1 The law itself has already been set forth.
2 And thus there seems a reason in all things, even in law.
3 I stand alone here upon an open sea, with two oceans and a whole continent between me and law.
4 Yes; these laws might be engraven on a Queen Anne's farthing, or the barb of a harpoon, and worn round the neck, so small are they.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish. 5 But though no other nation has ever had any written whaling law, yet the American fishermen have been their own legislators and lawyers in this matter.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish. 6 Thus the most vexatious and violent disputes would often arise between the fishermen, were there not some written or unwritten, universal, undisputed law applicable to all cases.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish. 7 In the first place, in curious proof of the fact that the above-mentioned law is still in force, I proceed to lay before you a circumstance that happened within the last two years.
8 The allusion to the waif and waif-poles in the last chapter but one, necessitates some account of the laws and regulations of the whale fishery, of which the waif may be deemed the grand symbol and badge.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish. 9 Now as this law, under a modified form, is to this day in force in England; and as it offers in various respects a strange anomaly touching the general law of Fast and Loose-Fish, it is here treated of in a separate chapter, on the same courteous principle that prompts the English railways to be at the expense of a separate car, specially reserved for the accommodation of royalty.
10 I then went on, beginning with the rise and progress of the primitive religions, and coming down to the various religions of the present time, during which time I labored to show Queequeg that all these Lents, Ramadans, and prolonged ham-squattings in cold, cheerless rooms were stark nonsense; bad for the health; useless for the soul; opposed, in short, to the obvious laws of Hygiene and common sense.