Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
Page 80
CHAPTER 80
The Nut
If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphinx, to the phrenologist hisbrain seems that geometrical circle which it is impossible to square.
In the full-grown creature the skull will measure at least twenty feetin length. Unhinge the lower jaw, and the side view of this skullis as the side view of a moderately inclined plane resting throughouton a level base. But in life--as we have elsewhere seen--this inclinedplane is angularly filled up, and almost squared by the enormoussuperincumbent mass of the junk and sperm. At the high end the skullforms a crater to bed that part of the mass; while under the long floorof this crater--in another cavity seldom exceeding ten inches in lengthand as many in depth reposes the mere handful of this monster's brain.The brain is at least twenty feet from his apparent forehead in life;it is hidden away behind its vast outworks, like the innermost citadelwithin the amplified fortifications of Quebec. So like a choice casketis it secreted in him, that I have known some whalemen who peremptorilydeny that the Sperm Whale has any other brain than that palpablesemblance of one formed by the cubic-yards of his sperm magazine.Lying in strange folds, courses, and convolutions, to their apprehensions,it seems more in keeping with the idea of his general might to regardthat mystic part of him as the seat of his intelligence.
It is plain, then, that phrenologically the head of this Leviathan,in the creature's living intact state, is an entire delusion.As for his true brain, you can then see no indications of it,nor feel any. The whale, like all things that are mighty,wears a false brow to the common world.
If you unload his skull of its spermy heaps and then take a rearview of its rear end, which is the high end, you will be struckby its resemblance to the human skull, beheld in the same situation,and from the same point of view. Indeed, place this reversed skull(scaled down to the human magnitude) among a plate of men's skulls,and you would involuntarily confound it with them; and remarkingthe depressions on one part of its summit, in phrenological phraseyou would say--This man had no self-esteem, and no veneration.And by those negations, considered along with the affirmative factof his prodigious bulk and power, you can best form to yourselfthe truest, though not the most exhilarating conception of whatthe most exalted potency is.
But if from the comparative dimensions of the whale's proper brain,you deem it incapable of being adequately charted, then Ihave another idea for you. If you attentively regard almostany quadruped's spine, you will be struck with the resemblanceof its vertebrae to a strung necklace of dwarfed skulls,all bearing rudimental resemblance to the skull proper.It is a German conceit, that the vertebrae are absolutelyundeveloped skulls. But the curious external resemblance,I take it the Germans were not the first men to perceive.A foreign friend once pointed it out to me, in the skeleton of a foehe had slain, and with the vertebrae of which he was inlaying,in a sort of basso-relieve, the beaked prow of his canoe.Now, I consider that the phrenologists have omitted an importantthing in not pushing their investigations from the cerebellumthrough the spinal canal. For I believe that much of aman's character will be found betokened in his backbone.I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are.A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and noble soul.I rejoice in my spine, as in the firm audacious staff of that flagwhich I fling half out to the world.
Apply this spinal branch of phrenology to the Sperm Whale. His cranialcavity is continuous with the first neck-vertebra; and in that vertebrathe bottom of the spinal canal will measure ten inches across, being eightin height, and of a triangular figure with the base downwards.As it passes through the remaining vertebrae the canal tapers in size,but for a considerable distance remains of large capacity.Now, of course, this canal is filled with much the same strangelyfibrous substance--the spinal cord--as the brain; and directlycommunicates with the brain. And what is still more, for many feetafter emerging from the brain's cavity, the spinal cord remainsof an undecreasing girth, almost equal to that of the brain.Under all these circumstances, would it be unreasonable to survey and mapout the whale's spine phrenologically? For, viewed in this light,the wonderful comparative smallness of his brain proper is more thancompensated by the wonderful comparative magnitude of his spinal cord.
But leaving this hint to operate as it may with the phrenologists,I would merely assume the spinal theory for a moment, in referenceto the Sperm Whale's hump. This august hump, if I mistake not,rises over one of the larger vertebrae, and is, therefore, in some sort,the outer convex mould of it. From its relative situation then,I should call this high hump the organ of firmness or indomitablenessin the Sperm Whale. And that the great monster is indomitable,you will yet have reason to know.
CHAPTER 81
The Pequod Meets The Virgin