"Because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself."
Musing: Long before I loved Melville, I loved William Blake. Blake wrote : "Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence." Blake later writes that without knowing hell, you can't appreciate heaven and vice-versa. At this point in August in Texas, I would love the opportunity to experience a cold day so I can better appreciate this intense heat. In the quote above, Melville has Ishmael and Queequeq sharing another night of sleep. I think the line applies to human warmth as well as physical warmth.