Perhaps Melville, his taste for excess gone, prefers to express the predicament of innocence in a historical parable of the imposition of order after egalitarian excesses.

• 也许梅尔维尔好高骛远的日子已成过去，这时宁愿用一个历史寓言来说明无辜的牵累，寓言讲的是在过多的平等之后，要强加一点秩序。