英语听书《白鲸记》 第1期

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(Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher² to a Grammar School) 

 The pale Usher hreadbare in coat,heart,body,and brain;I see him now.He was ever dusting his old lexicons³ and grammars,with a queer handkerchief,mockingly embellished⁴ with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world.He loved to dust his old grammars;it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality. 

 While you take in hand to school others,and to teach them by what name a whale fish is to be called in our tongue leaving out,through ignorance,the letter H,which almost alone maketh the signification of the word,you deliver that which is not true.ACKLUYT 

 WHALE .... Sw.and Dan. HVAL.This animal is named from roundness or rolling;for in Dan. HVALT is arched or vaulted⁵.EBSTER'S DICTIONARY 

 WHALE .... It is more immediately from the Dut.and Ger. WALLEN;A.S. WALW IAN,to roll,to wallow.猂ICHARDSON'S DICTIONARY 

 KETOS,GREEK. 

 CETUS,LATIN. 

 WHOEL,ANGLO SAXON. 

 HVALT,DANISH. 

 WAL,DUTCH. 

 HWAL,SWEDISH. 

 WHALE,ICELANDIC. 

 WHALE,ENGLISH. 

 BALEINE,FRENCH. 

 BALLENA,SPANISH.PEKEE NUEE-NUEE,FEGEE.PEHEE NUEE-NUEE,ERROMANGOAN. 

 EXTRACTS(Supplied by a Sub Sub-Librarian). 

 It will be seen that this mere⁶ painstaking⁷ burrower⁸ and grub worm of a poor devil of a Sub Sub appears to have gone through the long Vaticans and street stalls of the earth,picking up whatever random⁹ allusions¹⁰ to whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever,sacred or profane¹¹.Therefore you must not,in every case at least,take the higgledy piggledy whale statements,however authentic,in these extracts,for veritable gospel cetology.Far from it.As touching¹² the ancient authors generally,as well as the poets here appearing,these extracts are solely¹³ valuable or entertaining,as affording a glancing bird's eye view of what has been promiscuously¹⁴ said,thought,fancied,and sung of Leviathan,by many nations and generations,including our own. 

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