CHAPTER 79. The Prairie.
This chapter presents the narrator’s attempt to read the physiognomy and phrenology of the Sperm Whale, comparing the challenge to deciphering a leviathan’s features with Lavater scrutinizing Gibraltar or Gall manipulating the Pantheon. Ishmael acknowledges his lack of qualification as a pioneer in applying these “semi-sciences” to the whale but commits to doing his best, echoing his motto of trying all things and achieving what he can.
Physiognomy of the Whale
The Sperm Whale is described as an anomalous creature when regarded physiognomically. Noting that Lavater studied not only human faces but also attentively examined horses, birds, serpents, and fish, and that Gall and Spurzheim offered hints about other beings’ phrenological characteristics, the narrator resolves to apply these sciences to the whale despite his limited qualifications.
The Nose of the Sperm Whale
The Sperm Whale has no proper nose, and since the nose is typically the most central and conspicuous feature controlling the combined expression of the face, its absence should significantly affect the whale’s countenance. The narrator draws an analogy to landscape gardening, where a spire or tower completes the scene, arguing that no face can be physiognomically complete without an elevated “open-work belfry of the nose.” However, the whale’s mighty magnitude renders this deficiency not a blemish but an added grandeur—a nose would have been impertinent.
The Full Front of the Head
In some particulars, the most imposing physiognomical view of the Sperm Whale is that of the full front of his head, which the narrator describes as sublime.
The Sublime Brow
The narrator meditates on brows: a fine human brow resembles the troubled morning East, a bull’s curled brow touches the grand, and an elephant’s brow is majestic pushing cannon through mountain defiles. Human brows often resemble mere strips of alpine land along the snow line, with few rising like Shakespeare’s or Melanchthon’s to reveal clear, eternal mountain lake eyes, their wrinkles tracking antlered thoughts. In the great Sperm Whale, this god-like dignity in the brow is immensely amplified—gazing at the full front view, one feels the Deity and dread powers more forcibly than any other living object. The whale has no distinct features—no nose, eyes, ears, mouth—only a broad firmament of a forehead pleated with riddles, “dumbly lowering with the doom of boats, ships, and men.”
Genius in the Whale
In profile, one perceives the horizontal semi-crescentic depression in the forehead’s middle that Lavater identified as a mark of genius. Yet the narrator questions whether genius in the whale means writing books or speaking speeches—the Sperm Whale’s great genius lies in doing nothing particular and in its pyramidical silence. Had the ancient Orient known this whale, they would have deified it, as they deified the tongueless crocodile of the Nile. The Sperm Whale has no tongue, or one so small as to be incapable of protrusion. If a cultured poetical nation ever restores the old gods, the great Sperm Whale shall lord it from Jove’s high seat.
The Unreadable Brow
Champollion deciphered Egypt’s hieroglyphics, but no Champollion exists to read the Egypt of every face. Physiognomy, like every human science, is but a passing fable. If Sir William Jones, who read thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant’s face, how can unlettered Ishmael hope to read the “awful Chaldee” of the whale’s brow? The chapter closes with the narrator placing that brow before the reader: “Read it if you can.”
CHAPTER 80. The Nut.
This chapter explores the anatomical mysteries of the sperm whale’s head and brain, challenging phrenological assumptions while proposing alternative methods for understanding the leviathan’s nature. Through detailed anatomical description and philosophical speculation, the chapter reveals the whale’s hidden intelligence and indomitable character.
The Whale’s Hidden Brain
The sperm whale’s skull measures at least twenty feet in length, with the visible head presenting a deceptive surface. When unhinged, the skull appears as an inclined plane, but in life it is squared by the enormous mass of junk and sperm. The true brain lies buried deep within—reposing in a cavity seldom exceeding ten inches in length and depth—positioned at least twenty feet from the apparent forehead. This brain is secreted like a choice casket behind vast outworks, analogous to the innermost citadel within the fortifications of Quebec. Some whalemen deny the whale possesses any brain beyond the cubic-yards of its sperm magazine, regarding the mysterious folds and convolutions as the seat of the whale’s intelligence.
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