i freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life, point out one single peaceful influence, which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taken in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling. one way and another, it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves, and so continuously momentous in their sequential issues, that whaling may well be regarded as that egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb. it would be a hopeless, endless task to catalogue all these things. let a handful suffice. for many years past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth. she has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, where no cook or vancouver had ever sailed. if american and european men-of-war now peacefully ride in once savage harbors, let them fire salutes to the honor and glory of the whale-ship, which originally showed them the way, and first interpreted between them and the savages. they may celebrate as they will the heroes of exploring expeditions, your cooks, your krusensterns; but i say that scores of anonymous captains have sailed out of nantucket, that were as great, and greater than your cook and your krusenstern.