All horses ain't virtuous
Phil Walsh
When horses were a dominant locomotive force, maybe it would have been common to attribute such things to them. In that case, the peg-legged man seems to be asserting that if you deal with enough horses you will come to have a dim view of them.
It's a striking passage--clear and forceful, in a chapter that can seem murky and meandering. And it strikes me as an odd way to talk about horses, or virtue.
--Phil Walsh
- - - - - - - - -
"Never you mind how it is"--with a sneer; "but all horses aint virtuous, no more than all men kind; and come close to, and much dealt with, some things are catching. When you find me a virtuous jockey, I will find you a benevolent wise man."
Hardeman
Dear Phil,
My uncle had a horse named Satan. That horse would suddenly veer under a tree with a low branch and unseat his rider. As a rider I found this to be a lack of virtue as well as an agenda against all who would mount him. He also yawned and according to today's BBC http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160824-why-do-horses-yawn this may indicate excitement or stress. If horses can know stress they should also know the contentment of harmony with life.
Now it is well known that Socrates claimed virtue is innate in humans (horses were not mentioned). Socrates proved his case in a dialog with an uneducated slave that Plato recorded for us. Further he demonstrated that adhering to virtue is the source of happiness and a harmony with life. Melville on the other hand often described situations where people disdain virtue and therefor suffer the consequences. His advocates of an agenda over virtue include the wooden (whalebone) legged men whose vengeance was more important than their happiness. Indeed they preached vengeance was happiness.
So I see the wooden legged man in the CM as the setup man for the advocates of confidence. His eagerness to expose the fake and false in others is his agenda. When Black Guinea disarms his attack by acting the helpless victim and thus arousing the crowd's innate virtue to protect the victim, we see the affect of virtue. “[The man with the wooden leg] to prove his alleged imposture on the spot, [would] have stripped him and then driven him away, but was prevented by the crowd's clamor, now taking part with the poor fellow, against one who had just before turned nearly all minds the other way.”
Melville demonstrates the innateness of virtue in the crowd. However he was quick to point out that adherence to virtue in a crowd is fleeting in the followup of the “spectacle of a man hanged by his friends.”
So if Satan the horse can yawn and have an agenda to unhorse his rider, horses like people may indeed find temporary satisfaction in vengeance. The question for me as a reader is in what do I place my confidence? In some theoretical agenda or in virtue so quickly tossed out by a new challenge to trustworthiness.
Before your intriguing question the virtue in confidence was “not wholly unsurmised” but thankfully you brought it out.
Hardeman
Phil Walsh
>
sentiment, and actually the opposite of typical thinking. The
"benevolent wise man" is practically a stereotype. Benevolence and
wisdom go hand-in-hand, at least in an ideal world.
For those readers who think the one-legged man is a cameo by the author,
I think this passage poses a challenge.
--Phil Walsh
Hardeman
Phil,
The man with the wooden leg has already defined the opposition that is the entire book. “Charity is one thing, and truth is another,” "here on earth, true charity dotes, and false charity plots. . .” And he has described himself as “"some such pitiless man as has lost his piety in much the same way that the jockey loses his honesty." So his “ some things are catching” is the temptation of the love of money that corrupts jockeys is the same cynicism that sees all wise men who place confidence in the virtue of charity as being conned. They are not unwise they just do not know that charity is not true.
This jaundiced view is not so rare as you may infer as millions who claim to be Christians believing in faith , hope, and charity today are now supporting a candidate who advocates the equivalence to “here on earth, true charity dotes, and false charity plots."
For me the CM confronts the reader with this basic conflict, do I love and have confidence in money or do I love and have confidence in my fellow man.
Hardeman
Phil Walsh
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Hardeman
Ffrangcon Lewis
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Stephen Hoy
From: 'Ffrangcon Lewis' via Ishmailites
Sent: 8/29/2016 7:40 AM
To: ishma...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: All horses ain't virtuous
Stephen Hoy
Other thoughts:
The name Black Guinea has a connection to horse racing in a couple of ways. Guinea refers to the region of West Africa where black slaves were shipped, which also was the source of precious metal for the guinea coin. Several horse races in England staked the prize money in guineas; such as the 1000 Guinea Stakes, 2000 Guinea Stakes & others. Also, thoroughbred sales were negotiated in guineas to facilitate a commission for the seller's agent.
The noun jockey was commonly used as a synonym for 'cheat'.
These tidbits help me better appreciate HM's wit.
One more item. In Ch 1, HM writes that the chalkboard retains the word charity much as the leftmost digits of a date. This obliquely alludes to the date field of a banknote which were printed with the digits of the century pre-filled as _________ 19__. This was for the convenience of the bank's treasurer who would fill in the day month year before applying his signature.
From: 'Ffrangcon Lewis' via Ishmailites
Sent: 8/29/2016 7:40 AM
To: ishma...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: All horses ain't virtuous
Phil Walsh
Thanks much for the illuminating replies.
I’ve learned that Moby-Dick encourages a prolonged engagement with it because every chapter is an entry-point to a multiplicity of other readings. Apparently, CM is no different in that regard.
Phil
> On Aug 30, 2016, at 7:17 PM, Stephen Hoy <stephe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> After quite a bit of digging, I believe the virtuous horse in CM ch3 alludes to Aristotle's discussion of virtue in Nicomachean Ethics book 2 Chapter 6. Note also Aristotle's definition of virtue as a mean between extremes, which may explain Melville's pervasive use of litotes.
>
> Other thoughts:
>
> The name Black Guinea has a connection to horse racing in a couple of ways. Guinea refers to the region of West Africa where black slaves were shipped, which also was the source of precious metal for the guinea coin. Several horse races in England staked the prize money in guineas; such as the 1000 Guinea Stakes, 2000 Guinea Stakes & others. Also, thoroughbred sales were negotiated in guineas to facilitate a commission for the seller's agent.
>
> The noun jockey was commonly used as a synonym for 'cheat'.
>
> These tidbits help me better appreciate HM's wit.
>
> One more item. In Ch 1, HM writes that the chalkboard retains the word charity much as the leftmost digits of a date. This obliquely alludes to the date field of a banknote which were printed with the digits of the century pre-filled as _________ 19__. This was for the convenience of the bank's treasurer who would fill in the day month year before applying his signature.
Ffrangcon Lewis
Phil Walsh
I scanned the remainder of Chapter 6 for comments on kindess but nothing jumped out at me.
Frangcon's suggestion that Melville's use of litotes in CM might at times be parodic sounds right to me.
Phil