Chapter 27

by Herman Melville

　　A DigressionWhen some days afterward in reference to the singularity justmentioned, the Purser, a rather ruddy rotund person more accurate as anaccountant than profound as a philosopher, said at mess to the Surgeon,"What testimony to the force lodged in will-power," the latter --saturnine, spare and tall, one in whom a discreet causticity went alongwith a manner less genial than polite, replied, "Your pardon, Mr.Purser. In a hanging scientifically conducted -- and under specialorders I myself directed how Budd's was to be effected -- any movementfollowing the completed suspension and originating in the bodysuspended, such movement indicates mechanical spasm in the muscularsystem. Hence the absence of that is no more attributable to will-poweras you call it than to horse-power -- begging your pardon.""But this muscular spasm you speak of, is not that in a degree moreor less invariable in these cases?""Assuredly so, Mr. Purser.""How then, my good sir, do you account for its absence in thisinstance?""Mr. Purser, it is clear that your sense of the singularity in thismatter equals not mine. You account for it by what you call will-power,a term not yet included in the lexicon of science. For me I do not, withmy present knowledge, pretend to account for it at all. Even should weassume the hypothesis that at the first touch of the halyards the actionof Budd's heart, intensified by extraordinary emotion at its climax,abruptly stopt -- much like a watch when in carelessly winding it up youstrain at the finish, thus snapping the chain -- even under thathypothesis, how account for the phenomenon that followed?""You admit then that the absence of spasmodic movement was phenomenal.""It was phenomenal, Mr. Purser, in the sense that it was anappearance the cause of which is not immediately to be assigned.""But tell me, my dear Sir," pertinaciously continued the other, "wasthe man's death effected by the halter, or was it a species of euthanasia?""Euthanasia, Mr. Purser, is something like your will-power: Idoubt its authenticity as a scientific term -- begging your pardonagain. It is at once imaginative and metaphysical, -- in short, Greek.But," abruptly changing his tone, "there is a case in the sick-bay thatI do not care to leave to my assistants. Beg your pardon, but excuseme." And rising from the mess he formally withdrew.