Borrowed thunder part 2 is on Substack
https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/borrowed-thunder-part-2?r=n51cr&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
with more examples of Melville's extensive borrowing in The Lightning-Rod Man from some version of E. C. Brewer's Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, a kind of catechism on the "Science of Familiar Things."
More work is needed to establish if possible which version Melville used for a source-text; possibly the expanded and rearranged series of questions and answers offered in the American edition, Peterson's Familiar Science.
For a glimpse of Herman Melville at his re-writing desk, creatively appropriating a source, here below is one instance of especially close copying that occurs on page 133 of the magazine version (August 1854), page 279 in The Piazza Tales (1856).
MELVILLE
"Is there any part of my house that I may touch with hopes of my life?"
"There are; but not where you now stand. Come away from the wall. The current will sometimes run down a wall, and--a man being a better conductor than a wall--it would leave the wall and run into him. Swoop! That must have fallen very nigh. That must have been globular lightning."
Q. Why is it dangerous to lean against a wall during a thunder storm?
A. Because the electric fluid will sometimes run down a wall; and, (as a man is a better conductor than a wall,) would leave the wall and run down the man.
Hey, since Melville is copying this bit about the wall directly from his source, let's compare the same Q-and-A in other versions to see if and how the wording differs--just maybe yielding a clue to which version Melville might have been using. Main contenders are the English edition of Brewer's Guide (quoted below from the 2nd London edition); and the American version, published in New York by C. S. Francis & Co. (quoted from the 1854 printing).
BREWER'S GUIDE 2nd ed. (London, 1848) page 17.
https://books.google.com/books?id=4h4EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA17&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false
Q. Why is it DANGEROUS to lean BACK AGAINST A WALL during a thunder-storm ?
A. Because the electric fluid sometimes runs down the wall of a house or room; and (as a man is a better conductor than a brick wall) would diverge from the wall to him.
BREWER'S GUIDE, American edition (New York: C. S. Francis, 1854) page 23.
Q. Why is it DANGEROUS to lean AGAINST A WALL during a thunder-storm ?
A. Because the electric fluid will sometimes run down a wall ; and (as a man is a better conductor than a wall) would leave the wall, and run down the man.
I'm sorely tempted to exclude the English edition for printing "sometimes runs" and "the wall" where both American versions (the Francis edition of Brewer's Guide and Peterson's Familiar Science) agree with Melville's wording "will sometimes run" and "down a wall." Moreover, American versions agree with Melville's in placing "and" just there, immediately after "a wall." Postponed in the English edition until after the phrase "of a house or room," which does not appear in Melville's rewrite.
Then again, the answer in Brewer's English edition ends with "to him" which is more like Melville's "into him" than the two American versions that both have the electric juice (hypothetical, thank goodness) going "down the man." Perhaps Melville there just wanted to avoid repeating the phrase down the man.
Lots more work to do, clearly. Never fear, Melvilliana is here for it!
Jolly good work, Scott. Wonderfully done! --especially on the "returning stroke" material.
ReplyDeleteSteven, thank you.
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