The pulpit
“Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.”
—Herman Melville, Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (1851), ch. 8.
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4 hours ago
Wednesday 28 December 2005
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Ha, Herman Melville's great. And that earlier quote is wonderful, just as that gentleman wrote. But this one here? Okay, I'll play the fool again (it does not take much theatrical skill on my part, I'm afraid) and ask: What the heck could he have meant by _that_?
Although some preachers have reminded me of that famous prow scene from the movie "Titanic", the one where K.Blanchett spreads her arms. That's true.
Hi Simon,
One (only one!) small difference between the Blanchett scene and Ben's quote is that in the chapel pulpit, unlike on the Titanic's prow, "the Holy Bible rested upon a projecting piece of scroll work, fashioned after a ship's fiddle-headed beak.
"What could be more full of meaning? - . . ." [Ben's quote soon follows.]
(By the way, the following chapter in M-D is entitled - "The Sermon".
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