385 
THE WHITE WHALE 
As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck ; after the hitter 
exertion at the windlass ; under a blue tranquil sky ; the ship under in- 
dolent sail, and gliding so serenely along ; as I bathed my hands among 
these soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, woven almost within the 
hour ; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opu- 
lence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as I snuffed up that uncontam- 
inated aroma, literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets ; I de- 
clare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow ; I forgot 
all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my 
hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan 
superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger ; 
while bathing in that bath, I felt divinely free from all ill-will, or 
petulance, or malice, of any sort whatever. 
Squeeze ! squeeze ! squeeze ! all the morning long ; I squeezed 
that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm 
till a strange sort of insanity came over me ; and I found myself unwit- 
tingly squeezing my co-labourers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for 
the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving 
feeling did this avocation beget ; that at last I was continually squeezing 
their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as 
to say, — “Oh ! my dear fellow-beings, why should we longer cherish any 
social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humour or envy! Cbme; 
let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into 
each other ; let us squeeze universally into the very milk and sperm of 
kindness.” 
Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever ! For now, 
since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in 
all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of 
attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the 
fancy ; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire- 
side, the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to 
squeeze case eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw 
long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of sperma- 
ceti. 
How, while discoursing of sperm, it behoves to speak of other things 
