Herman Melville

Something else you've given me tonight.

The courage to go where one does not want to go.

How does one come to know the unknowable? What faculties must a man possess? Since it was discovered that whale oil could light our cities in ways never achieved before, it created global demand. It has pushed man to venture further and further into the deep blue unknown. We know not its depths, nor the host of creatures that live there. Monsters. Are they real?

Or do the stories exist only to make us respect the sea's dark secrets?

The question both vexes and excites me, and is the reason I've written you a second time to request a meeting. A conversation with you, sir, I believe will serve me well for the novel I intend to write, currently entitled: Moby Dick. I hope you will reconsider my offer. The unknown. That is where my imagination yearns to venture. And so the question plagues me still: How does a man come to know the unknowable? Sincerely, Herman Melville.

No, sir. The devil loves unspoken secrets. Especially those that fester in a man's soul.