
Dante wrote:
… these did not sin; and though they have merits it suffices not, because they did not have baptism, which is part of the faith that thou believest;
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IV, pg 5



PEOPLE OF MUCH WORTH IN LIMBO
Dante wrote:
Great woe seized me at my heart when I heard him, because I knew that people of much worth were suspended in that limbo.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IV, pg 5


NO GREATER WOE, REMEMBERING IN MISERY THE HAPPY TIMES
Dante wrote:
There is no greater woe than the remembering in misery the happy time, and that they Teacher knows. But if thou hast so great desire to know the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto V, pg 8


STRUGGLE FOR GOLD
Dante wrote:
Ill-giving and ill-keeping have taken from them the beautiful world, and set them to the scuffle; what that is I adorn not words for it. Now son, thou canst see the brief jest of the goods that are committed to Fortune, for which the human race struggle with each other; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or that ever was, could not of these weary souls make a single one repose.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VII, pg 10


THOSE WHOM ANGER OVERCAME
Dante wrote:
They were smiting each other, not with hand only, but with the head, with the chest, and with the feet, mangling one another piecemeal with their teeth. The good Master said: “Son, now thou seest the souls of those whom anger overcame…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VII, pg 10


SECRET GATE
Dante wrote:
This their insolences is not new, for of old they used it at a less secret gate, which still is found without a bolt. Above it thou didst see the dead inscription; and already, on this side of it, is descending the steep, passing without escort through the circles, One such that by him the city shall be opened to us.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto VIII, pg 12


CANNOT ENTER WITHOUT ANGER
Dante wrote:
…when she made me enter within that wall, in order to draw thence a spirit of the circle of Judas. That is the lowest place, and the darkest, and the farthest from the Heaven which encircles all. I know the road well; therefore assure thyself. This march which breathes out the great stench girds round the woeful city wherein now we cannot enter without anger.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IX, pg 12


ANCIENT SCUM
Dante wrote:
… direct the nerve of sight across the ancient scum, there yonder where that fume is most bitter.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto IX, pg 13


THY MODE OF SPEECH MAKES MANIFEST
Dante wrote:
O Tuscan who goest they way alive through the city of fire, speaking thus modestly, may it please thee to stop in this place. Thy mode of speech makes manifest that thou are native of that noble fatherland to which perchance I was too molestful.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto X, pg 13


THE LESSONS OF THE ANCESTORS
Dante wrote:
“Who were they ancestors?... They were fiercely adverse to me and to my forefathers and to my party, so that at two times I scattered them.”
“If they were driven out, they returned from every side,” replied I to him, “both the one and the other time, but yours have not learned well that art.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto X, pg 14


FRAUD
Dante wrote:
Of every wickedness that acquires hate in heaven injury is the end, and every such end afflicts others either by force or by fraud. But because fraud is an evil peculiar to man it more displease God and therefore the fraudulent are the lower and woe assails them more.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XI, pg 15


VIOLENCE: TO GOD, TO SELF, TO NEIGHBOR
Dante wrote:
… because violence is done to three persons, it is divided and constructed in three rounds To God, to one’s self, to one’ neighbor…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XI, pg 15


UNSEEN VOICES:
Dante wrote:
I heard wailings uttered on every side, and I saw no one who made them, wherefore, all bewildered, I stopped. I believe that he believed that I believed that all these voices issued from amid those trunks…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18


CUT TWIG, THOUGHTS CUT SHORT
Dante wrote:
If thou break off any twig from one of these plants, the thoughts thou hast will all be cut short.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18


CRYING PLANTS - WHY DOES THOU BREAK ME?
Dante wrote:
Then I stretched my hand a little forward and plucked a little branch from a great thornbush and its trunk cried out: “Why does thou break me?” When I had become dark with blood it began again to cry: “Why doest thou tear me? Hast thou not any spirit of pity? Men we were and now we are become stocks; …”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIII, pg 18


PLEASING QUESTIONS
Dante wrote:
In all thy questions truly thou pleases me.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XIV, pg 21



CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN
Dante wrote:
Stop thou, who by thy garb seemest to us to be one from our wicked city!
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22



HASTE BETTER BEFITTED THEE THAN THEM
Dante wrote:
… to these one should be courteous and were it not for the fire which the nature of the places shoots forth, I should say that haste better befitted thee than them.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22



LIVING FEET THROUGH HELL
Dante wrote:
…let our fame incline thy mind to tell us who thou art, that so securely rubbest thy living feet through Hell.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22


INJURES ME
Dante wrote:
… and surely my savage wife more than aught else injures me.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 22


SOUL DIRECT THY LIMBS
Dante wrote:
So may thy soul long direct thy limbs.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 23


LOOK WITHIN THE THOUGHTS
Dante wrote:
Ah! How cautious ought men to be near those who see not only the deed, but with their wisdom look within the thoughts.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XVI, pg 23


EVER SEEING THE PAST
Dante wrote:
… for their face was turned toward their reins, and they must needs go backwards, because looking for ward was taken from them.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XX, pg 28



WONDERFULLY DARK
Dante wrote:
Thus from bridge to bridge we went, talking of other things, which my Comedy cares not to sing, and were holding the summit, when we stopped to see the next cleft of Malebolge and the next vain lamentations; and I saw it wonderfully dark.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30


FLY FROM IT
Dante wrote:
Then I turned as one who is in haste to see that from which it behoves him to fly, and whom a sudden fear dismays, and who for seeing delays not to depart, …
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30



WILD ROAD
Dante wrote:
Let me go on, for in Heaven it is willed that I show to another the wild road.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 30




INTEGRITY
Dante wrote:
… I feared thy would not keep their compact.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 31



BROKEN AT HIS DEATH
Dante wrote:
Yesterday, five hours later than this, completed one thousand two hundred and sixty-six years since the way was broken here
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXI, pg 31
Footnote: By the earthquake at the death of the Savior, who it was believed was thirty-four years old at his crucifixion.



OUTWARD DAZZLES
Dante wrote:
Outwardly they are hilded, so that it dazzles, but within all lead, and so heavy…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIII, pg 33



COLLEGE OF THE WRETCHED HYPOCRITES
Dante wrote:
O Tuscan,who to the college of the wretched hypocrites art come, hold it not in disdain to tell who thou art.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIII, pg 34



PUT OFF SLOTH
Dante wrote:
“Henceforth it behoves thee thus to put off sloth, “said the Master, “for, sitting upon down or under quilt, one comes not to fame, without which he who consumes his life leaves such vestige of himself on earth as smoke in air, or the foam on water, and therefore rise up, conquer thy panting with the soul that wins every battle, if it be not weighed down by its heavy body.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIV, pg 35



SPEAKING IN ORDER NOT TO SEEM EXHAUSTED
Dante wrote:
Up along the crag we took the way, which was rugged, narrow, and difficult, and far steeper than the one before. I was going along speaking in order not to seem exhausted…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXIV, pg 35



SORROW
Dante wrote:
I sorrowed then and now I sorrow again when I direct my mind to what I saw…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXVI, pg 38



DIVIDED FIRE
Dante wrote:
Who is in that fire which comes so divided at its top that it seems to rise from the pyre on which Eteocles was put with his brother?
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Hell, Canto XXVI, pg 38



THE LOST, TRAVEL IN VAIN
Dante wrote:
We went along over the solitary plain like a man who turns to the road which he has lost, and till he find it, seems to himself to go in vain.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto I, pg 54



AS I LOVED THEE IN BODY, I LOVE THEE
Dante wrote:
I saw one of them drawing forward to embrace me with so great affection, that it moved me to do the like, O shades, empty save in aspect! Three times I clasped my hands behind it, and as often returned with them unto my breast. With wonder, I believe, I painted me; whereat the shade smiled and drew back and I, following it, pressed forward. Gently it said, that I should pause; then I knew who it was, and I prayed it that it would stay to speak with me a little. It replied to me: “Even as I loved thee in the mortal body, so loosed from it I love thee; therefore I stay, but wherefore art thou going?”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto II, pg 55



STAND FIRM
Dante wrote:
“Stand like a firm tower that never wags its top for blowing of the winds; for always the man in whom thought on thought wells up removes from himself his mark, because one weakens the force of the other.” What could I answer, save: “I come”? I said it overspread somewhat with the color, which at times, makes a man worthy of pardon.
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto V, pg 59



SECOND WIND
Dante wrote:
And I: “My Lord, let us go on with greater speed, for now I am not weary as a while ago; and see how the hill now casts its shadow.” “We will go forward with this day,” he answered, “as much farther as is now possible for us, but the fact is otherwise than thou supposest.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VI, pg 61



DARKNESS HAMPERS THE WILL
Dante wrote:
“See, only this line thou couldst not pass after the sun is gone; not, however, that aught else than the nocturnal darkness would give hindrance to going up; that hampers the will with impotence. One might indeed, in the darkness turn downward, and walk, the hillside wandering around, while the horizon holds the day shut up.” Thereon my Lord, as if wondering said: “Lead us, then there where thou sayest one may have delight while waiting.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VII, pg 63



RARELY FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
Dante wrote:
Rarely does human goodness rise through the branches, and this He wills who gives it, in order that it may be claimed from Him. To the large nosed one my words apply not less than to the other, Peter, who is singing with him; wherefore Apulia and Provence are now grieving. The plant is as inferior to its see, as, more than Beatrice and Margaret, Constance still boasts of her husband. See the King of the simple life sitting there alone, Henry of England; he in his branches has a better issue. That one who lowest among them is seated on the ground, looking upward, is William the Marquis, for whom Alessandria and her war make Monferrat and Canavese mourn.”
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Canto VII, pg 64



VOCABULARY - The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri

Augury, pg 29
divination from auspices or omens

Incontinence, pg 16
unable to contain or retain; lacking in moderation or self-control; unceasing or unrestrained

Opprobrious, pg 9
adj. Expressing contemptuous reproach; scornful or abusive, Bringing disgrace; shameful or infamous

Repose, pg 10
To lie at rest; to rest. "Within a thicket Repose
Figuratively, to remain or abide restfully without anxiety or alarms. "It is upon these that the soul may Repose
To lie; recline; couch; rest; sleep; settle; lodge; abide

AQUINAS, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas

ST THOMAS AQUINAS, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part,
Treatise on God, QQ 16 – 17, Treatise on Man (QQ 83 ) QQ 84 – 88


Aquinas wrote:
…knowledge is of things that are true, after the consideration of the knowledge of God…
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 16 Of Truth, pg. 94

Aquinas wrote:
The Philosopher says, “The true and the false are not in things, but in the intellect.” I answer that as the good denotes that towards which the appetite tends, so the true denotes that towards which the intellect tends.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 16 Of Truth, pg. 94


Aquinas wrote:
… truth is found in the intellect according as it apprehends a thing as it is, and in things according as they have being conformable to an intellect. This is to the greatest degree found in God. …And so it follows not only that truth is in Him, but that He is truth itself, and the supreme and first truth.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 16 Of Truth, Article 5. Whether God is Truth? pg. 97


Aquinas wrote:
“As from one man’s face many likenesses are reflected in a mirror, so many truths are reflected from the one divine truth.”
… Reply Obj. 1 The Soul does not judge of all things according to any kind of truth, but according to the primary truth, in so far as it is reflected in the soul, as in a mirror… yet it is true that nothing subsisting is greater than the rational mind, except God.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 16 Of Truth, Article 6. Whether There Is Only One Truth, According to Which All Things Are True? pg. 98


Aquinas wrote:
Obj. 2 …that which is always, is eternal. So therefore is truth, which is the most universal.
Obj. 4 … all that is without beginning and end is eternal … for if their truth had a beginning, since it was not before, it was true that truth was not, and true, of course, by reason of truth so that truth was before it began to be. … if it be asserted that truth has an end, it follows that it is after it has ceased to be, for it will still be true that truth is not.
Reply Obj 3. That which now is, was future before it (actually) was, because it was in its cause that it would be.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 16 Of Truth, Article 7. Whether Created Truth Is Eternal? pg. 99


Aquinas wrote:
Since true and false are opposed, and since opposites stand in relation to the same thing, we must seek falsity where primarily we find truth, that is to say, in the intellect.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 17 Of Falsity, Article 1. Whether Falsity Exists in Things? pg. 101


Aquinas wrote:
Thus sins themselves are called untruths and lies in the Scriptures, according to the words of the text, Why do you love vanity, and see after lying (Ps 4.3)
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 17 Of Falsity, Article 1. Whether Falsity Exists in Things? pg. 101


Aquinas wrote:
Obj.3 On the contrary, Augustine says (Soliloq. Ii, 6) “it appears that the sense entrap us into error by their deceptive similitudes.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 17 Of Falsity, Article 2. Whether There Is Falsity In The Senses? pg. 102

Aquinas wrote:
Objection 1. For Augustine says (QQ. LXXXIII, 32) “Everyone who is deceived understands not that in which he is deceived.”
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on God, QQ 17 Of Falsity, Article 3. Whether Falsity Is In The Intellect? pg. 102



Aquinas wrote:
…some things act without judgment, as a stone moves downwards; and in like manner all things which lack knowledge. And some act from judgment, but not free judgment; as brute animals … the sheep, seeing the wolf, judges it a thing to be shunned from a natural and not a free judgment. … from natural instinct.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 1 Whether Man Has Free Choice?, pg. 437


Aquinas wrote:
But man acts from judgment because by his knowing power he judges that something should be avoided or sought… from some ac of comparison in the reason…
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 1 Whether Man Has Free Choice?, pg. 437

Aquinas wrote:
… the judgment of reason may follow opposite courses, and is not determined to one. And since man is rational man must have free choice.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 1 Whether Man Has Free Choice?, pg. 437


Aquinas wrote:
Reply Obj 3. God … does not prevent their acts from being natural … does not deprive their actions of being voluntary, but rather is He the cause of this very thing in them, for He operates in each thing according to its own nature.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 1 Whether Man Has Free Choice?, pg. 437



Aquinas wrote:
Reply Obj 5 The qualities that come from without are habits and passions, by virtue of which a man is inclined to one thing rather than to another. And yet even these inclination are subject to the judgment of reason. … as it is in our power either to acquire them, whether by causing them or disposing ourselves to them, or to reject them. And so there is nothing in this that is contrary to the freedom of choice.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 1 Whether Man Has Free Choice?, pg. 437


Aquinas wrote:
… Augustine says that “man, by abusing free choice, loses both it and himself.”
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 2 Whether Free Choice Is a Power?, pg. 438


Aquinas wrote:
… free choice is indifferent to good or evil choice; hence it is impossible for free choice to be a habit.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 2 Whether Free Choice Is a Power?, pg. 438


Aquinas wrote:
The proper act of free choice is election. For we say that we have a free choice because we can take one thing while refusing another, and this is to choose.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 83 Of Free Choice, Article 3 Whether Free Choice Is an Appetitive Power?, pg. 439


Aquinas wrote:
For what is in a continual state of flux cannot be grasped with certitude, for it passes away before the mind can form a judgment of it, according to the saying of Heraclitus that “it is not possible twice to touch a drop of water in a passing torrent,”
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 1 Whether the Soul Knows Bodies Through the Intellect?, pg. 441



Aquinas wrote:
Objection 1. For Gregory says, in homily for the Ascension, that ‘man has understanding in common with the angels,” But angels understand all things through innate forms;
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 3 Whether the Soul Understands All Things Through Innate Species?, pg. 443


Aquinas wrote:
Consequently whenever Augustine, who was imbued with the doctrines of the Platonists, found in their teaching anything consistent with faith be adopted; and those thing which he found contrary to faith he amended.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 5 Whether the Intellectual Soul Knows Material Things in the Eternal Types?, pg. 446

Aquinas wrote:
… as one may see in a mirror the images of things reflected there. In this way the soul, in the present state of life, cannot see all things in the eternal types, but the blessed know all things thus in the eternal types for they see God, and all things in Him.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 5 Whether the Intellectual Soul Knows Material Things in the Eternal Types?, pg. 447


Aquinas wrote:
Now a perfect judgment concerning anything cannot be formed, unless all that pertains to that thing is known;
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 8 Whether the Judgment of the Intellect is Hindered Through Suspension of the Senses?, pg. 450


Aquinas wrote:
..so that sometimes while asleep a man may judge that what he sees in a dream, discerning, as it were, between things and their likenesses. Nevertheless, the common sense remains partly suspended, and therefore, although it discriminates some likenesses from the reality, yet is it always deceived in some particular. Therefore, while man is asleep, according as sense and imagination are free, so the judgment of his intellect is unfettered, though not entirely. Consequently, if a man syllogizes while asleep, when he wakes up he invariably recognizes a flaw in some respect.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 8 Whether the Judgment of the Intellect is Hindered Through Suspension of the Senses?, pg. 451

Aquinas wrote:
…God sees all things at the same time because He sees all in one, that is, in His Essence. But whatever things the intellect understands under different species it does not understand at the same time. …it is impossible for one and the same subject to be perfected at the same time by many forms of one genus and diverse species just as it is impossible for one and the same body at the same time to have different colours or different shapes.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 85 Of the Mode and Order of Understanding, Article 4 Whether We Can Understand Many Things at the Same Time?, pg. 457


Aquinas wrote:
Obj 3 But some animals know the future; thus crows by their frequent cawing foretell rain.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 86 What Our Intellect Knows in Material Things, Article 4 Whether Our Intellect Can Know the Future Things?, pg. 463


Aquinas wrote:
The future cannot be known in itself save by God alone, to Whom even that is present which in the course of events is future, since from eternity His glance embraces the whole course of event is future… …if, indeed, the cause be such as to have a necessary connection with its future result, then the future is known with scientific certitude, just as the astronomer foresees the futre eclipse.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 86 What Our Intellect Knows in Material Things, Article 4 Whether Our Intellect Can Know the Future Things?, pg. 464


Aquinas wrote:
It is not natural for the soul to know the future when withdrawn from the sense; rather does it know the future by the impression of superior spiritual and corporeal causes. By the impression of spiritual causes when by Divine power the human intellect is enlightened through the ministry of angels and the phantasm are directed to the knowledge of future events; or by the influence of demons when the imagination is moved regarding the future known to the demons, as explained above. The soul is naturally more inclined to receive these impressions of spiritual causes when it is withdrawn from the sense as it is then nearer to the spiritual world and freer to external distractions. …the influence of the heavenly bodies causes imagination to be affected, and so, as the heavenly bodies cause many future events, the imagination receives certain signs of some such events. These sign are perceived more at night and while we sleep than in the daytime and while we are awake because, as stated in Prophesying (Aristotle), impressions are made in sleep when slight internal movements are felt more than in wakefulness, and such movements produce tin the imagination phantasm from which the future may be foreseen.
Reply Obj. 3. Brute animals have no power above the imagination to regulate the phantasm, as man has his reason, and therefore their imagination follows entirely the influence of the heavenly bodies. Thus from such animals’ movements some future things, such as rain and the like, may be better known rather than from human movements directed by the counsel of reason.
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 86 What Our Intellect Knows in Material Things, Article 4 Whether Our Intellect Can Know the Future Things?, pg. 464



Aquinas wrote:
…God is not the first object of our knowledge. Rather do we know God through creatures, according to the Apostle (Romans 1:10).
St Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas, First Part, Treatise on Man QQ 88 How the Human Soul Knows What is Above Itself, Article 3 Whether God is the First Thing Known by the Human Mind?, pg. 472



VOCABULARY
FROM The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas

Enunciations, pg. 99
Enunciate: to announce, to state definitely, to pronounce words (QQ 16 Of Truth, Article 7. Whether Created Truth Is Eternal?)

Quiddity, pg. 103,
Essential quality, a quibble
Quid: A piece, as of tobacco to be chewed;
British slang – a sovereign, or one pound sterling
(QQ 17 Of Falsity, Article 3. Whether Falsity is in the Intellect?)

Roman Numerals Review
L = 50
C = 100

Corporeal, pg. 441
of or for the body; of a material nature; physical; tangible. (QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 1 Whether the Soul Knows Bodies Through the Intellect?)

Syllogize, pg. 450
Syllogism – a form of reasoning in which two statements or premises are made and a logical conclusion drawn from them. Example. All mammals are warm blooded. Whales are mammals. Therefore whales are warm-blooded. Reasoning from the general to the particular
(QQ 84 How the Soul While United to the Body Understands Corporeal Things Beneath it, Article 8 Whether the Judgment of the Intellect is Hindered Through Suspension of the Senses?)

phantasms, pg. 451
a figment of the mind, esp. a ghost or spector; a deceptive likeness of something
( QQ 85 Of the Mode and Order of Understanding)

MONTAIGNE, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, The Essays, Apology

Montaigne: The Essays of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 208 – 293

1/6 SURVIVE INFANCY
The Biographical note - Michel de Montaigne records:
…and bestowed some pains on the education of his daughter, Léonore, the only one of six children to survive infancy.


Learning is, in truth a very useful and a very considerable quality, such as despise it, merely discover their own folly…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 208

GIFT OF A BOOK

…Repter Munel, a man of great reputation for knowledge in his time, … he presented him, at his departure, with a book intituled Theologia naturalis sive Liber creaturarum magistri Rimondi de Sebonde; and knowing that the Italian and Spanish tongues were familiar to my father, and this book being written in Spanish worked up with Latin termination, he hoped that with little help he might be able to make it turn to account, and therefore recommend it to him as a very useful piece and proper… which was when the novel doctrines of Martin Luther began to be in vogue…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 208

FOUND BOOK YEARS LATER

Now, my father, a little before his death, having accidentally found this book under a heap of other neglected papers, commanded me to translated it for him into French. It is all very well to translate such authors as this, where is little but the matter itself to express, but those wherein ornament of language and elegance of style are a main endeavour, are dangerous to attempt, especially when a man is to turn them into a weaker idiom…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 208

NOT ABLE TO RESIST COMMAND OF THE BEST FATHER THAT EVER WAS

It was a strange and new occupation for me, but having by chance, at the time, little else to do, and not being able to resist the command of the best father that ever was, I did it as well as I could, and he was so well pleased with it as to order it to be printed, which after his death, was done.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 208


I found the imaginations of this author exceedingly fine, the contexture of his work well followed up, and his design full of piety. And because many people take a delight in reading it, and particularly the ladies, to whim we owe the most service, I have often been called upon to assist them to clear the book of two principal objections.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 208

WHO KNEW ALL THINGS

I inquired of Adrian Turnebus, who knew all things, what he thought of the book.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 209


…human accidents would not have the power to shake us as they do; our fortress would not surrender to so weak a battery; the love of novelty, the constraint of princes, the success of one party, the rash and fortuitous change of our opinions would not have the power to stagger and alter our belief. We should not then leave it to the mercy of every novel argument, nor abandon it to the persuasions of all the rhetoric in the world; we should withstand the fury of these waves with an unmoved and unyielding constancy.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 209


Let us confess the truth whoever should draw out from the army, aye, from that raised by the king’s authority, those who take up arms out of pure zeal and affection to religion, and also those who only do it to protect he laws of their country, or for the service of their prince, would hardly be able, out of all these put together, to must one complete company. Whence does it proceed that there are so few to be found who have maintained the same will and the same progress in our public movements…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 210

WHAT ABOUT THE CHANGE?

…there is no hostility so admirable as the Christian,; our zeal performs wonders when it seconds our inclinations to hatred, cruelty, ambition, avarice, detraction, rebellion; but moved against the hair toward goodness, benignity, moderation… our religion is intended to extirpate vices; whereas it screens, nourishes, incites them. We must not mock God
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 210


If we did believe in Him, I do not say by faith, but with a simple belief, that is to say (and I speak it to our great shame), if we did believe Him, or knew Him as any other history, or as one of our companions, we should love Him above all other things, for the infinite goodness and beauty that shine in Him, at least He would go equal in our affections with riches, pleasures, glory, and our friends. The best of us is not so much afraid to offend him, as he is afraid to offend his neighbor, his kinsman, his master.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 211


We are Christians by the same title that we are Perigordins or Germans. And what Plato says, that there are few men so obstinate in their atheism whom a pressing danger will not reduce to an acknowledgment of the divine power, does not concern a true Christian…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 211


Si melius quid habes, arcesse; vel imperium fer. (If you have anything better to say, say it; otherwise, yield – Horace, Epist., i. 5,6.) Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 212

CLOSED MINDS

Men willingly wrest the saying of others to favour their own prejudicated opinions; to an atheist all writings tend to atheism; he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom. These have their judgments so prepossessed that they cannot relish Sebonde’s reasons.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 213



The means that I use, and that I think most proper, to subdue this frenzy, is to crush and spurn under foot pride and human arrogance; to make them sensible of the inanity, vanity, and nothingness of man; to west the wretched arms of their reason out of their hands; to make them bow down and bite the ground, under the authority and reverence of the divine majesty.
‘Tis to this alone that knowledge and wisdom appertain;
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 213

LANGUAGE – COMMUNICATION – NEEDS NO WORDS - UNDERSTANDING

By one kind of barking the horse knows a dog is angry… Even in the very beasts that have no voice at all, we easily conclude, form the social offices we observe amongst them, some other sort of communication…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 215


There is not a motion that dose not speak, and in an intelligible language without discipline, and a public language that every one understands…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 216

LANGUAGE – HOW WOULD WE EXPRESS OURSELVES IF IN SOLITUDE?
JUNGLE BOOK

…I believe that a child who had been brought up in absolute solitude, remote from all society of men…would have some kind of speech to express his meaning…
…But it is yet to be known what language this child would speak…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 218


As to what concerns strength, there is no creature in the world exposed to so many injuries as man; we need not a whale, an elephant or a crocodile, nor any such animals, of which one alone is sufficient to defeat a great number of men, to do our business: lice are sufficient to vacate Sulla’s dictatorship; and the heart and life of a great and triumphant emperor is the breakfast of a little worm.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 220

TRAINED ELEPHANTS PRACTICE ON THEIR OWN

In the spectacles of Rome, there were ordinarily seen elephants taught to move and dance to the sound of the voice, dances wherein were several changes and steps, and cadences, very hard to learn. And some have been seen, in private, so intent upon their lesson as to practice it by themselves, that they might not be chidden nor beaten by their masters.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 220

PREJUDICE

We more adore and value the things that are unusual and strange than those of ordinary observation.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 222

JUDGING OTHERS STUPID BECAUSE OF NATIONALITY

I have formerly seen men brought hither by sea, from very distant countries, whose language not being understood by us and more over their mien, countenance, and dress, being quite different from our, which of us did not refute them savages and brutes? Who did not attribute it to stupidity and want of common sense, to see them mute, ignorant of the French tongue, ignorant of our salutations…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 222


All that seem strange to us, and what we do not understand, we condemn.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 222

THE LION & THE SLAVE

… I found retired and almost inaccessible cave, and went into it. Soon after there came in to me this lion with one foot wounded and bloody, complaining and groaning with the pain he endured… I then drew out a great splinter he had… finding himself something better and much eased of his pain, lay down… From that time forward, he and I lived together in this cave three whole years. …I escape from thence and the third day was taken by the soldier who brought me from Africa to this city…condemned… to die… exposed to the wild beasts. Now, by what I see, this lion was also taken soon after…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 228

HIDING WHAT WE PERCEIVE AS UNATTRACTIVE

It is not modesty so much as cunning and prudence that makes our ladies so circumspect in refusing us admittance to their closets, before they are painted and tricked up for public view:
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 231


STRESS MAKES YOU ILL

Beasts sufficiently show us how much the agitation of the soul bring infirmities and diseases upon us. That which is told us of the people of Brazil that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the serenity and tranquillity of the air they live in; but I attribute it to the serenity and tranquillity of their soul, free from all passion, thought, or employments, continuous or unpleasing, as people that pass over their lives in an admirable simplicity and ignorant, without letters, without law, without king, or any manner of religion.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 235


MEMORIES - FORGET YOUR TROUBLES, COME ON GET HAPPY

Levationes aegritudinum in avoeatione a cogitanda molestia, et revocatione ad contemplandas voluptates pont. [The way to dissipate present grief is to recall to contemplation past pleasures. -–Cicero, Tursc, Quaes, vi.]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 236


Che ricordarsi il ben dopyia la noja [The remembrance of pleasure doubles the sense of present pain. - Cf. Dante, Inferno, v 121]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 236


Of the same stamp is the other counsel that philosophy gives, only to remember past happiness and to forget the troubles we have undergone; as if we had the science of oblivion in our power; ‘tis a counsel for which we are never a straw the better.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 236



Suavis laborum ext praeteritorum memoria [The memory of past evils is sweet. -Euripides, in Cicero, De Finib, ii, 32.]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 236


For the memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases, nay, there is nothing that so much imprints anything in our memory as a desire to forget it; This is false: Est situm in nobis, ut et adversa quasi perpetua oblivione obruamus, et secunda jucunde et suaviter meminerimus [And it is in our power to bury, as it were, in a perpetual oblivion all adverse accidents, and to retain a pleasant and delightful memory of our successes. – Cicero, De Finib, I, 17]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 236


Memini etiam quae nolo; oblivisci non possum quae volo.[I also remember what I would not, but I cannot forget what I would – Cicero, De Finib, i. 32]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 236

IGNORANCE NOT AN EXCUSE

Iners malorum remedium ignorantia est. [Ignorance is but a dull remedy for evil. – Seneca, Cedip. , iii 7]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 236


IGNORANCE IS BLISS

And Ecclesiastes, “In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 237


IMPOSSIBLE TO LEARN IT ALL

… the greatest part of what we know is the least of what we do not know, that is to say that even what we think we know, is but a piece, and a very little one of our ignorance. We know things in dreams, Says Plato, and are ignorant of them in reality.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 240


Omnes pene veteres, nihil congosci, nihil percipi, nihil sciri posse dixerunt; angustos sensus, imbecilles animos, brevia curricula vitae. [Almost all the ancients have declared that there is nothing can be known, nothing can be understood: the senses are too weak; men’s minds too weak, and the course of life too short. – Cicero, De Divin., ii, 3.]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 240

PREJUDICE

A soul clear from prejudice has a marvelous advance towards tranquillity and repose. Men who judge and control their judges never duly submit to them. How much more docile and easy to be governed, both in the laws of religion and civil polity, are simple and incurious minds than those over-vigilant and pedagoguish wits that will still be prating of divine and human causes?
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 242

PRIORITIES – WELL SPENT TIME – EDUCATIONAL PURSUITS

Cicero reprehends some of his friends for giving more of their time to the study of astrology, law, logic, and geometry, than they were worth, saying that they were by theses diverted from the duties of life, more profitable and more worthy studies…
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 243


Zeno in the Book of Commonwealth, declared all the liberal arts of no use, Chrysippus said that what Plato and Aristotle had written concerning logic, they had only done in sport and by way of exercise, and could not believe that they spoke in earnest of so vain a thing; Plutarch says the same of metaphysics and Epicurus would have said as much of rhetoric, grammar, poesy, mathematics, and natural philosophy excepted, of all the sciences, and Socrates of them all, excepting that of manners and of life; whatever any one required to be instructed in by him, he would ever, in the first place, demand an account of the conditions of his life present and past, which examined and judge, esteeming all other learning subordinate and supernumerary to that.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 243 - 244

DISCOVERING FOR SELF – EDUCATION

Democritus having eaten figs at his table that tasted of honey, fell presently to consider within himself whence they should derive this unusual sweetness, and to be satisfied in it, was about to rise form the table to see the place whence the figs had been gathered, which his maid observing, and having understood the cause, she smilingly told him that he need not trouble himself about that, for she had put them into a vessel in which there had been honey. He was vexed that she had thus deprived him of the occasion of this inquisition and robbed his curiosity of matter to work upon. “Go thy way,” said he, ‘though has done me wrong; but for all that I will seek out the cause, as if it were natural”; and would willingly have found out some true reason for a false and imaginary effect. This story of a famous and great philosopher very clearly represent to us the studious passion, that puts us upon the pursuit of things of the acquisition of which we despair. Plutarch gives a like example of one who would not be satisfied in that whereof he was in doubt, that he might not lose the pleasure of inquiring into it;
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 244 - 245



Satus est supervacua descere, quam nihil. [‘This better to learn more than is necessary than nothing at all. – Seneca, Epist, 88.]
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 245


WHAT DO WE EXPECT IN HEAVEN?

When Mohammed promises his followers a paradise hung with tapestry, adorned with gold and precious stones, furnished with wenches of excelling beauty, rare wines and delicate dishes, I easily discern that these are mockers who accommodate their promises to our stupidity, to attract and allure us by hopes and opinions suitable to our mortal appetite. And yet some amongst us are fallen into the like error, promising to themselves, after the resurrection, a terrestrial and temporal life, accompanies with all the sorts of worldly conveniences and pleasures.
Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde pg. 248


VOCABULARY - The Essays of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

From: (Biographical note - Michel de Montaigne, 1533 – 1592)
Jurisprudence, pg. v The science or philosophy of law; a system of laws; a branch of law

From: (Essays II, Ch 12, Apology for Raimond de Sebonde)
Avarice, pg. 210 too much desire to get and keep money; greed, cupidity

Extirpate, pg. 210 to pull up by the roots, to destroy completely, abolish

licentious, pg. 212, pg. 226 disregarding accepted rules and standards; morally unrestrained; lascivious, libertine

inanity, pg. 213 being inane (lacking sense, empty, foolish); specific emptiness, stillness, something inane, silly act, remark

fettered, pg. 218 a shackle or chain for the feet; anything that holds in check, restraint; to bind with fetters, shackles or chains; to hold in check, restrain, confine.

Mien, pg. 222 the face, mind, image; look air, manner, external appearance

Pedagoguish, pg. 242
pedagogue – n. a teacher of children; one whose occupation is the instruction of children; a school master. v. to teach with the air of a pedagogue, to teach superciliously. (superciliously – lofty with pride, haughty, dictatorial, overbearing, manifesting haughtiness, or proceeding from it, dogmatic, with an air of contempt, overbearing temper or manner.

MELVILLE, Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Herman Melville: Moby Dick; or, The Whale

Besides, passengers get seasick – grow quarrelsome – don’t sleep of nights – do not enjoy themselves much, as a general thing; - no, I never go as a passenger, nor though I am something of a salt, … What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Who is not a slave?
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 3



…they make a point of paying me, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, passengers themselves must pay; and urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! How cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 3



Finally I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the wholesome exercise and pure air of the forecastle deck.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 4



But I soon found that there came such a draught of cold air over me from under the sill of the window that this plan would never do at all, especially as another current from the rickety door met the one from the window, and both together formed a series of small whirlwinds in the immediate vicinity of the spot where I had thought to spend the night.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 12



But I lay perfectly still, and resolved not to say a word til spoken to.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 15




Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 4
But Queequeg, do you see, was a creature in the transition state – neither caterpillar nor butterfly. Hew was just enough civilized to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manner. His education was not yet completed. He was an undergraduate.



If he had not been a small degree civilized, he very probably would not have troubled himself with boots at all; but then, if he had not been still a savage, he never would have dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on. ( pg. 21)
I was preparing to hear some good stories about whaling; to my no small surprise, nearly every man maintained a profound silence. And not only that, but they looked embarrassed. Yes, here were a set of sea-dogs, many of whom without the slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seas – entire strangers to them – and duelled them dead without winking,; and yet, here they sat at asocial breakfast table – all of the same calling, all of a kindred tastes - looking around as sheepishly at each other as though they had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the Green Mountains.
But as for Queequeg – why, Queequeg sat there among them – at the head of the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an icicle. To be sure I cannot say much for his breeding. His greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his bringing his harpoon in to breakfast with him, and using it there without ceremony; reaching over the table with it, to the imminent jeopardy of many heads, and grappling the beefsteaks towards him. That was certainly very coolly done by him, and every one knows that in most people’s estimation, to do anything coolly is to do it genteely. (pg. 22)
Herman Melville, Moby Dick



They say that men who have seen the world, thereby become quite at ease in manner, quite self possessed in company. Not always… but perhaps the mere crossing of Siberia in a sledge drawn by dogs… or the taking a long solitary walk on an empty stomach, in the negro heart of Africa… this kind of travel, I say, may not be the very best mode of attaining a high social polish.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 22


Herman Melville, Moby Dick
But observe his prayer and learn a weighty lesson. For sinful as heis, Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance. He feelsthat his punishment is just. He leaves all his deliverance to God. …here is true and faithful repentance, not clamorous for pardon, butgrateful for punishment. And how pleasing to God was this conduct inJonah, is show in the eventual deliverance of him from the sea and thewhale.… I do not place him before you as a model for repentance. Sin not,but if you do, take heed to repent of it like Jonah.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 34, 35, chapter 9

To preach the truth to the face of Falsehood! …That was it. This,shipmates is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of the livingGod who slights it. Who to him whom this world charms from Gospelduty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God hasbrewed them into a gale! Woe to him who seek to please rather than toappal. Woe to him whose good names is more to him than goodness. …Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway!
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 36, chapter 9

Delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him, when the ship ofthis base treacherous world has gone down beneath him. Delight is tohim, who give no quarter in the truth, and kill, burns, and destroysall sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of Senators andJudges. Delight, - top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges nolaw or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 36, chapter 9

A Bosom friend
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 36. Chapter 10

You can't hide the soul.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 37, chapter 10

Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 38, chapter 10

and yet he seemed entirely at his ease, preserving the utmostserenity, content with his own companionship; always equal to himself.Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 38, chapter 10

I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infalliblePresbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolaterin worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? Thought I. Doyou suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth– pagan and all included – can possibly be jealous of an insignificantbit of black wood? Impossible. But what is worship? – to do the willof God – that is worship. And what is the will of God? – to do to myfellow man what I would have my fellowman to do to me – that is thewill of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellowman. And what do I wish thatthis Queequeg is would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particularPresbyterian form of worship… Consequently I must unit unite with himin his;
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 39, chapter 10

I say, we good Presbyterian Christians should be charitable in thesethings; and not fancy ourselves so vastly superior to other mortals,pagans, and what not, because of their half-crazy conceits on thesesubjects. … Queequeg thought he knew what he was about, I suppose; heseemed to be content; and there let him rest. All our arguing with himwould not avail; let him be, I say; and Heaven have mercy on us all –Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all somehow dreadfullycracked about the head, and sadly need mending.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 61, chapter 17

The poor fellow whom Queequeg had handled so roughly, was sweptoverboard; all hands were in a panic; and to attempt snatching at theboom to stay it, seemed madness. It flew from right to left and backagain, almost in one ticking of a watch, and every instant seemed onthe point of snapping into splinters. Nothing was done and nothingseemed capable of being done, those on deck rushed towards the bows,and stood eyeing the boom as if it were the lower jaw of anexasperated whale. In the midst of this consternation, Queequegdropped deftly to his knees, and crawling under the path of the boom,whipped hold of a rope, secured one end to the bulwarks, and thenflinging the other like a lasso, caught it round the boom …. And allwas safe. …Queequeg, stripped to the waist, darted from the side witha long living arc of a leap. For three minutes or more he was seenswimming like a dog, throwing his long arms straight out before him,and by turns revealing his brawny shoulders through the freezingfoam….Queequeg now took an instant's glance around him and seeming tosee just how matters were, dived down and disappeared. A few minutesmore and he rose again, one arm still striking out, and with the otherdragging a lifeless form. The boat soon picked them up The poorbumpkin was restored. All hands voted Queequeg a noble trump,
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 45, chapter 13

But to my surprise and not small concern, Queequeg now gave me tounderstand that he had been diligently consulting Yojo – the name ofhis black little god – and Yojo had told him two or three times over,and strongly insisted upon it every way ….
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 50, chapter 16

And when these things unite in a man of greatly superior naturalforce, with a globular brain and a ponderous heart; who has also bythe willingness and seclusion of many long night watches in theremotest waters, and beneath constellations never seen here at thenorth, been led to think untraditionally and independently; receivingall nature's sweet or savage impressions…
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 54, chapter 16

Now Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being anincorrigible old bunks, and in his sea-going days, a bitter, hardtask-master. They told me in Nantucket, though it certainly seems acurious story, that when he sailed the old Categut whaleman, hiscrew, upon arriving home, were mostly all carried ashore to thehospital, sore exhausted, and worn out. For a pious man, especiallyfor a Quaker, he was certainly rather hard-hearted to say the least.He never used to swear, though at his men they said, but somehow hegot an inordinate quantity of cruel, unmitigated hard work out ofthem. When Bildad was a chief mate, to have his drab coloured eyeintently looking at you, made you feel completely nervous till youcould clutch something -= a hammer or a marling spike, and go to worklike mad, at something, or other, never mind what. Indolence andidleness perished from before him. His own person was the exactembodiment of his utilitarian character.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 55 – 56, chapter 16
ADVOCATE

As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling;and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded amonglandsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuits; therefore,I am all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice herebydone to us hunters of whales. (pg. 79)
…If a stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitansociety; it would but slightly advance the general opinion of hismerits, were he presented to the company as a harpooner.…Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honouring uswhalemen is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to abutchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein,we are surrounded by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, thatis true. But butchers also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge, havebeen all martial commanders whom the world invariable delightst tohonour.…ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto prettygenerally unknown, …
(pg. 79)
… Why did Louis XVI of France, as his own personal expense, fit outwhaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town somescore or two of families from our own island of Nantucket?
(pg. 80)
…It was the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy of theSpanish Crown, touching those colonies; and if space permitted, itmight be distinctly shown how from these whalemen at last eventuatedthe liberation of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain,and the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.
(pg. 80)
… you still declare that whaling has no aesthetically nobleassociations connected with it…no famous author… no famouschronicler…? Who wrote the first account of our Leviathan? Who butmighty Job! And who composed the first narrative of a whaling voyage?Who, but no less a prince than Alfred the Great, who with his ownroyal pen, took down the words from Other, The Norwegian whale-hunterof those times!
(pg. 81)
…not respectable? Whaling is imperial! By old English statutory law,the whale is declared "a royal fish."
(pg. 81)
…No dignity…? The dignity of our calling the very heavens attest. Cetus is a constellation in the South! No more! Drive down your hat inthe presence of the Czar, and take it off to Queequeg! No more! I knowa man that, in his lifetime, has taken three hundred and fifty whales,I account that man more honourable than that great Captain ofantiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 79 - 82, chapter 23


… I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to waling; for a whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 82, chapter 24


… what kind of oil is used a coronations? … sperm oil… the sweetest of all oils.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 83, chapter 25
(my limited research shows it was olive oil)


Starbuck… looking into his eyes you seemed to see there yet lingering images of those thousand-fold perils he had calmly confronted through life.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 83, chapter 26



“I will have no man in my boat,” said Starbuck, “who is not afraid of a whale.” … an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 83, chapter 26


“What …made Stubb such an easy going unfearing man, so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a world full of grave peddlers, all bowed to the ground with their packs; what helped to bring about that almost impious good-humour of his – that thing must have been his pipe.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 86, chapter 26


… for everyone knows that this earthly air is terribly infected with the nameless miseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it; and as in time of the cholera, some people go about with a camphorated handkerchief to their mounts; so likewise, against all mortal tribulations, Stubb’s tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of disinfecting agent.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 86, chapter 26


As a carpenter’s nails are divided into wrought nails and cut nails, so mankind may be similarly divided. Little Flask was one of the wrought ones; made to clinch tight and last long.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 86, chapter 26


The warm cool, clear, ringing, perfumed, overflowing, redundant days, were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped up, flaked up with rose water snow. The starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets, nursing at home in lonely pride, the memory of their absent conquering Earls, the golden helmeted suns! For sleeping man t’was hard to choose between such winsome days and such seducing nights.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 91, chapter 29



Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 91, chapter 29



Here goes for a snooze. Damn me, it’s worth a fellow’s while to be born into the world, if only to fall right asleep. And now that I think of it, that’s about the first thing babies do, and that’s a sort of queer, too. Damn me, but all things are queer, come to think of ‘em. But that’s against my principles. Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can is my twelfth.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 93, chapter 29



No, you were kicked by a great man, and with a beautiful ivory leg, Stubb. It’s an honor… In old England, the greatest Lord think it great glory to be slapped by a queen … ye were kicked by Old Ahab and made a wise man of… account his kicks honours.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 95, chapter 31



… For nowadays, the whale-fishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic, melancholy, and absent-minded young men, disgusted with the carking cares of the earth, and seeking sentiment in tar and blubber.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 116, chapter 35



“What do ye do when ye see a whale men?” “Sing out for him.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 118, chapter 36



…that white whale must be the same that some call Moby Dick.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 119, chapter 36



That it was only then, on the homeward voyage, after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him, seems all but certain from the fact that, at intervals during the passage, he was a raving lunatic; and though unlimbed of a leg, yet such vital strength yet lurked in his Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a strait-jacket, he swung to the mad rockings of the gales. And when running into more sufferable latitudes, the ship, … floated across tranquil tropics, and to all appearances, the old man’s delirium seemed left behind him with the Cape Horn swells, and he came forth from his dark den into the blessed light and air; even then, when he bore that firm, collected front, however pale, and issued his calm orders once again; and his mates thanked God the direful madness was now gone; even then, Ahab in his hidden self, raved on. Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and feline thing. When you think it fled, it subsided not, but deepening contracted;…
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 136, chapter 41



Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own … various nations have in some way recognized a certain royal pre-eminence in this hue, … it applies to the human race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe… like among the Romans, a white stone marked a joyful day … among the Red Man of America, the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledged of honor … in the higher mysteries of the most august religions it has been made the symbol of the divine spotlessness and power … by the Persian fire worshippers … the white forked flame, … Greek mythologies … a snow white bull, … to the noble Iroquois … the sacred White dog … This elusive quality … to heighten that terror … witness the white bear of the poles, and the white shark of the tropics – what, but their smooth flaky whiteness makes them the transcendent horrors they are?
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 138-139, chapter 42

… a vulture feeds upon that heart forever; that vulture the very creature he creates.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 150, chapter 44


… in order to be adequately understood and moreover to take away any incredulity which a profound ignorance of the entire subject may induce in some minds.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 150, chapter 45


… it is a strange sight to the tyro to see with what wonderous habitude of unconscious skill the whaleman will maintain an erect posture in his boat, even when pitched about by the most riotously perverse and cross-running seas; … yet more curious for sustaining himself with a cod, indifferent, easy, unthought of barbaric majesty, the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmonously rolled his fine form.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 164, chapter 48



There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes his whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense, but his own.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 168, chapter 49



Mr. Flask… you are very experienced in these things, and I am not … will you tell me whether it is an unalterable law…for an oarman to break his own back, pulling himself back foremost into death’s jaws?
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 169, chapter 49



I thought I might as well go below and make a rough draft of my will.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 169, chapter 49



Were this world an endless plain, and by sailing eastward, we could forever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strange than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise in the voyage. But in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of, or in tormented chase of that demon phantom that, some time or other, swims before all human hearts – while chasing such over this round globe, they either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 176, chapter 52


But however prolonged and exhausted the chase, the harpooneer is expected to pull his oar meanwhile the uttermost; indeed, he is expected to set an example of superhuman activity to the rest, not only by incredible rowing, but by repeating loud and intrepid exclamations, and what it is to keep shouting at the top of one’s compass, while all the other muscles are strained and half started – what that is none know but those who have tried it.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 214, chapter 62



Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters.
erman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 214, chapter 63



… so, yet now that the creature was dead, some vague dissatisfaction , or impatience, or despair, seemed working in him, as if the sight of that dead body reminded him that Moby Dick was yet to be slain, and though a thousand other whales were brought to his ship, all that would not one jot advance this grand monomaniac object.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 216, chapter 64



Of all divers, thou hast dived the deepest. That head upon which the upper sun how gleams, has moved amid this worlds’ foundations. Where unrecorded names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; wherein her murderous hold his frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was they most familiar home. Thou has been where bell or diver never went; has slept by many a sailor’s side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down. Thou saw’st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them. Thou saw’st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw and neighbouring ship that would nave borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms. O head! Thou hast seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not on syllable is thine!
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 230, chapter 70



Every whale ship takes out a goodly number of letters for various ships, whose delivery to the persons to whom they may be addressed, depends upon the mere chance of encountering them in the four oceans. Thus, most letters never reach their mark; and many are only received after attaining an age of two or three years or more.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 235, chapter 71



It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that monkey-rope was fast at both ends, fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we to, for the time, were wedded ; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage and honour demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag me down in his wake. … So strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation the, that while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was not merged ina joint-stock company of two; that my free will had received a mortal wound
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 236, chapter 72



…I saw some sharks astern – St. Bernard’s dogs, you know – relieve distressed travelers. Hurrah! This is the way to sail now. … Here we go like three tin kettles at the tail of a mad cougar! This puts me in the mind of fastening to an elephant in a tilbury on a plain – makes the wheelspokes fly, boys, when you fasten to him that way; and there’s danger of being pitched out too, when you strike a hill! Hurrah! this is the way a fellow feels when he’s going to Davy ones – al la rush down an endless inclined plan! Hurrah! This whale carries the everlasting mail!
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 262, chapter 81



His eyes, or rather the places where his eyes had been, were beheld. As strange misgrown masses gather in the knot-holes of the noblest oaks when prostrate, so from the points which the whale’s eyes had on de occupied now protruded blind bulbs, horribly pitiable to see. But pity there was none. For all his old age and his one arm, and his blind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in order to light the gay bridals and other merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to all.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 264, chapter 81



It was not long after the sinking of the body that a cry was heard from the Pequod’s masthead, announcing that the Jungfrau was again lowering her boats; though the only spout in sight was that of Fin-Back, belonging to the species of uncapturable whales, because of its incredible power of swimming. Nevertheless, the Fin-Back’s spout is so similar to it. And consequently Derick and all his host were now in valiant chase of this unnearable brute. The Virgin crowding all sail, made after her four young keels, and thus they all disappeared far to leeward, still in bold, hopeful chase. Oh! Many are the Fin-Backs and many are the Dericks, my friend.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 267, chapter 81


Now in the whale ship, it is not everyone that goes into the boats Some few hands are reserved called shipkeepers, whose province is to work the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale. As a general thing, there shipkeepers are as hardy fellows as the men comprising the boats’ crews. But if there happen to be an unduly slender, clumsy, or timorous wight in the ship, that wight is certain to be made a shipkeeper
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 304, chapter 93



Stubb then in a plain, business like, but still half-humorous manner, cursed Pip officially, and that done, unofficially gave him much wholesome advice. The substance was, Never jump from a boat, Pip, except – but all the rest was indefinite, as the soundest advice ever is. Now in general stick to the boat, is your true motto in whaling, but cases will sometime happen when Leap from the boat, is still better. Stubb suddenly dropped all advice, and concluded with a peremptory command. “Stick to the boat, Pip, or by the Lord, I won’t pick you up if you jump, mind that. We can’t afford to lose whales by the likes of you; a whale would sell for thirty time what you would Pip in Alabama. Bear that in mind , and don’t jump anymore.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 305, chapter 93


Hereby perhaps Stubb indirectly hinted, that though man loved his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 306, chapter 93



Bible leaves! Bible leaves! This is the invariable cry from the mates to the mincer. It enjoins him to be careful, and cut his work into as think slices as possible, inasmuch as by so doing the business of boiling out the oil is much accelerated, and its quantity considerably increased, beside perhaps improving it in quality.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 310, chapter 95



In merchant men, oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of queens. To dress in the dark, and eat in the dark, and stumble in darkness to his pallet, this is his usual lot. But the wale man, as he seeks the food of light, so he lives in light. He makes his berth an Aladdin’s lamp, and lays him down in it; so that in the pitchiest night the ship’s black hull still houses an illumination. See with what entire freedom the whaleman takes his handful of lamps – often but old bottles and vials, though – to the copper cooler at the try-works, and replenishes them there, as mugs of ale at a vat.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 314, chapter 97



Yes; and many is the time, when, after the severest uninterrupted labours, which know no night; continuing straight through for ninety-six hours; when from the boat, where they have swelled their wrists with all day rowing on the Line, they only step to the deck to carry vast chains, and heave the heavy windlass, and cut the slash, and in the their very sweatings to be smoked and burned anew by the combined fires of the equatorial sun, and the equatorial try-works; when on the heel of all this, they have finally bestirred themselves to cleanse the ship, and make a spotless dairy room of it; many is the time the poor fellows, just buttoning the necks of their clean frocks, are startled by the cry of “There she blows!” and away they fly to fight another whale, and go through the whole weary things again. Oh! My friend, but his is man-killing! Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from the world’s vast bulk its small but valuable sperm; and then with, with weary patience, cleansed ourselves from its defilement, and learned to live here in clean tabernacles of the soul; hardly is this done, when There she blows! – the ghost is spouted up and away we sail to fight some other world, and go through young life’s old routine again.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 316, chapter 98




“Oh,” cried the one-armed captain, “oh, yes! Well; after he sounded, we didn’t see him again for some time; in fact, as I before hinted, I didn’t then know what whale it was that had served me such a trick, till some time afterwards, when coming back to the Line, we heard about Moby Dick – as some call him – and then I knew it was he.”
“Didst though cross his wake again?”
“Twice.”
“But could not fasten?”
“Didn’t want to try to: ain’t one limb enough? What should I do without this other arm. And I’m thinking Moby Dick doesn’t bite so much as he swallows.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 325, chapter 100


In 1778, a fine ship, the Amelia, fitted out for the express purpose, and at the sole charge of the vigorous Enderby’s, boldly rounded Cape Horn, and was the first among the nations to lower a whale boat of any sort in the great South Sea. They voyage was a skilful and lucky one, and returning to her berth with her hold full of the precious sperm, the Amelia’s example was soon followed by other ships….
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 327, chapter 101

Natural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness of the more enormous creatures of the glove, yet what shall we say to Harto, the Historian of Goa, when he tells us that at one hunting the King of Siam took 4000 elephants, that in those regions elephants are numerous as droves of cattle in the temperate climes. And there seems no reason to doubt that if these elephants, which have now been hunted for thousands of years, by Semiramis, by Porus, by Hannibal, and by all the successive monarchs of the East – if they still survive there in great numbers, much more may the great whale outlast all hunting, since has a pasture to expatiate in, which is precisely twice as large as all Asia, both Americas, Europe, and Africa. New Holland, and all the Isles of the sea combined.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 340, chapter 105



Wherefore, for all these things, we account the whale immortal in his species, however perishable in his individuality. He swam the seas before the continents broke water, he once swam over the site of the Tuileries and Windsor Castle, and the Kremlin. In Noah’s flood he despised Noah’s Art, and if ever the world is to be again flooded, like the Netherlands, to kill off it’s rats, then the eternal whale will still survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 341, chapter 105


“This is a cogent vice thou hast here, carpenter; let me feel its grip once. So so; it does pinch some.”
“Oh, sir, it will break bones – beware, beware!”
“ No fear, ; I like a good grip; I like to feel something in the slippery world that can hold, man.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 346, chapter 108


“Yes, I have heard something curious on that score, sir; how that a dismasted man never entirely loses the feeling of his old spar, but it will be still pricking him at times. May I humbly ask if it be really so, sir?”
“It is, man, Look, put thy live leg here in the place where mine once was, so , now, here is only one distinct leg to the eye, yet tow to the soul.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 347, chapter 108




“… a better man than I might well pass over in thee what he would quickly enough resent in a younger man; aye, and in a happier, Captain Ahab.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 349, chapter 109



He has been an artisan of famed excellence, and with plenty to do; owned a house and garden, embraced a youthful, daughter-like loving wife, and three blithe, ruddy children… But one night, under cover of darkness, and further concealed in almost cunning disguisement, a desperate burglar slid into his happy home, and robbed them all of everything. And darker yet to tell, the blacksmith himself did ignorantly conduct this burglar into this family’s heart. It was the Bottle Conjuror! Upon the opening of that fatal cork, forth flew the fiend, and shriveled up his home.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 356, chapter 112




Oh Death, why canst though not sometimes be timely? Hadst thou taken this old blacksmith to thyself ere his full ruin came upon him, then had the young widow had a delicious grief, and her orphans a truly venerable, legendary sire to dream of in their after years…”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 356, chapter 112



Ahab’s harpoon, the one forged at Perth’s fire, remained firmly lashed in its conspicuous crotch, so that it projected beyond his whale boat’s bow; but the sea that had stove its bottom had caused the loose leather sheath to drop off; and from the keen steel barb there now came a leveled flame of pale forked fire As the silent harpoon burned there like a serpent’s tongue, Starbuck grasped Ahab by the arm - “God, God is against thee, old man; forbear! ‘is an ill voyage ill begun, ill continued; let me square the yards, while we may, old man, and make a fair wind of it homeward, to go on a better voyage than this.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 371, chapter 119



Oh Death, why canst though not sometimes be timely? Hadst thou taken this old blacksmith to thyself ere his full ruin came upon him, then had the young widow had a delicious grief, and her orphans a truly venerable, legendary sire to dream of in their after years…”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 356, chapter 112


“What soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck? Man, man! did I knot know thee breave as fearless fire (and as mechanical) I could swear thou wert a poltroon. Groan nor laugh should be heard before a wreck.”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 403, chapter 133



For such is the wonderful skill prescience of experience, and invincible confidence acquired by some great natural genius among the Nantucket commanders, that from the single observation of a whale when last descried, they will, under certain given circumstances, pretty accurately foretell both the direction in which he will continue to swim for a time, while out of sight, as well as his probable rate of progression during that period.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 404, chapter 134

Aye, aye, Starbuck, ‘is sweet to lean sometimes, be the leaner who he will; and would old Ahab had leaned oftener than he has.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 409, chapter 134


Never, never wilt thou capture him, old man … Two days chased, twice stove to splinters; they very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil shadow gone – all good angles mobbing thee with warnings – what more wouldst thou have? Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man? … blasphemy to hunt him more!
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 410, chapter 134



Ahab is for ever Ahab
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 410, chapter 134




Here’s food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels, that tingling enough for mortal man! to think’s audacity. God only has that right and privilege. Thinking is, or ought to be a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb and our poor brains beat too much for that. And yet, I’ve sometimes thought my brain was very calm – frozen calm, this old skull cracks so, like a glass in which the contents turn to ice, and shiver it.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 411, chapter 135



Were I the wind, I’d blow nor more on such a a wicked miserable world. I’d crawl somewhere to cave, and slink there. And yet, ’tis a noble and heroic thing, the wind! Who ever conquered it? In every fight it has the last and bitterest blow. Run tilting at it, and you but run through it. Ha! A coward wind that strikes stark naked men, but will not stand to receive a single blow.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 411, chapter 135




“I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him!”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 412, chapter 135



Oh my captain, my captain! Noble heart – go not – go not! See it’s a brave man that weeps; how great the agony of the persuasion then.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, pg. 413, chapter 135


Vocabulary - Moby Dick

Blithe, pg. 356
Gay, joyful. Same as bliss; glad. From the Latin: latus. From the English: glad. Original word from Irish: lith, happiness.

Cabalistic, pg. 232
A Jewish doctor who professes the study of the cabala, or the mysteries of the Jewish traditions
CABALA – tradition, or a mysterious kind of science among Jewish Rabbins pretended to have been delivered to the ancient Jews by revelation and transmitted by oral tradition; serving for the interpretation of difficult passages of scriptures. This science consists chiefly in understanding the combination of certain letters, words and numbers, which are alleged to be significant. Every letter, word, number and accent of the law is supposed to contain a mystery and the cabalists pretend even to foretell future events by the study of this science.


Evanescence, pg. 405
To vanish; a vanishing; a gradual departure from sight or possession either by removal to a distance or by dissipation as vapor; the state of being liable to vanish and escape possession.

Game, pg. 353
To jest; opposed to earnest. Scheme pursued; measures planned


Laudanum, pg. 232 –
Opium dissolved in spirit or wine; tincture of opium

Peremptory, pg. 88
Taken away, killed. Express; positive; absolute; decisive authoritative; in a manner to precluded debate or expostulation The orders of the commander are preemptory. Positive in opinion or judgment. The genuine effect of sound learning is to make men less peremptory in their determinations. Final determinate. Peremptory challenge in law, a challenge of right of challenging jurors without showing cause.

Pertinacious, pg. 404
Holding or adhering to any opinion, purpose or design; obstinate; perversely resolute or persistent; resolute; firm; constant; steady

Poltroon, pg. 403
An idle fellow, a coward; a lazy fellow, to sleep; to be idle

Pugnacious, pg. 86
A fight; from pugnus, the fist. Disposed to fight; inclined to fighting; quarrelsome; fighting

Quadrant, pg. 366
An instrument for taking the altitudes of the sun or stars, or great use in astronomy and navigation. Quadrants are variously made, but they all consist of the quarter of a circle whose limb is divide into ninety degrees;

Singular, pg. 232
Single; not complex or compound. The idea which represent one determinate things I called a singular idea, whether simple, complex or compound. In grammar expressing one person or thing. Particular; existing by itself; unexampled; as a singular phenomenon. Your case is hard, but not singular. Remarkable,; eminent; unusual; rare; as a man of singular, gravity or singular attainments. Not common; odd, implying something censurable or not approved. Being alone that of which there is but one.

Tilbury, pg. 262 (couldn’t find)

DESCARTES, Rene Descartes, Discourse on the Method

René Descartes: Discourse on the Method

The following quotes all are from the Biographical note, pg. ix

“I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors, that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had not effect other than the increasing discovery of my own ignorance.”

Descartes spent the remainder of his youth in traveling, “resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself or of the great book of the world.”

“…when I was filled with enthusiasm I discovered the foundations of the wonderful science.” The discovery was followed by a series of three dreams which left Descartes the impression that “the Spirit of Truth had opened to him the treasures of all the sciences.”

1629-1649
He disliked dwelling for long in the same place and during that time changed his residence 24 times, concerned only it would appear, to be in the neighborhood of a university and a Catholic Church. From the Biographical note, pg. x


Descartes wrote:
But I shall not hesitate to say that I have had great good fortune from my youth up in lighting upon and pursuing certain paths which have conducted me to considerations and maxims from which I have formed a method, by whose assistance it appears to me I have had the means of gradually increasing my knowledge and of little by little raising it up to the highest possible point which the mediocrity of my talents and the brief duration of my life can permit me to reach.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 41

Descartes wrote:
I do not cease to receive extreme satisfaction in the progress which I seem to have already made in the search after truth, and to form such hopes for the future as to venture to believe that , if amongst the occupations of men, simply as men, there is some one in particular that is excellent and important, that is the one which I have selected.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42


Descartes wrote:
It must always be recollected, however that possibly I deceive myself, and that what I take to be gold and diamonds is perhaps no more than copper and glass. I know how subject we are to delusion in whatever touches ourselves, and also how much the judgments of our friends out to be suspected when they are in our favour.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42


Descartes wrote:
I was given to believe that by their means a clear and certain knowledge could be obtained of all that is useful in life, I had an extreme desire to acquire instruction. Bout so soon as I had achieved the entire course of study at the close of which one is usually receive into the ranks of the learned, I entirely changed my opinion. For I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors, that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had not effect other than the increasing discovery of my own ignorance.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42


Descartes wrote:
I even read through all the books which fell into my hands, treating of what is considered most curious and rare. Along with this I knew the judgments that other had formed of me and I did not feel that I was esteemed inferior to my fellow-students, although there were amongst them some destined to fill the places of our masters. And finally our century seemed to me as flourishing, and as fertile in great minds, as any which had preceded. And this made me take the liberty of judging all others by myself and of coming to the conclusion that there was no learning in the world such as I was formerly led to believe it to be.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42


Descartes wrote:
I knew that the Languages which one learns there are essential for the understanding of all ancient literature; that fables with their charm stimulate the mind and histories of memorable deeds exalt it; and that, when read with discretion, these books assist in forming a sound judgment. I was aware that the reading of all good books is in deed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, a nay a carefully studied conversation, win which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42


Descartes wrote:
I deemed Eloquence to have a power and beauty beyond compare; that Poesy has most ravishing delicacy and sweetness; that in Mathematics there are the subtlest discoveries and inventions which may accomplish much both satisfying the curious, and in furthering all the arts, and in diminishing man’s labour, that those writing that deal with Morals contain much that is instructive, and many exhortation to virtue which are most useful that Theology point out the way to Heaven, that Philosophy teaches us to speak with an appearance of truth on all things, and causes us to be admires by the less learned; that Jurisprudence, Medicine and all other sciences bring honour and riches to those who cultivate them; and finally that it is good to have examined all things, even those most full of superstition and falsehood, in order that we may know their just value, and avoid being deceived by them.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42


Descartes wrote:
But I considered that I had already given sufficient time to languages and likewise even to the reading of the literature of the ancients, both their histories and their fables. For to converse with those of other centuries is almost the same thing as to travel. It is good to know something of the customs of different peoples in order to judge more sanely of our own, and not to think that everything of a fashion not ours is absurd and contrary to reason, as do those who have seen nothing. But when one employs too much time in traveling, one become a stranger in one’s own country, and when one is too curious about things which were practiced in past centuries, one is usually very ignorant about those which are practiced in our own time.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43




Descartes wrote:
Besides, fables make one imagine many events possible which in reality are not so…
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43




Descartes wrote:
I esteemed Eloquence most highly and I was enamoured of Poesy, but I thought that both were gifts of the mind rather than fruits of study.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43


Descartes wrote:
…considering how many conflicting opinions there may be regarding the self-same matter, all supported by learned people, while there can never be more than one which is true, I esteemed as well-night false all that only went as far as being probably.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43




Descartes wrote:
Again I thought that since we have all been children before being men, and since it has for long fallen to us to be governed by our appetites and by our teachers who often enough contradicted one another, and none of whom perhaps counseled us always for the best, it is almost impossible that our judgments would be so excellent or solid as they should have been had we had complete use of our reason since our birth, and had we been guided by its means alone.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 45




Descartes wrote:
The simple resolve to strip oneself of all opinions and beliefs formerly received is not to be regarded as an examples that each man should follow, and the world may be said to be mainly composed of two classes of minds neither of which could prudently adopt it.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46




Descartes wrote:
There are those who, believing themselves to be cleverer than they are, cannot restrain themselves from being precipitate in judgment and have not sufficient patience to arrange their thoughts in proper order; hence, once a man of this description had taken the liberty of doubting the principles he formerly accepted, and had deviated from the beaten tack, he would never be able to maintain the path which must be followed to read the appointed end more quickly, and he would hence remain wandering astray all through his life.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46


Descartes wrote:
I had been taught…that there is nothing imaginable so strange or so little credible that it has not be maintained by one philosopher or another…
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46




Descartes wrote:
…I further recognized in the course of my travels that all those whose sentiments are very contrary to ours are yet not necessarily barbarians or savages, but may be possessed of reason in as great or even a greater degree than ourselves.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46



Descartes wrote:
I likewise noticed how even in the fashions of one’s clothing the same thing that please us ten years ago, and which will perhaps please us once again before ten years are passed, seem at the present time extravagant and ridiculous.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46


Descartes wrote:
I did not at the same time hope for any practical result in so doing, except that my mind would become accustomed to the nourishment of truth and would not consent itself to false reasoning.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 47



Descartes wrote about the maxims he decided upon:
1 - Obey the laws and customs of my country…adhering constantly …to religion…
2 – firm and resolute in my actions
3 – conquer self rather than fortune
4 – review various occupations…to choose the best for self
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 3, pg. 48 - 49


Descartes wrote:
…lost in a forest, now that they out not to wander first to one side and then to the other, nor still less, to stop in one place, but understand that they should continue to walk as straight as they can in one direction, not diverging for any slight reason… By this means if they do not go exactly where they wish, they will at least arrive somewhere… Where they will be better off than in the middle of a forest.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 3, pg. 49



Descartes wrote:
… because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wished to suppose that nothing is just as they cause us to imagine it to be; and because there are men who deceive themselves in their reasoning and fall into paralogisms, even considering the simplest matters of geometry, and judging that I was as subject to error as any other, I rejected as false all the reasons formerly accepted by me as demonstrations.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 4, pg. 51



Descartes wrote:
What causes many, however to persuade themselves that there is difficulty in knowing this truth, and even in knowing that nature of their soul, is the fact that they never raise their minds avobe the things of sense… … to hear sounds or smell odours, they should wish to make use of their eyes; excepting that there is indeed this difference, that the sense of sight does not give us less assurance of the truth of it’s object, than do those of scent or of hearing, while neither our imagination nor our senses can ever assure us of anything, if our understanding does not intervene.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 4, pg. 53



Descartes wrote:
When a metaphysical certainty is in question, that there is sufficient cause for our not having complete assurance, by observing the fact that when asleep we may similarly imagine that we have another body, and that we see other stars and another earth, without there being anything of the kind. For how do we know that the thoughts that come in dreams are more false than those that we have when we are awake…

For even if in sleep we had some very distinct idea such as a geometrician might have who discovered some new demonstration, the fact of being asleep would not militate against the truth.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 4, pg. 53- 54


Descartes wrote:
…to speak of many matters of dispute among the learned, which whom I have no desire to embroil myself, I think that I will be better to abstain.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 54


Descartes wrote:
… I tried to demonstrate all those of which one could have any doubt, and to show that they are of such a nature that even if God had created other worlds, He could not have created any in which these law would fail to be observed. After that I showed h how the greatest part of the matter of which this chaos is constituted, must in accordance with these laws dispose and arrange itself in such a fashion as to render it similar to our heaven; and how meantime some of its parts must form an earth, some planets, and comets, and some others a sun and fixed stars. And enlarging on the subject of light, I here explained at length the nature of the light which would be found in the sun and stars, and how from these it crossed in an instant the immense space of the heavens and how it was reflected form the planets and comets to the earth….I had expressly presupposed that God had not placed any weight in the matter of which it is composed, its parts did not fail all to gravitate exactly to its centre; and how having water and air on its surface, the disposition of the heavens and of the stars more particularly of the moon, must cause a flux or reflux, which in all it’s circumstances is similar to that which is observed in our seas, and besides that, a certain current both of water and air from east to west, such as may also be observed in the tropics.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55


Descartes wrote:
…And because I knew nothing but fire which could produce light, excepting the stars, I studied amongst other things to make very clear tall that pertains to it’s nature, how it is formed, how nourished, how there is sometimes only heat without light, and sometimes light without heat; I showed too, how different colours might by it be induced upon different bodies and qualities of diverse kinds, how some of these were liquefied and others solidified, how nearly all can be consumed or converted into ashes and smoke by its means, and finally how of these ashes, but the intensity of its action alone, it forms glass. Since this transformation of ashes into glass seemed to me as wonderful as any other process in nature, I took particular pleasure in describing it.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55


Descartes wrote:
I did not at the same time which to infer from all these fact that this world has been created in the manner which I described; for it is much more probably that tat the beginning God mad it such as it was to be. But it is certain, and it is an opinion commonly received by the theologians that the action by which He now preserves it is just the same as that by which He at first created it. In this way, although He had not, to being with, given this world any other form than that of chaos, provided that the laws of nature had once been established and that He had lent His aid in order that is action should be according to its wont, we may well believe without doing outrage to the miracle of creation, that by this means alone all things which are purely material might in course of time have become as such as we observe them to be at present; and their nature is much easier to understand when we see them coming to pass little by little in this manner, than were we to consider them as all complete to begin with.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55


Descartes wrote:
And we ought not to confound speech with natural movements which betray passion and my be imitated by machines as well as be manifested by animals; nor must we think as did some of the ancients, that brutes talk, although we do not understand their language. For it this were true, since they have many organs which are allied to our own, they could communicate their thoughts to us just as easily as to those of their own race.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 60


Descartes wrote:
For next to the error of those who deny God, which I think I have already sufficiently refuted, there is none which is more effectual in leading feeble spirits from the straight path of virtue, than to imagine that the soul of the brute is of the same nature as our own, and that in consequence, after this life we have nothing to fear or to hope for, any more than the flies and ants.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 60


Descartes wrote:
.. I was commencing to revise it in order to place it in the hands of a printer, when I learned that certain persons, to whose opinion I defer, and whose authority cannot have less weight with my actions than my own reason has over has over my thoughts, had disapproved of a physical theory published a little while before by another person [Galileo]. I will not say that I agreed with this opinion, but only that before their censure I observed in it nothing which I could possibly imagine to be prejudicial either to Religion or the State.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 60


Descartes wrote:
…this made me fear that among my own opinions one might be found which should be misunderstood, notwithstanding the great care which I have always taken not to accept any new beliefs unless I had very certain proof of their truth, and not to give expression that what could tend to the disadvantage of any person.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 60


Descartes wrote:
…to examine them carefully, (for these Is no doubt that we always scrutinize more closely what we think will be seen by many, than what is done simply for ourselves, and often the things which have seemed true to me when I began to think about them, seemed false when I ttried to place them on paper);
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 62


Descartes wrote:
… it hardly ever happens that any of their disciples surpass them [the ancient philosophers] … those who must passionately follow Aristotle, now-a-days would think themselves happy if they had as much knowledge of nature as he had. … like the Ivy that never tried to mount above the trees which give it support.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 64







VOCABULARY - René Descartes: Discourse on the Method

Pg. 46, syllogismsdeductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises

Pg. 46, superfluousexcess, extra, redundant, spare, supererogatory, superfluous,supernumerary, surplusmore than is needed, desired, or required; "trying to lose excessweight"; "found some extra change lying on the dresser"; "yet anotherbook on heraldry might be thought redundant"; "skills made redundantby technological advance"; "sleeping in the spare2 otiose, pointless, superfluous, wastedserving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being; "otiose linesin a play"; "advice is wasted words

Pg. 47, multiplicitythe property of being multiple

Pg. 47 precipitationhaste, hastiness, hurry, hurriedness, precipitation overly eager speed (and possible carelessness); "he soon regrettedhis haste"

Pg. 47, reconditedifficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinaryunderstanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstrusethat students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory";"some recondite problem in historiography"

Pg. 51, paralogismsan unintentionally invalid argument

Pg. 54, chimeraa grotesque product of the imagination