GNOSTIC MYTHOS IN MOBY-DICK By Tuomas Varctse N MOBY-DICK, Melville alluded to various eastern religions in addition to Christian Scholace noticing thete allusions have tended to group without much diserimination Zoroastrian fam (the fire worship of the Persians), Maniche- fam (belief ine universal duality of good and evi 4s cocteraal principles), Hindu myths (such as that of Vishow in Chapter laxct of Moby Dich), and, les frequently, Gnosticism (without indi ating how the particular doctrines apply to the novel)! Tn proposing to treet chieBy of Gnostic influences on Afoby-Dick, I shall contend thet Melvile applied Guostie myths and doctrines snore specifically and consistently than has been recognized, that he carefully distinguished be- tween Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism, and that certain passages in Meby- Dick require familiarity with the Gnostic mythos to he undeestoad. Hut only whea discussing the most obscure of these passages would I claim that the Gnostics alone Were in Melville's mind. No influence on his grest book was exclusive. Ia proving the influence of Gnostic thought upon it, T have ao wish to minimize the importance of let us say, Zoroaster, Milton, or the Hindus. Thus in demonstrating cone eastern raligion's influence upon Melville, it is not my intention to anseat another's, Melville probably obtained information about the Gnosties from several spurces, Interest in comparative religion was high on both sides of the Atlantic. F. D. Maurice preached the Boyle lectures, 1845-16, upon The Religions of the Worl including & discussion of Vishow and the Brahmin, Melville was familiar with John Kitto's Cyclopedia of Bitvical Literature, which contains some scanty information on the Gnos- ties. Of course, Gibbon had discussed them briefly in his Decline and Palas stil earlier, had Pierre Bayle in his Dictionary. But I have found these sources incomplete: they do not contain sufficient material to cover all the Gnostic alli Sons in. Moby-Dick, such a8 the reference to the Ophites im Chapter wi or the dark hints concem- ing what Ahab calls the “sweet mother.” ‘Melville's chiof source was probably Andrews Norton’s The Evidonces of the Gonuinencts of the Gospels, published in three volumes in. 1844. Widely read and discussed, Norton's study was a scholarly landmark of the period? OF this work, ‘written with obvious piety and remarkablelearn ing, Norton devoted the second and third vol- umes to evidences for the Gorpels provided by heretics, He believed that such evidences, origi nating in disinterested or, rather, independent minds, wotld heve particular forcoin proving the genuineness of Seriptare. In effort, his last to Solumes offered mid-century Americans « de- tailed account of the doctrines morals, and nyths of the second century Gnostcs, especially of the Valentinian school, the mest elaborate and, perhaps, exotic sect. Contained in the Evi- dences is most, possibly all, of the information necessary to understand the Gaostic allusions in Moby-Dick, “Andrews Norton himself may be a member of that class of divines whom Melville satiries with this portrait ofa ship's chaplain in White Tacke: He eaanged upon the flies of the ancient pilose phos; lsracdly llded to the Phorde of Dita; ex Posed the flies of Sinplcule Commentry om Uisote’s "De Cori" by acrayirg gaint that ever imagen author the tdmited tract of Teetlien—De Pracseriptionbus Heaticran—and concluded by & Sense ievoaton, He was partiuaey hard upon the Guests aad Marcotte ofthe econdeentry of the Christan era; but he never, i the omotet man ter, attacked the evaryay vio of the sinetenth entry, as eminently tlestrated in ott man okra voles (Ch. evil) Norton does allude to the Phaedo of Plato, and the Rvidences contains an analysis of Tertullian’s De Prosseriptionibus Hacreticrum. Certainly Norton is bound to condemn the Gaostice and ‘Marcionites of the second century, nor dose he ‘consider the “evoryday vices of the nineteenth ceatury” suiteble ‘matter for his ecclesiastical history. Indeed, ke is ilsuited to be « ship's chaplain? This passage from White Jacket contains one of Melville's rare explicit references to the Gnos- tes, After Moby-Dich, we find areference to them + See, far sample, Dosthee M, Fakelsteln, Mdotte’s Griends (Sow Hovea, 1951), pp, 155, 11. Howard 3. Fak lin In The Wake ofthe Gots (Stanford, 1903), bands his material with ere, but does no: discuss Gost Invenes, "Lewnaaee Tomes, Mael’s Quod wit God (Prince. to, 1959, p. 8 " Sut perhaps Norton cannot be complet dentised mith the sip! caploin, vom Melvilesircally calls a “tran- ‘szenental icine” (Chews. In A Disrure ow the Latert Forms of Iniddity (1838), Norton ld down unaistakabie linus of cemareaion between himself and trenocendentalits {eign and domastic. OF eaurse, (He would not accearly ‘exempt hm rom Movies sate, 272Thomas Vergish 273 fn Claret and in a poem from Timoleon called ““Rragments of a Last Gnostic Poer cf the 12th Century.” In Moby Dick itself, Melville's single direct reference sto « Gnecstic eect called the “Ophit In Chapter li, he pictures them worshipping their “Statue-Devill and compares them with Ahab who had personified all the “subtle de- ‘onisms of life and thought” in the white whale From Norton's Evidences we learn thet the Ophites held the common Gnostic opinion that the Creator of the world was not the Supreme Goul, aor was the Creator even thought io be at all spiritual, but opposed to the spiritual princi- ple in man. The Ophites “honored the Serpent for having thwarted his [the Creator's) natrow purposes, withdrawn our frst parents from their allegiance to him, induced them to eat the fruit of the tre of knowledge, and thus brought thera the knowledge of “thst Power which is over AP. The Ophites took the part of the serpent ‘nd represented him as hsving given good coun- sel to Adam and Eve. Perhape this helps to ex- plain something Flask observes in Chapter Ini, that the cane Fedallah carrie “isa sort of carved into a snake's head.” In retura, Stub) suggests that Fedallah ic the devil, anil “The reason why you don't see his tal i» because he tucks it up out of sight.” ‘Melville's refereace to the Ophites is his mast overt and general Gnostic allusion in Medy Dick. Belore proceeding to more obscure passages re- quiring more speciic knowledge, it may prove Useful to quote Andrews Norton at Tength oa the fundamental Goctrines held in common by the Valentinians and the Marciomites. They be- lieved: —that the material world, the visible universe, was ‘ot the work of the Supreme Being, but of a far in- ferfor azent, the Demiurgus, or the Creaior, wo was also the God of the Jews; that the spiritual world, the Plerome, as it was ealled, over which the true Divinity prosided, and the material world, the reslm of the Creator, were widely separated from exch other; that evil was inhecent in matter; that the material ‘wor, both as being material, and as being the work of an inferior being, was full of imperfection and evil; that the Savior descended from the spiritual worl, as ‘2 manifestation of the Supreme God, to reveal him to men, to reform the disorders here existing, and t deliver ‘whatever is spiritual from the demipation of matter; and that the Supreme God had been unknown > mea, to Jews and Heathens equally, before his naniesiation of himself by Christ, In their view, ho was the God of the New Testament, and the Creator ‘vos the Ged of the Old Testament. They, at the same time, conceived of the Crestor, as exercising a moral govelnment over men, es dispensing rewards, and infleting punishments Fundamentally, therefore, the system of the Gaostics may be seen as a reaction to and dis- satisfaction with the Christian attempt to explain the origin of evil: “Their scheme, without doubt, is to be regarded, in part, as a crude attempt (9 solve the existence of evilin the world, a subject Which engaged their attention in common with that of other religions theorists of their age.”" In order to explain the existence of evi, the Grostics taught that the Creator, or Demiuxge, was an in- ferior and imperfect being, and thet ovil was inherent in matter. “Imperfection and evil, therefore, were the necessary result of the defects both of the workman and of the material” (Zoi- ddonces, mm, 5). ‘ut nol even in the dark metaphysics of the Gnostics was men entirely subject to the Creator and his material univecse, The Creator's mother, called Sophia, was pact ofthe spiritual work, the Pleroma, and breathed a spiritual essence into ‘man at his creation—without the kaowledge of, or atleast in defiance to, the Demiurge. She uses agents of her own, suchas the prophets and the historical Jesus, fo communicate the spiritual essence, the gnasis, to man. We shall see Ahab {invoke her. Each of these major branches of Gnostic thought served Melville's art in Moby-Dick. We may begin by tracing Melville's lasting concera with the problem of evil, then move on to wateh Ahab address himself tO 2 darke Sophia in pref- ference to the fiery Crestor, and finally entorb ‘ourselves among Isha:ael’s somber speculations ‘upon matter and ite disguises, Ta Chapter lexxvi of Mardi, Taji comes upon a tribe who follow what at rat aceme « mest pe- claret rx 39-60, + Anctews Norton, Te lnilences of te Gevninnes ofthe Gosjels (Carabi,Mas, L644) 1,20. bie, 1, 21-28 In Clord mtv 39-€8, Melville demon. seats bs Knowledge of two Goose doctrines surmised in thie paseage frm Norton: that Jehovah vas athor of er And its Gods nod that Chit wat his contrary, He copes {is dvine oppestion with the es frank” modern "sre iv" betmecn « od-wielding Jehovah and Jesu a the ‘indlgent God” he im that tha Co ofthe Jews was the perfect Cretor-God rather than the Supreme ving iss of nterent fa the interpretation of Barley, eqpecaly ia com ‘ection with the vi suggested by Joba Gardner, "Barbye PQ, Kum an, 900, 87-58 ‘AP and Secal Commreat,” ‘Son ofthe existence of Coosa,” Norton goes on to =, ‘isto be found in the hereditary aversion of Gentiles (> Jaan” (i).24 Gnostic “Mythos” in “Moby-Dick”™ culier superstition. Any event unworthy of their sugust gods and psinfal to themselves, they at- tribute to malicious spirits called the Plujil Babbalanja, the philosopher, observes: “For, Plujior no Phy, itis undeniable, thet in ten thousand ways, asf by a malicious egeney, we mortals fare woefully put cut and tormented; and that, coo, by tings in thernselves to exceedingly trivial, that It ‘would seem almest impiety to ascribe them to the fugust gods. Noj there mast exist tome greatly ia ferior spirits; so insignificant, comparatively, a to bbe overicoked by the supernal powers; and through them it must be, thal we are thus grieveusly annoyed. Atany rate, such a theory would supply a histusin my system of metaphysics.” ‘This suggestive passage shows that Melville cither knew of the system of the Gnostics, or possessed 4 frame of tind well prepared to re- ceive it! The Gnostic system was designed to fill Babbalanje’s hiatus, ‘Ishmael, at the beginning of Moby-Dich, tells us of his elmiler concern: “Not ignoring what is good, Tam quick to perceive a horror, and could stil be sostal with it—would they let’ me—since itis but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in” (Ch. i). Later he refers to life in the world os “patting up at this grim sign of the Thunder Cloud” (Ch. xi Aad it seems likely to me that when Ishmael confesses he made a sorry lookout “with the problem of the universe revolving in me” (Ch. xxv), the problem he refers to is either the prob- tem of evil itself, or closely connected with it. The Gnostic response to this “hiatus,” how= ever, was not to fill it with metaphysical argu- ment, for which Platonic and Aristotelian models, ‘were available, but to create what Norton called. a mythos? A probable mtos, of, in other words, an imaginary representation, supposed te have a semblance of the ‘uth, waa often all that was aimed at by the ancioats in similar speculations, As suck only, some of the sore sober Gnosties may have tegurded their theeries concerning the spiritual world. Ie might be well, p= ‘haps, especially in treating of the speculations of the fancieais, 10 adopt the term mythos into our ona, Tanguege in one of its ancient senses, as denoting an imaginary acccunt of unlmown things or events, not supposed to be trae in ite datails, but intended to affect the mind in the seme manners the trath (Evidences, 1, 73) This passage, luminous with the mellow glow of scholarly intelligence, refers primarily to the allegorical character of the Gnostic myitos, but it may have hed literary significance for a writer interested in conveying metaphysical truths by meant of Gctional narratives. In this sense, the word mtios describes Meby-Dick as well ag the system of the Gnostics, though one be a protest ind the other an explanation, For Melville did not propose to explain evil in Moby-Dich, not even as experienced by his characters. Of Abab's grief and pain Ishmael saya, "To tral the genealogies of these high mor- tal miseries, carries us at last among the source- Tess. primogenitures of the gods... the pods themselves are not forever glad. The inefface- able, sed birth-mark in the brow of man, is but the stamp of sorrow in the signers” (Ch. evi). ‘To understand this passage fully we should know that in the Gnostic system the spisitual universe consists of a Supreme Being and a series of *Aeons" emanating from him. One of the outet~ oat of these, called Sophia ar Wisdom, “falls” through an excessive aspiration to approach the Supreme Ged. Out of her grief and pxssion the Demiurge, Creator of the scx, i horn. Tt fs to these “primogenitures”” (which’ I have greatly Simplified) that Melville may refer, and to this divine sorrow. Similary, in the “Whiteness” chapter Ishmael beerves that though ia many ofits aspects this inble world seems formed in love, the iavisible spheres wore formed in fright.” Tbelieve he may be alluding to the “fall” of the Sophia, or, in Norton's words: “in the development of beings feom the Divine Substance, inferior to the Su rome, there was a commeacement of imperiee- tion, and consequent disorder, which nally led to the production of the material world” (Zoi dence, i, 125). To the Demfurge himself, the imperfect Creator God, references aze veiled but pleatiful. ‘The association of the white whale with the deity thas been demonstrated conclusively.® Of course, Ahab’s celebrated insistence that what he seeks is no dumbbrute, but a reasoning, malicious will, reed not have been inspired by Gnostic mstias: “All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks, Hut in each event—in the living act, the ‘undoubted deed—there, some unknown but stil reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings ofits * vie maton the Gost emily in Chapter chee of Mort. roe Selts bas ace ts elecece Lo MC Sites reading of Prost. See *Mfelvlcs Neoplatonal Dragon” MEN, nev (Feb 1952) 83 nn ands. “Theme, e729, How doe ep Ata re ace he sng Pegs “pod nlin! bal” and secre Shasta be tae wie wan git, or be the white bale Pin Twi wreak that hate pen in. Tat nat oe Uispteny, man ="?Thomas Vargish 245 features from behind the unreasoning masi."”” But I believe that the allusion is to an imperfect, ‘material god, rather than to a Supreme Being. So Starbuck fearfully observes, “The white whale is their demigorgon”” (Ch. xxvii). And atten. tive readers of the “Candles” chapter mey ro- member Abab's words to tho fire on tho masts, which he treats as an epiphany of his crestor: “There is some unsuffusing thing beyond thee, thou clear spirit, to whom all thy eternity is but time, all thy’ cteativeness mechanical.” For & clearer knowledge of the object of Ahab’s antag- onism, we might adopt a suggestion made by Andrews Norton regarding the Gnostic deit “By God, as here used is to be understood, aot the Supreme Being but the Maker of this world” (Boidences, th, -4)- AAhab’s language is not usually distinguished by its simplicity; and yet the metephysial hints concerning the Demiurge seem models of lucidity ‘hen compared with this speech from the chapter talled “Tae Dying Whale”: “Oh thow dark Hinda half of nature, who of crowned bones has builded thy separats throne somewhere in the heart of these uaverdured seas; thow art an Infidel, thou queen, and too truly speakest to me in the wide slaughtering typhoon.” Obviously ‘Anab cannot be addressing the whale, which be refers to as “he,” nor is he addressing God. Tn- deed, Ahab's invocation cannot be understood precisely without a knowledge of the Gnostic yth of the fallen Mother—she who fell rom overweening love of the Supreme Being, whose passion produced the Demiurge of whora she is both the mother and the adversary. Norton as societed her with the “female energy” wor shipped by the Hindus (Evidences, u, 204-205) and he noticed the coincidence of her similar positioa in the theology of India and in that of the Gnostics: “In the Hindu theology we find likewise the srange conception, which appears in the scheme of the Gnostics, of assigning a spouse to the Supreme Being, "The worship of the fe male principle” says Professor Wilson, ‘as dis tinct from the divinity, appears to have origi nated in the litera] interpretation of the mets- phorical language of the Vedas..." ‘Ahab's speech may now be explained with some confidence. He refers to the female principle 2s Hindu bezauce of her placein Hindu theology. Shei an “infidel,” ike Ahab, not to the Supreme Being, but to the Demiurge. Ahab contiaucs, Yet dost chou, darker half, rock me with a prouder, if a darker faith, All thy unnamable imminglings, float beacath me here; I ama buoyed by the breaths of once living things, ex- fhaled as air, but water now” (Ch cxvi). In con- nection with this passage, Norion’s lenguoge has a peculiarly suggestive quality where he discusses the Gnostie Genes We come, therefore, next to the creation of Adam First, an éatiy substance was formed by the Creator, aot, however of the dust of the earth, bus of invisible, doating matter. This was a soaly or pincpl of ie, ilar to that of brats Into this vehile the Creator breathed a rstonal (psychical) soul of the same essence with himself; and the whole wis afterward othe witha covering of es, a body formed af the feacth. But inco the rational soul which proceeded from the Creator, Achanoth (the Mother or Sophia, tunknown {0 hiay jnfused a portion of the spattual tubotanes which she had produced « leven of im- ap Ahab acknowledges this sptitual infusion when, facing the spirit of Gre, the “ery Father,” be boasts, Though but apoint at best; whenezsoe'et came; wheresoe’er Igoj yet while I earthly ive, ‘the queenly personality ives in me, and feels her royal rights” (Ch. exix). And he demands of the fire what has become of his “sweet mother.” “The allusion appears tobe to the Find queen of three chapters eater, the Indian analogue of the Gnostic Sophia, whom Abab invokes in her ‘ancient role, a the divine eliampion of the spixi= tual {n maa agalnst the Creator of material evil. ‘The sea, a8 Ahab declares in the chapter called “The Dying Whale,” represents to him the home of the Sophia, an emanation “exhaled as air, but water now.” Ahab claims to be suckled by the sea, that the billows are his foster brothers (Ch. exvi). Containing horrors, the sea serves ot a redium of truth, revealingit at times even tothe reluctant Starbuck. In the powerful language of the widely significant chapter, “Ihe Lee Shore,” Ishmael proclaims that “ell deep, eernest think "Chapter xexv. Stuhb prepares us for Ababs assertion when he stys, “Wee's a mighty dierence besreen a lvirg sump anda dead thump, That's what makes tl fom the hand, Pash, ty times cre cavage to bese than 4 oor frou a care, The Iving mermbet—hat naikes te ling fae salty my litle maa” (Eb. zee). Ke Abab’sopeoeh to Star tuck, Stubb's common sense opinion is levtted to meta. physics and “the ling wember” becomes “the Hving se” Zoidenes 3, 116-117. Cauptr ez of Moby Dick con- Cues with cal acenunt of Vhs trnsfermatin Into ‘a vhale in pura of the Vetus, " Zoidece, 1%, 19-160, Milicont el fn “Piero Bayle and Meby-biek” "PMLA, ve (Sept 1951), 689-610, incor ‘oc tes the “Gack Hind half ef Natze” tobe a “ev, isniy ofthe oan” She fa to ronlize thatthe darkest of {the fenale price, in Ahat’s thought, isa vite: he hes ‘been betrayed by he god of ie, a wil be shown,276 Gnastic “Mythos” in “Moby Dick” ing is but the intrepid effort of the soul te keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treachercus, slavish shore...” But it is fire that represents evil to Ahab. Charasteristically, he associates it with the Demiurge. Drawing mest of his evidence from the “Candles” chepter, C. C. Waleatt argues convincingly that Ahab had formerly been = fire-worshipper of the Persian variety, a3, indeed, Abab himself claims, Thus Walcutt traces Abab's religious development: Bofore the opening of Meby Diet, Akab must be assamed to have aezepted the Christian belie in the {oodness and omnipotence of God. Speculation (or experience-—the book moves on both levels) led hm te recognize the presence of ubiguitous evil. Sel on the side of the good, Abub ranged himself aguinst evil and even altompted te eradicate it, At this point, when fearching out evil, be was smitten, nat by evil but by ‘uhat he had eonkidered the element of good. When Moby Dick severed his eg, when lghtaing struck him, ‘when speculation cevealed a preponderance of evil in the grand scheme of being—the stocy presents itseli fon all these levels of meaning—Akab turned from a believer in good-monsced by-evil to the desperate convietion that evil lay atthe heart of reality ‘This is « most perceptive and just interpretation of the evidence. I wish to emend it only elightly to say that Ahab had come to realize that evil lay at the heart of matorial reality, croated re- ality, that such a reality wae « “mask,” a “wall,” and ‘this realization broke ia upoa’ bim when Moby-Dick severed bis leg, when the lightning ‘burned him while he worshipped it, in what be terms the “sacramental act.” ‘The fire on the masts represents an epiphany of the Demiurge to Ahab, He addresses it as his creator, calling it “my fery fates.” But he re jects it creativeness as “mechanical”; he per ceives some “unsuifusing thing” beyond it, Later Stubb will eall himself brave “as fearless fire,” and Ahab will mutter, “And as mechani- cal...” (Ch. cxuniy). Indeed, the lesson Ahab Teams from the dying whale, which frst turned toward the sun and then away, is that the sun, fs fre, represents a manifestation of the Demi- ‘urge. To the Hinda-Sophia Ahab says, “Nor bas thie thy whale sunwards tured his dving head, ‘and then gone round again, without a lesson to me...” (Ch. cxvi). The whale’s movements serve as ¢ revelation from the Sophia to Ahab. Even in hie own death does Ahab follow the whale’s oxample, erying “I tum my body from the sun’” (Ch. cxxxv). “Ths, Ahab once wocthippad the fre s « Per sian, but alter his injuries ft bacame toca ins mind withthe Demiurge. We have seen as tell that the white whale represnte citer an "agent of the Creetor God or the “principal” blinel. The white whale andthe fie are brought together in the gest chepter called “The White: sess of the Whale” Tehmae begins “What the white whale wes to ‘Ala, as been hited; wha et tines, he wes to ‘me, as yet remains unsaid.” We expect, then, to hear a little about Ishmael’s metaphysics, Since ‘hiss Tsbanaes, not Alab's, chapter, itis impor: tant for my purpose to shew that Ishmael to Believes te evil And 20 he says in “The Tey. Works": "“Give not thyself up, thea, to fre lst It invert thee, deaten thee; 08 for the tine It did me.” And this, among his orsible white: nesses, ne had clased the white hte, “by the Persian fre worshippers, the white forked fame bring Hel the holes on the aitae>” Holy it may have been to the Persians, but to Ahab and to Ishmad its whiteness i bet 4 ds fuse of the Demiurge, and matter itself «vel, tr, tose Ahab’ werd "tach, “wal” Not Byte idea of the work's blindnes to evil a al few to Mlile. Ac extly as Rafbuen be had writen in highly equivocel language. “We are Bind to the vel sits ofthis world; deaf to ts voice; and dead to ite death. And not il we Know, that one grief outweighs ten thousand joya, ll mebecome what Christianity is striving to make us” (Ch. Iviii). But Ishmael, writing his story of Moby Dick, bas had his eves opened Ta the frst chapter he temas “T thin {can see a ie ato the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various dis- fuses, induced me to set about performing the Part Tdigss.”" And “Whitenese” comes to Stand for the dguses of matter: all Beauty, all colors ate "subtle deeets," "aid on from with out,” so that “all deified Nature absolutely Paints like the harlot” “Pondering allthis,” Ishmeel concludes, “the palsied universe lies B= fore us leper” As the source ofthese ideas, Millicent Bell has shown that Pierre Bayle by means of a dislogue between two convenient parsonee dacussed the 50. C. Wleutt The Fee Symbols fa b-Dick,” ALLY, te (lay 104), 306, D, AE Finkeletea tn Ueolite (Orieada flies Newton Arvin in oelieving that Se represents ceri Ms, Fickeein ard Mrs, Bell however, bo igore ‘Aiab’s ue of the par tence in the'\Candle?”chapter—"T a Fersan once cd worslp”—and conser him ava practice eweakippe.Thomas Vergish aT possibility that God disguises the truth from our perception by means of colers# As Melville enjoyed Bayle, this certainly constitutes one Likely source. Of greater importance philesophi cally, however, is the Gnostic doctrine of evil os. inherent in matter. In Norton’s words, “Wat is certain in regerd to the Gnostics in general is, that they regarded the principle of evil, whether animate or inani- mate, es inherent in matter. .. . They believed the antagonist principle in the universe to heve been by nature bad and resident in matter” (Evidences, 1, 1-62). Melville was to make this doctrine the Subject of “Fragments of a Lost Gnostic Poem of the 12th Century": Found a family, build a state, ‘The pledged evoat i ctill the same [Matter in end will never abate His ancient brutal elim. But if matter is an evil disguise, and we depend upon our senses, sensory perception has little value in a search for truth. The Gnostics thom- selves distrusted all perceptions but the spiritual revelation from the Sophia, the gnasis. In the most important passage for my present purpose in his entire work, Norton defends the world against this Gnoatie distrust, and we observe the seeming paradox of a Christian defenae of cor poreality; all material things become tous only one vast display’ of the power of God, in immeciate action, and in- exhaustibly varied in its operations. The universe Consists of Galte spitits embosomed in the InGnite Spitit, Master oeases to be the veil, and becomes the ‘manifestation of God. We are. continually ia. his visible proconce so far as we can, in any eave, speak of the vighle presence of Hi, whois to he percsived by ‘any finite being only through the displays of his power. In the “Whiteness” chapter in Moby-Dick, Ishmael concludes that it is light “operating without medium upon matter” that produces the veiling color. Norton's contention that matter “ceases to be the veil, and becomes the menifes- tation of God” is inverted by Ishmael, who, in his penultimate paragraph, calls whiteness “the very veil of the Christian’s Deity.” Ishmeel adopts s phrase similar to Norton's, but revertes ite mesning; or, more truly, he here rejects a Christian view of Creation and, with a hopeless proference, assumes what closely resem- bles a Gnostic position. The Evidences of the Genuinencss of the Gospels meets the demands of a secondary source for Medville’s knowledge of Gnosticism. Ihave spec- ulated that it may have been Andrews Norton, amoag others, whom Melville satirized with his portrait of a ship's chaplain in Waite-Jacket, and that he may have disliked Norton's superior at- titude toward Gnostic attempts to account for the existence of evil, which was a lasting problem for Melville and central to Meby-Dick. But it ‘would be pointless to claim that Melville used the Eaidences exclusively. Other equally qualified works, of course, may yet be brought forward. What is more certain is that Melville freely adopted the Gnostic mythos, whether 8 exposed by Norton or someone else, especially as it teeated the “primogenitures of the gods,” the imperfection and malice of the Creator, and the virtue of the Sophia, the “sweet mother,” as the spititual advertary” of the Creator. Unless a reader of Moby Dick possesses some famili with this mytios, cortain of Abab’s speeches pecially in “The Dying Whale” and “Candies” chapters, are explicable only aa mad rantings whereas, to the artist himself at least, they had profound significance. Lastly, an acquaintance ‘with the Gnostic doctrine of evil as inherent ia matter and the consequent untrustworthiness of sensory perception, considerably expands the meaning and assists in understanding the chap- ter called “The Whiteness of the Whale.” Daxtwours Coxrer Hanover, N. H. ‘Plete Bayle and Meby Dich" p. 68. 8 Colated Pooms, cd, Howeed P. Vinesat, (Chicage, 1947), p.288. The scone stanva rns: Tadoteace le heavens ally bere, ‘zd ensegy the old of hal ‘The Geos! Man pouring from hs plteher clear, But bring the polsaned wel. % Byidences, 1 appendix, p. xr,