This is Moby Dick Chapter 25: Postscript (summary).
Vocabulary Words found in this chapter: Moby Dick Chapter 25: Postscript (Vocabulary Words)
Previous Chapter: Moby Dick Chapter 24: The Advocate (summary)
To serve as a postscript or epilogue for the justifications of Ishmael in the previous chapter, and on behalf of the dignity of whaling, Ishmael would like to say nothing but facts.
Many of us may not know how kings and queens use their salt. But what we do know for certain is that a king’s head is solemnly oiled at his coronation. And this is something to be considered as special since this is the anointing of a new king!
In common life, a fellow also uses oil on his hair. Because of that, he also wears the same scent of a king’s head.
But what kind of oil is used at coronations? It cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear’s oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil. Then what is it? It’s none other than the sperm oil1pale yellow oil obtained with spermaceti from the head cavity (spermaceti organ) and blubber of the sperm whale. Formerly used as a superior lighting oil and later as a lubricant, it was little used in the modern period apart from in certain toiletries and pharmaceuticals, although in 1950 advances in oil chemistry allowed it to be used in large quantities for the manufacture of soap. in its unmanufactured, unpolluted state. It is the sweetest of all oils.
In conclusion, whalemen supply kings and queens stuff (oils) for their coronation, a strong evidence that substantiates2to establish by proof or competent evidence the dignity in whaling!
End of Moby Dick Chapter 25: Postscript (summary).