Finally, though, as will soon be revealed, its contents partly comprise the most delicate oil; yet, you are now to be apprised of the nature of the substance which so impregnably invests all that apparent
effeminacy. In some previous place I have described to you how the blubber wraps the body of the whale, as the rind wraps an orange.
And as for a tiller, the whale-boat never admits of any such
effeminacy; and therefore as in gamming a complete boat's crew must leave the ship, and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer is of the number, that subordinate is the steersman upon the occasion, and the captain, having no place to sit in, is pulled off to his visit all standing like a pine tree.
Thus a general at the head of his army will endeavour to dethrone the monarch, as Cyrus did Astyages, despising both his manner of life and his forces; his forces for want of action, his life for its
effeminacy: thus Suthes, the Thracian, who was general to Amadocus, conspired against him.
Yet there was a set of the mouth and a prominence of the chin which relieved him of any trace of
effeminacy. Impulsive he might be, enthusiastic, sensitive, with something sympathetic and adaptive in his disposition; but an observer of nature's tokens would have confidently pledged himself that there was native firmness and strength underlying his gentle, monk-bred ways.
He was a very warlike man, and the armies, being disgusted with the
effeminacy of Alexander, of whom I have already spoken, killed him and elected Maximinus to the throne.
In his indignation at what he termed their
effeminacy, he would swear that he would never take them to sea again "without having Fly-market on the forecastle, Covent-garden on the poop, and a cool spring from Canada in the maintop.
The days are gone by when it was considered manly to go to bed intoxicated every night, and a clear head and a firm hand no longer draw down upon their owner the reproach of
effeminacy. On the contrary, in these sadly degenerate days an evil-smelling breath, a blotchy face, a reeling gait, and a husky voice are regarded as the hall marks of the cad rather than or the gentleman.
"But what practice in the art of war has a people which nature has thus protected from attack?" asked Tara of Helium, who had liked the young jed's answer to her previous question, but yet in whose mind persisted a vague conviction of the possible
effeminacy of her companion, induced, doubtless, by the magnificence of his trappings and weapons which carried a suggestion of splendid show rather than grim utility.
The one producing a temper of hardness and ferocity, the other of softness and
effeminacy, I replied.
In the window was a sumptuous writing-desk, and every detail of the apartment, the pictures, the rugs, and the hangings, all pointed to a taste which was luxurious to the verge of
effeminacy.
Now the period when
effeminacy succeeds to vigor presents a contrast that is far more dangerous in France than in other countries.
Absurd and womanish; it flashed through his mind that there had always been an element of
effeminacy in his dealings with Wolfi.