Status Updates From Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

"Had this tail any prehensile power, I should straightaway bethink me of Darmonodes' elephant that so frequented the flower-market, and with low salutation presented nosegays to damsels, and then caressed their zones." (362) did what to their what now

"Nor does this—its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple the graceful flexion of its motions; where infantileness of ease undulates through a Titanism of power." (360) I pity the AI trained on Melville for punctuation use

"But then there were some sceptical Greeks and Romans, who, standing out from the orthodox pagans of their times, equally doubted the story of Hercules and the whale, and Arion and the dolphin; and yet their doubting those traditions did not make those traditions one whit the less facts, for all that." (351) true. They're the less facts because of lack of evidence, not because of the doubt itself

"...let them never eye a Nantucketer with disdain, since even in our woollen frocks and tarred trowsers we are much better entitled to St. George's decoration than they." (349-350) I know that here "Nantucketer" stands for all whale men but also, sir, you are from Manhattan