For, whoso shall Christianize, and by so doing, humanize the sharks, will do a greater good, by the saving of human life in all time to come, than though he made catechumens of the head-hunting Dyaks of Borneo, or the blood-bibbing Battas of Sumatra.

And are these Dyaks and Battas one whit better than tiger-sharks?
Nay, are they so good?
Were a Batta your intimate friend, you would often mistake an orang-outang for him; and have orang-outangs immortal souls?
True, the Battas believe in a hereafter; but of what sort?
Full of Blue-Beards and bloody bones.

So, also, the sharks; who hold that Paradise is one vast Pacific, ploughed by navies of mortals, whom an endless gale forever drops into their maws.
Not wholly a surmise.

For, does it not appear a little unreasonable to imagine, that there is any creature, fish, flesh, or fowl, so little in love with life, as not to cherish hopes of a future state?
Why does man believe in it?
One reason, reckoned cogent, is, that he desires it.

Who shall say, then, that the leviathan this day harpooned on the coast of Japan, goes not straight to his ancestor, who rolled all Jonah, as a sweet morsel, under his tongue?
Though herein, some sailors are slow believers, or at best hold themselves in a state of philosophical suspense.