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MOBY DICK; OR 
by their tower, have intended to rear the loftiest masthead in all Asia, 
or Africa either; yet (ere the final truck was put to it) as that great 
stone mast of theirs, may be said to have gone by the board, in the 
dread gale of God’s wrath; therefore, we cannot give these Babel 
builders priority over the Egyptians. And that the Egyptians were a 
nation of masthead standers, is an assertion based upon the general 
belief among archaeologists, that the first pyramids were founded for 
astronomical purposes: a theory singularly supported by the peculiar 
stair-like formation of all four sides of those edifices; whereby, with 
prodigious long upliftings of their legs, those old astronomers were 
wont to mount to the apex, and sing out for new stars; even as the 
lookouts of a modern ship sing out for a sail, or a whale just bearing 
in sight. In Saint Stylites, the famous Christian hermit of old times, 
who built him a lofty stone pillar in the desert and spent the whole lat- 
ter portion of his life on its summit, hoisting his food from the ground 
with a tackle ; in him we have a remarkable instance of dauntless stand- 
er-of-mastheads ; who was not to be driven from his place by fogs or 
frosts, rain, hail, or sleet; but valiantly facing everything out to the 
last, literally died at his post. Of modem standers-of-mastheads we 
have but a lifeless set; mere stone, iron, and bronze men; who, 
though well capable of facing out a stiff gale, are still entirely in- 
competent to the business of singing out upon discovering any strange 
sight. There is Napoleon; who, upon the top of the column of Yen- 
dome, stands with arms folded, some one hundred and fifty feet in the 
air ; careless, now, who rules the decks below ; whether Louis Philippe, 
Louis Blanc, or Louis Napoleon. Great Washington, too, stands high 
aloft on his towering mainmast in Baltimore, and like one of Her- 
cules’ pillars, his column marks that point of human grandeur beyond 
which few mortals will go. Admiral Nelson, also, on a capstan of 
gun-metal, stands his masthead in Trafalgar Square; and even when 
most obscured by that London smoke, token is yet given that a hidden 
hero is there; for where there is smoke, must be fire. But neither 
great Washington, nor Napoleon, nor Nelson, will answer a single 
hail from below, however madly invoked, to befriend by their counsels 
the distracted decks upon which they gaze ; however, it may be 
surmised, that their spirits penetrate through the thick haze of 
