« An Anti-War Circular Firing Squad | Main | "McJob" »
"A Canopy of Vapor"
27 Mar 2007 07:19 am
A reader sends in this quote from Moby Dick, in the chapter called "The Fountain." He said the Harris blogalogue prompted him to email it to me. It's a reminder of what prose can be at its best:
"And how nobly it raises our conceit of the mighty, misty monster, to behold him solemnly sailing through a calm tropical sea; his vast, mild head overhung by a canopy of vapor, engendered by his incommunicable contemplations, and that vapor - as you will sometimes see it - glorified by a rainbow, as if Heaven itself had put its seal upon his thoughts. For d'ye see, rainbows do not visit the clear air; they only irradiate vapor. And so, through all the thick mists of the dim doubts in my mind, divine intuitions now and then shoot, enkindling my fog with a heavenly ray. And for this I thank God; for all have doubts; many deny; but doubts or denials, few along with them, have intuitions. Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who regards them both with equal eye."
(Photo: Junko Kimura/Getty.)
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2224950/17226610
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference '"A Canopy of Vapor"'
The essence of faith and science: doubt
Excerpt: I've been thinking a lot about truth, existence and faith lately. You can chalk it up to mid-life and skip this entry if stream-of-consciousness 'reflection' isn't your cup of tea :). I am a man of faith and a man...
Weblog: Daddy, Papa and Me
Tracked: Mar 27, 2007 3:14:29 PM
