Ahab's Leg

Captain ahab had lighted with such energy upon a thwart of his boat that his ivory leg had received a half splintering shock. He too plainly seemed to see that as the most poisonous reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind, so equally, with every felicity, all miserable events do naturally beget their like. For even the highest earthly felicities ever have a certain insignifying pettiness lurking in them,. but at bottom, all heart woes a mystic significance, and, in some men, an arch angelic grandeur.