“Yea, more than equally, thought Ahab; since both the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy. For, not to hint of this: that it is an inference from certain canonic teachings, that while some natural enjoyments here shall have no children born to them for the other world, but, on the contrary, shall be followed by the joy-childlessness of all hell's despair; whereas, some guilty mortal miseries shall still fertilely beget to themselves an eternally progressive progeny of griefs beyond the grave; not at all to hint of this, there still seems an inequality in the deeper analysis of the thing. For, thought Ahab, while even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them, but, at bottom, all heart-woes, a mystic significance, and, in some men, an archangelic grandeur; so do their diligent tracings-out not belie the obvious deduction. To trail the genealogies of these high mortal miseries, carries us at last among the sourceless primogenitures of the gods; so that, in the face of all the glad, hay-making suns, and soft-cymballing, round harvest-moons, we must needs give in to this: that the gods themselves are not for ever glad. The ineffaceable, sad birth-mark in the brow of man, is but the stamp of sorrow in the signers.”
Quote by Herman Melville
Work
Moby Dick is a profound and complex novel that explores themes of obsession, fate, and the human condition. The story is narrated by Ishmael, a young man who signs on as a crew member of the Pequod, a whaling ship captained by the obsessed Ahab. The journey is fraught with danger and moral dilemmas, as the crew faces the perils of the sea and the relentless pursuit of their nemesis. The novel is renowned for its vivid descriptions of the ocean and its creatures, as well as its philosophical and existential musings. more
Author
Herman Melville was a renowned 19th-century American novelist known for his profound psychological descriptions and unique literary style. His masterpiece, 'Moby-Dick', is considered a classic of American literature. more
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