How we cite our quotes: (Chapter, Paragraph)
Quote #4
Meantime, like some enchanted man in his grave, happily oblivious of all gossip, whether chiseled or chatted, the deaf and dumb stranger still tranquilly slept, while now the boat started on her voyage.
[...]
Though hitherto, as has been seen, the man in cream-colors had by no means passed unobserved, yet by stealing into retirement, and there going asleep and continuing so, he seemed to have courted oblivion, a boon not often withheld from so humble an applicant as he. (2, 22 & 27)
Shhh…don't bother this dude. He's asleep. Definitely don't talk about him like he's not there, either. Geez. Our guy, the charity-loving mute, is alone, and Melville emphasizes this by contrasting his silent world with the busyness of the crowd. Here, the mute is even further removed from others by being described as sleeping in a grave, lost to oblivion. His ignorance of what others are saying about him leads to his isolation through both his sleep and inability to hear.
Quote #5
At length, the good merchant, whose eyes were pensively resting upon the gay tables in the distance, broke the spell by saying that, from the spectacle before them, one would little divine what other quarters of the boat might reveal. He cited the case, accidentally encountered but an hour or two previous, of a shrunken old miser, clad in shrunken old moleskin, stretched out, an invalid, on a bare plank in the emigrants' quarters, eagerly clinging to life and lucre, though the one was gasping for outlet, and about the other he was in torment lest death, or some other unprincipled cut-purse, should be the means of his losing it; by like feeble tenure holding lungs and pouch, and yet knowing and desiring nothing beyond them; for his mind, never raised above mould, was now all but mouldered away. To such a degree, indeed, that he had no trust in anything, not even in his parchment bonds, which, the better to preserve from the tooth of time, he had packed down and sealed up, like brandy peaches, in a tin case of spirits. (11, 2)
This sad sight is the country merchant's depiction of the miser's miserable state. He's telling Tassel all about how the miser was all alone, ill, and scared about being robbed. It's a particularly uncomfortable look into the life of a very old man who has nobody he can rely on while his body is failing him. Worse, whether the country merchant is aware of it or not, these lines reveal his own insensitivity: the country merchant brings up this man just to demonstrate "all the different kinds of people there are!" Merp. Way to stop and care for your fellow man while you're rubbernecking it, man.
Quote #6
"To the devil with your principles! Bad sign when a man begins to talk of his principles. Hold, come back, sir; back here, back, sir, back! I tell you no more boys for me. Nay, I'm a Mede and Persian. In my old home in the woods I'm pestered enough with squirrels, weasels, chipmunks, skunks. I want no more wild vermin to spoil my temper and waste my substance. Don't talk of boys; enough of your boys; a plague of your boys; chilblains on your boys! As for Intelligence Offices, I've lived in the East, and know 'em. Swindling concerns kept by low-born cynics, under a fawning exterior wreaking their cynic malice upon mankind. You are a fair specimen of 'em." (22, 18)
These lines are actually kind of funny. We know Pitch isn't here to make friends, but even as he's putting in a plug for being a loner, he can't overcome the human desire to communicate. He calls the dude from the Philosophical Intelligence Office (PIO) back several times just to explain to him why he doesn't want his services. Translation: I will break through my isolation in order to tell you why isolation is the bee's knees.