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ETYMOLOGY . ( Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School . ) The pale Usher — threadbare in coat , heart , body , and brain ; I see him now . He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars , with a queer handkerchief , mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world . He loved to dust his old grammars ; it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality . “ While you take in hand to school others , and to teach them by what name a whale - fish is to be called in our tongue , leaving out , through ignorance , the letter H , which almost alone maketh up the signification of the word , you deliver that which is not true . ” — Hackluyt . “ WHALE . * * * Sw . and Dan . hval . This animal is named from roundness or rolling ; for in Dan . hvalt is arched or vaulted . ” — Webster’s Dictionary . “ WHALE . * * * It is more immediately from the Dut . and Ger . Wallen ; A . S . Walw - ian , to roll , to wallow . ” — Richardson’s Dictionary . EXTRACTS . ( Supplied by a Sub - Sub - Librarian ) . It will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and grub - worm of a poor devil of a Sub - Sub appears to have gone through the long Vaticans and street - stalls of the earth , picking up whatever random allusions to whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever , sacred or profane . Therefore you must not , in every case at least , take the higgledy - piggledy whale statements , however authentic , in these extracts , for veritable gospel cetology . Far from it . As touching the ancient authors generally , as well as the poets here appearing , these extracts are solely valuable or entertaining , as affording a glancing bird’s eye view of what has been promiscuously said , thought , fancied , and sung of Leviathan , by many nations and generations , including our own . So fare thee well , poor devil of a Sub - Sub , whose commentator I am . Thou belongest to that hopeless , sallow tribe which no wine of this world will ever warm ; and for whom even Pale Sherry would be too rosy - strong ; but with whom one sometimes loves to sit , and feel poor - devilish , too ; and grow convivial upon tears ; and say to them bluntly , with full eyes and empty glasses , and in not altogether unpleasant sadness — Give it up , Sub - Subs ! For by how much the more pains ye take to please the world , by so much the more shall ye for ever go thankless ! Would that I could clear out Hampton Court and the Tuileries for ye ! But gulp down your tears and hie aloft to the royal - mast with your hearts ; for your friends who have gone before are clearing out the seven - storied heavens , and making refugees of long - pampered Gabriel , Michael , and Raphael , against your coming . Here ye strike but splintered hearts together — there , ye shall strike unsplinterable glasses !
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