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 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

 
             KETOS, Greek.
             CETUS, Latin.
             WHOEL, Anglo-Saxon.
             HVALT, Danish.
             WAL, Dutch.
             HWAL, Swedish.
             WHALE, Icelandic.
             WHALE, English.
             BALEINE, French.
             BALLENA, Spanish.
             PEKEE-NUEE-NUEE, Fegee.
             PEKEE-NUEE-NUEE, Erromangoan.
 
  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 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!