📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 68
1What the white whale was to Ahab, has been hinted; what, at times, he was to me, as yet remains unsaid. Aside from those
2more obvious considerations touching Moby Dick, which could not but occasionally awaken in any man's soul some alarm,
3there was another thought, or rather vague, nameless horror concerning him, which at times by its intensity completely
4overpowered all the rest; and yet so mystical and well nigh ineffable was it, that I almost despair of putting it in a
5comprehensible form. It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me. But how can I hope to explain
6myself here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I must, else all these chapters might be naught. Though in
7many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in
8marbles, japonicas, and pearls; and though various nations have in some way recognised a certain royal preeminence in
9this hue; even the barbaric, grand old kings of Pegu placing the title "Lord of the White Elephants" above all their
10other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion; and the modern kings of Siam unfurling the same snow-white quadruped in the
11royal standard; and the Hanoverian flag bearing the one figure of a snow-white charger; and the great Austrian Empire,
12Cæsarian, heir to overlording Rome, having for the imperial colour the same imperial hue; and though this pre-eminence
13in it applies to the human race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe; and though,
14besides, all this, whiteness has been even made significant of gladness, for among the Romans a white stone marked a
15joyful day; and though in other mortal sympathies and symbolizings, this same hue is made the emblem of many touching,
16noble things--the innocence of brides, the benignity of age; though among the Red Men of America the giving of the white
17belt of wampum was the deepest pledge of honor; though in many climes, whiteness typifies the majesty of Justice in the
18ermine of the Judge, and contributes to the daily state of kings and queens drawn by milk-white steeds; though even in
19the higher mysteries of the most august religions it has been made the symbol of the divine spotlessness and power; by
20the Persian fire worshippers, the white forked flame being held the holiest on the altar; and in the Greek mythologies,
21Great Jove himself being made incarnate in a snow-white bull; and though to the noble Iroquois, the midwinter sacrifice
22of the sacred White Dog was by far the holiest festival of their theology, that spotless, faithful creature being held
23the purest envoy they could send to the Great Spirit with the annual tidings of their own fidelity; and though directly
24from the Latin word for white, all Christian priests derive the name of one part of their sacred vesture, the alb or
25tunic, worn beneath the cassock; and though among the holy pomps of the Romish faith, white is specially employed in the
26celebration of the Passion of our Lord; though in the Vision of St. John, white robes are given to the redeemed, and the
27four-and-twenty elders stand clothed in white before the great white throne, and the Holy One that sitteth there white
28like wool; yet for all these accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and honorable, and sublime, there yet
29lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness
30which affrights in blood. This elusive quality it is, which causes the thought of whiteness, when divorced from more
31kindly associations, and coupled with any object terrible in itself, to heighten that terror to the furthest bounds.
32Witness the white bear of the poles, and the white shark of the tropics; what but their smooth, flaky whiteness makes
33them the transcendent horrors they are? That ghastly whiteness it is which imparts such an abhorrent mildness, even more
34loathsome than terrific, to the dumb gloating of their aspect. So that not the fierce-fanged tiger in his heraldic coat
35can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded bear or shark. *With reference to the Polar bear, it may possibly be urged
36by him who would fain go still deeper into this matter, that it is not the whiteness, separately regarded, which
37heightens the intolerable hideousness of that brute; for, analysed, that heightened hideousness, it might be said, only
38rises from the circumstance, that the irresponsible ferociousness of the creature stands invested in the fleece of
39celestial innocence and love; and hence, by bringing together two such opposite emotions in our minds, the Polar bear
40frightens us with so unnatural a contrast. But even assuming all this to be true; yet, were it not for the whiteness,
41you would not have that intensified terror. As for the white shark, the white gliding ghostliness of repose in that
42creature, when beheld in his ordinary moods, strangely tallies with the same quality in the Polar quadruped. This
43peculiarity is most vividly hit by the French in the name they bestow upon that fish. The Romish mass for the dead
44begins with "Requiem eternam" (eternal rest), whence Requiem denominating the mass itself, and any other funeral music.
45Now, in allusion to the white, silent stillness of death in this shark, and the mild deadliness of his habits, the
46French call him Requin. Bethink thee of the albatross, whence come those clouds of spiritual wonderment and pale dread,
47in which that white phantom sails in all imaginations? Not Coleridge first threw that spell; but God's great,
48unflattering laureate, Nature. *I remember the first albatross I ever saw. It was during a prolonged gale, in waters
49hard upon the Antarctic seas. From my forenoon watch below, I ascended to the overclouded deck; and there, dashed upon
50the main hatches, I saw a regal, feathery thing of unspotted whiteness, and with a hooked, Roman bill sublime. At
51intervals, it arched forth its vast archangel wings, as if to embrace some holy ark. Wondrous flutterings and throbbings
52shook it. Though bodily unharmed, it uttered cries, as some king's ghost in supernatural distress. Through its
53inexpressible, strange eyes, methought I peeped to secrets which took hold of God. As Abraham before the angels, I bowed
54myself; the white thing was so white, its wings so wide, and in those for ever exiled waters, I had lost the miserable
55warping memories of traditions and of towns. Long I gazed at that prodigy of plumage. I cannot tell, can only hint, the
56things that darted through me then. But at last I awoke; and turning, asked a sailor what bird was this. A goney, he
57replied. Goney! never had heard that name before; is it conceivable that this glorious thing is utterly unknown to men
58ashore! never! But some time after, I learned that goney was some seaman's name for albatross. So that by no possibility
59could Coleridge's wild Rhyme have had aught to do with those mystical impressions which were mine, when I saw that bird
60upon our deck. For neither had I then read the Rhyme, nor knew the bird to be an albatross. Yet, in saying this, I do
61but indirectly burnish a little brighter the noble merit of the poem and the poet. I assert, then, that in the wondrous
62bodily whiteness of the bird chiefly lurks the secret of the spell; a truth the more evinced in this, that by a solecism
63of terms there are birds called grey albatrosses; and these I have frequently seen, but never with such emotions as when
64I beheld the Antarctic fowl. But how had the mystic thing been caught? Whisper it not, and I will tell; with a
65treacherous hook and line, as the fowl floated on the sea. At last the Captain made a postman of it; tying a lettered,
66leathern tally round its neck, with the ship's time and place; and then letting it escape. But I doubt not, that
67leathern tally, meant for man, was taken off in Heaven, when the white fowl flew to join the wing-folding, the invoking,
68and adoring cherubim!
🎉 全部完成！共 68 行