"After the ceremony was concluded upon the present occasion, I felt all the easier; a stone was rolled away from my heart. Besides, all the days I should now live would be as good as the days that Lazarus lived after his resurrection; a supplementary clean gain of so many months or weeks as the case may be. I survived myself; my death and burial were locked up in my chest. I looked round me tranquilly and contentedly, like a quiet ghost with a clean conscience sitting inside the bars of a snug family vault."
Musing: Ishmael has just survived being flung out of a boat during a whale chase and decides to write his will. He feels as if he has been given a second chance. Little does he know he will be given a third chance. Three lives, three resurrections so to speak. The religious analogies just go on and on. I love the final image of Ishmael being like a ghost with a clean conscience. When I go to New Orleans and see the above ground graves, I think of this passage for some reason.