the elect and the preterite/: a footnote in melville's cetology

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 ~~~ the first footnote in chapter 32 [!] of moby dick, "the cetology", takes 
 its offspring from the word "alien" [!] and goes like this "i'm aware that down 
 to the present time, the fish styled lamatins and dugons (pig-fish [!] and  
 sow-fish [!] of the coffins of nantucket) are included by many naturalists  
 among the whales. but as these pig-fish are a noisy [!], contemptible set,  
 mostly lurking [!] in the mouths of rivers, and feeding on wet hay, and  
 especially as they do not spout, i [!] deny their credentials as whales: and  
 have presented them with their passports [!] to quit the kingdom of cetology"  
 ~~~ in this old blue oxford university press edition, my wife once found in a 
 second-hand-bookstore in camden town, it is page 137 ~~~ blame it to my 
 pynchon-poisoned brain, but here the author-god melville distinguishes between 
 the elect whales and the passed over pig- & sow-fish, does he not? ~~~ yet  
 since this seems to be so very obvious, there's probably a classic article or  
 something that deals with the issue much more profoundly than i ever could ~~~ 
 you know, i'm just an epileptic pot-head who cannot even spell his name ~~~ 
 kigh ~~~ listenin' to marvin's 74 oakland show ~~~ ~~~ ~~~