Nevertheless, any one's experience will teach him, that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance, it is quite impossible for him, attentively, and completely, to examine any two things—however large or however small— at one and the same instant of time; never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other. But if you now come to separate these two objects, and surround each by a circle of profound darkness; then, in order to see one of them, in such a manner as to bring your mind to bear on it, the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary consciousness. How is it, then, with the whale? True, both his eyes, in themselves, must simultaneously act; but is his brain so much more comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man's, that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects, one on one side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction? If he can, then is it as marvellous a thing in him, as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems in Euclid. Nor, strictly investigated, is there any incongruity in this comparison.
话虽如此，任何一个人的经验都会告诉他，尽管他一眼就可以无差别地看到一切事物，然而，要他同时一下子全神贯注而完整地细看任何两件东西——不管是大是小——哪怕这两件东西是并列在一起，彼此靠得很拢，都是完全不可能的。不过，如果你现在要把这两样东西给分别开来，而且各给加上漆黑的一圈，并且为了要看清这两件东西中的一件，你就这样一心一意只想看到这件东西，那么，另外那样东西一定会因你的暂时的感觉而完全看不到了。这样说来，大鲸又是怎么一种情况呢？不错，鲸的两只眼睛，就眼睛本身说来，一定是同时行动的；可是，难道它的头脑会远比人类更具有理解力、组合力而且更为敏感，能够同时专注地看到两样不同的东西：一件在它这边，一件却在正相反的一方吗？如果它能够，那么，这就象一个人能够同时解决欧几里得两个不同的论证问题一样的不可思议了。不过，严格地考查一下，这种比喻也并不是毫不适当的。
It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales;
说起来，这也许是个迹近毫无根据的狂想，可是，我总觉得，有一些鲸，在遭到三四只小艇围攻时，它们表现出来的那种格外踌躇不定的动作，那种畏缩而易陷于异乎寻常的惊骇的态度，正是它们的通性。