Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER 25

  Postscript

  In behalf of the dignity of whaling, I would fain advance naughtbut substantiated facts. But after embattling his facts,an advocate who should wholly suppress a not unreasonable surmise,which might tell eloquently upon his cause--such an advocate,would he not be blame-worthy?

  It is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens,even modern ones, a certain curious process of seasoning themfor their functions is gone through. There is a saltcellarof state, so called, and there may be a caster of state.How they use the salt, precisely--who knows? Certain I am,however, that a king's head is solemnly oiled at his coronation,even as a head of salad. Can it be, though, that theyanoint it with a view of making its interior run well,as they anoint machinery? Much might be ruminated here,concerning the essential dignity of this regal process,because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellowwho anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing.In truth, a mature man who uses hairoil, unless medicinally,that man has probably got a quoggy spot in him somewhere.As a general rule, he can't amount to much in his totality.

  But the only thing to be considered here is this--what kind of oil is usedat coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil,nor castor oil, nor bear's oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil.What then can it possibly be, but the sperm oil in its unmanufactured,unpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils?

  Think of that, ye loyal Britons! we whalemen supply your kingsand queens with coronation stuff!