Yes, we became very wakeful; so much so that our recumbent position began to grow wearisome, and by little and little we found ourselves sitting up; the clothes well tucked around us, leaning against the headboard with our four knees drawn up close together, and our two noses bending over them, as if our knee-pans were warming-pans. We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly out of doors; indeed out of bed-clothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the room. The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm. For this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blankets between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air. Then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.- Herman Melville, Moby Dick, ch. 11, "Nightgown"
The coziest feeling in the world
Posts from This Journal “quotable things” Tag
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Mere mortals
from "The Weight of Glory", by C.S. Lewis: It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is…
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Maundy Thursday
“There is an easiness in salvation which is more difficult for us than all our efforts.” - Simone Weil These words of Simone Weil show…
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from Elliot's "The Rock"
Why should men love the chuch? Why should they love her laws? She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would forget. She is tender…
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