Chapter 11

by Herman Melville

　　What was the matter with the Master-at-arms? And, be the matter whatit might, how could it have direct relation to Billy Budd with whom,prior to the affair of the spilled soup, he had never come into anyspecial contact, official or otherwise? What indeed could the troublehave to do with one so little inclined to give offence as themerchant-ship's peacemaker, even him who in Claggart's own phrase was"the sweet and pleasant young fellow"? Yes, why should Jimmy Legs, toborrow the Dansker's expression, be down on the Handsome Sailor? But, atheart and not for nothing, as the late chance encounter may indicate tothe discerning, down on him, secretly down on him, he assuredly was.Now to invent something touching the more private career ofClaggart, something involving Billy Budd, of which something the lattershould be wholly ignorant, some romantic incident implying thatClaggart's knowledge of the young blue-jacket began at some periodanterior to catching sight of him on board the seventy-four-all this,not so difficult to do, might avail in a way more or less interesting toaccount for whatever of enigma may appear to lurk in the case. But infact there was nothing of the sort. And yet the cause, necessarily to beassumed as the sole one assignable, is in its very realism as muchcharged with that prime element of Radcliffian romance, the mysterious,as any that the ingenuity of the author of the Mysteries of Udolphocould devise. For what can more partake of the mysterious than anantipathy spontaneous and profound, such as is evoked in certainexceptional mortals by the mere aspect of some other mortal, howeverharmless he may be, if not called forth by this very harmlessness itself?Now there can exist no irritating juxtaposition of dissimilarpersonalities comparable to that which is possible aboard a greatwar-ship fully manned and at sea. There, every day among all ranksalmost every man comes into more or less of contact with almost everyother man. Wholly there to avoid even the sight of an aggravating objectone must needs give it Jonah's toss or jump overboard himself. Imaginehow all this might eventually operate on some peculiar human creaturethe direct reverse of a saint?But for the adequate comprehending of Claggart by a normal nature,these hints are insufficient. To pass from a normal nature to him onemust cross "the deadly space between." And this is best done byindirection.Long ago an honest scholar my senior, said to me in reference to onewho like himself is now no more, a man so unimpeachably respectable thatagainst him nothing was ever openly said tho' among the few somethingwas whispered, "Yes, X -- -- is a nut not to be cracked by the tap of alady's fan. You are aware that I am the adherent of no organizedreligion much less of any philosophy built into a system. Well, for allthat, I think that to try and get into X -- -- , enter his labyrinth,and gt outagain, without a clue derived from some source other than whatis known as knowledge of the world -- that were hardly possible, atleast for me.""Why," said I, "X -- -- , however singular a study to some, is yethuman, and knowledge of the world assuredly implies the knowledge ofhuman nature, and in most of its varieties.""Yes, but a superficial knowledge of it, serving ordinary purposes.But for anything deeper, I am not certain whether to know the world andto know human nature be not two distinct branches of knowledge, whichwhile they may coexist in the same heart, yet either may exist withlittle or nothing of the other. Nay, in an average man of the world, hisconstant rubbing with it blunts that fine spiritual insightindispensable to the understanding of the essential in certainexceptional characters, whether evil ones or good. In a matter of someimportance I have seen a girl wind an old lawyer about her littlefinger. Nor was it the dotage of senile love. Nothing of the sort. Buthe knew law better than he knew the girl's heart. Coke and Blackstonehardly shed so much light into obscure spiritual places as the Hebrewprophets. And who were they? Mostly recluses."At the time my inexperience was such that I did not quite see thedrift of all this. It may be that I see it now. And, indeed, if thatlexicon which is based on Holy Writ were any longer popular, one mightwith less difficulty define and denominate certain phenomenal men. As itis, one must turn to some authority not liable to the charge of beingtinctured with the Biblical element.In a list of definitions included in the authentic translation ofPlato, a list attributed to him, occurs this: "Natural Depravity: adepravity according to nature." A definition which tho' savoring ofCalvinism, by no means involves Calvin's dogmas as to total mankind.Evidently its intent makes it applicable but to individuals. Not manyare the examples of this depravity which the gallows and jail supply. Atany rate for notable instances, since these have no vulgar alloy of thebrute in them, but invariably are dominated by intellectuality, one mustgo elsewhere. Civilization, especially if of the austerer sort, isauspicious to it. It folds itself in the mantle of respectability. Ithas its certain negative virtues serving as silent auxiliaries. It neverallows wine to get within its guard. It is not going too far to say thatit is without vices or small sins. There is a phenomenal pride in itthat excludes them from anything mercenary or avaricious. In short thedepravity here meant partakes nothing of the sordid or sensual. It isserious, but free from acerbity. Though no flatterer of mankind it neverspeaks ill of it.But the thing which in eminent instances signalizes so exceptional anature is this: though the man's even temper and discreet bearing wouldseem to intimate a mind peculiarly subject to the law of reason, not theless in his heart he would seem to riot in complete exemption from thatlaw, having apparently little to do with reason further than to employit as an ambidexter implement for effecting the irrational. That is tosay: Toward the accomplishment of an aim which in wantonness ofmalignity would seem to partake of the insane, he will direct a cooljudgement sagacious and sound.These men are true madmen, and of the most dangerous sort, for theirlunacy is not continuous but occasional, evoked by some special object;it is probably secretive, which is as much to say it is self-contained,so that when moreover, most active, it is to the average mind notdistinguishable from sanity, and for the reason above suggested thatwhatever its aims may be -- and the aim is never declared -- the methodand the outward proceeding are always perfectly rational.Now something such an one was Claggart, in whom was the mania of anevil nature, not engendered by vicious training or corrupting books orlicentious living, but born with him and innate, in short "a depravityaccording to nature."