和那些尸臭沖天的戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)比起來(lái),捕鯨船上滑溜溜的甲板不知要干凈多少倍呢!那些操縱殺人武器的士兵們回到后方時(shí),會(huì)受到人們的熱烈歡迎,肉林酒池的招待會(huì)讓他們昏昏然。
would quickly recoil at the apparition of the spermwhale's vast tail, fanning into eddies the air over hishead.
不過(guò),如果讓他們?nèi)ッ鎸?duì)抹香鯨的尾巴,大概沒有幾個(gè)還能站住腳而不癱在地上。
For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors andwonders of God!
人類頭腦中的恐怖觀念,無(wú)論如何也是不能與神秘的上帝奇觀相比較的。
But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us theprofoundest homage;
當(dāng)然,人們?cè)谝庾R(shí)到那些照耀我們這個(gè)星球的燈燭都是由鯨魚油制成的時(shí)候,還是對(duì)我們這樣的人心懷敬意的,因?yàn)槲覀兊膭趧?dòng)為大家?guī)?lái)了光明。
yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn roundthe globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!
那么就讓我們來(lái)看看捕鯨者都是些什么人,他們的所作所為究竟如何吧。
But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of scales; see what we whalemen are,and have been.
不過(guò),以下幾個(gè)史實(shí)也許需要重申一下:
Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals of their whaling fleets? Why did Louis XVI.of France, at his own personal expense,
在荷蘭的德·威特時(shí)代,捕鯨船上設(shè)有大將軍銜的軍官;
fit out whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some score or two offamilies from our own island of Nantucket?
路易十六自己掏錢雇了許多南塔開特人到敦刻爾克購(gòu)置了捕鯨船;