Melville’s Metaphysics of Evil

MELVILLE'S METAPHYSICS OF EVIL R. E. WATTERS I FOR a youth (4 given to unseasonable meditativeness" a whaling .ship, we are told, is admirably qualified to start "the problem of the universe revolving" in his mind.' The problem undoubtedly obsessed Melville. In a letter to Hawthorne of June 29, 1851, Melville refers to the "ontological heroics" in which he was wont to indulge with his Lenox neighbour. Five years later, on meeting Hawthorne in England, he recurred to the subject. "Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything else that lies beyond human ken," Hawthorne wrote in his Journal for November 30, 1856. " He informed me that he has 'pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated'; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation, and I think will never rest until he gets hold of some definite belief. It is strange how he persists-and has persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before-in wandering to and fro over these deserts, as dismal and monotonous as the sandhills amidst which we were sitting. He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other."2 Melville, then, was a confirmed speculator in metaphysical problems, and even a cursory reading in his books will convince one that he fought out his mental struggles upon paper, placing in an imaginative cosmos protagonists which symbolized in concrete form his abstract questions. That he was aware of this use of symbolism is clear from . remarks in his letters, from numerous hints to the reader to look behind the printed word, and from his deliberate employment of parable and illustrative legend, notably in Mardi and Pierre.s lMo/;y-DicJt, I, p. 197. The edition of MelviJJe cited in this essay is The Works oj Herman Me/Dille, Lon,don, Constable and Co.) 1922-4; where"feasible the page references are given in brackets in the text. . 2Quoted in R. M. Weaver's Herman Meloilll, Mariner 411d Mystic, pp. 335-6. 'For Melville's awareness of deliberate symbolism see his letter quoted by R. M. Weaver, op. ,il., p. 327; in Fitrre his use of the parable of Enceladusi and in Moby-Dhk die chapter discussing the symbolism of tbe colour white, and I, pp. 229-30, 244, 257; H, p. 188. 170 MELVILLE'S METAPHYSICS OF EVIL R. E. WATTERS I FOR a youth (4 given to unseasonable meditativeness" a whaling .ship, we are told, is admirably qualified to start "the problem of the universe revolving" in his mind.' The problem undoubtedly obsessed Melville. In a letter to Hawthorne of June 29, 1851, Melville refers to the "ontological heroics" in which he was wont to indulge with his Lenox neighbour. Five years later, on meeting Hawthorne in England, he recurred to the subject. "Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything else that lies beyond human ken," Hawthorne wrote in his Journal for November 30, 1856. " He informed me that he has 'pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated'; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation, and I think will never rest until he gets hold of some definite belief. It is strange how he persists-and has persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before-in wandering to and fro over these deserts, as dismal and monotonous as the sandhills amidst which we were sitting. He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other."2 Melville, then, was a confirmed speculator in metaphysical problems, and even a cursory reading in his books will convince one that he fought out his mental struggles upon paper, placing in an imaginative cosmos protagonists which symbolized in concrete form his abstract questions. That he was aware of this use of symbolism is clear from . remarks in his letters, from numerous hints to the reader to look behind the printed word, and from his deliberate...