{"id":4750,"date":"2025-11-09T02:01:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4750"},"modified":"2025-11-09T02:01:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:01:27","slug":"the-lightning-rod-man-by-herman-melville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4750","title":{"rendered":"The Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Lightning-Rod Man by <a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/authors-famous-after-death\">Herman Melville<\/a> was first published in Putnam\u2019s Magazine, August 1854. When the narrator opens his door to a lightning-rod salesman, the two become involved in a philosophical discussion about faith and the will of God.<\/p>\n<p><em>This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville<\/h2>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"__youtube_prefs__ epyt-facade no-lazyload\"><button class=\"epyt-facade-play\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">The Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville<\/h3>\n<p>What grand irregular thunder, thought I, standing on my hearth-stone among the Acroceraunian hills, as the scattered bolts boomed overhead, and crashed down among the valleys, every bolt followed by zigzag irradiations, and swift slants of sharp rain, which audibly rang, like a charge of spear-points, on my low shingled roof. I suppose, though, that the mountains hereabouts break and churn up the thunder, so that it is far more glorious here than on the plain. Hark!\u2014someone at the door. Who is this that chooses a time of thunder for making calls? And why don\u2019t he, man-fashion, use the knocker, instead of making that doleful undertaker\u2019s clatter with his fist against the hollow panel? But let him in. Ah, here he comes. \u201cGood day, sir:\u201d an entire stranger. \u201cPray be seated.\u201d What is that strange-looking walking-stick he carries: \u201cA fine thunder-storm, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFine?\u2014Awful!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are wet. Stand here on the hearth before the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot for worlds!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had first planted himself. His singularity impelled a closer scrutiny. A lean, gloomy figure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes were ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak floor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side.<\/p>\n<p>It was a polished copper rod, four feet long, lengthwise attached to a neat wooden staff, by insertion into two balls of greenish glass, ringed with copper bands. The metal rod terminated at the top tripodwise, in three keen tines, brightly gilt. He held the thing by the wooden part alone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSir,\u201d said I, bowing politely, \u201chave I the honor of a visit from that illustrious god, Jupiter Tonans? So stood he in the Greek statue of old, grasping the lightning-bolt. If you be he, or his viceroy, I have to thank you for this noble storm you have brewed among our mountains. Listen: That was a glorious peal. Ah, to a lover of the majestic, it is a good thing to have the Thunderer himself in one\u2019s cottage. The thunder grows finer for that. But pray be seated. This old rush-bottomed arm-chair, I grant, is a poor substitute for your evergreen throne on Olympus; but, condescend to be seated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While I thus pleasantly spoke, the stranger eyed me, half in wonder, and half in a strange sort of horror; but did not move a foot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo, sir, be seated; you need to be dried ere going forth again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I planted the chair invitingly on the broad hearth, where a little fire had been kindled that afternoon to dissipate the dampness, not the cold; for it was early in the month of September.<\/p>\n<p>But without heeding my solicitation, and still standing in the middle of the floor, the stranger gazed at me portentously and spoke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSir,\u201d said he, \u201cexcuse me; but instead of my accepting your invitation to be seated on the hearth there, I solemnly warn\u00a0<em>you<\/em>, that you had best accept\u00a0<em>mine<\/em>, and stand with me in the middle of the room. Good heavens!\u201d he cried, starting\u2014\u201cthere is another of those awful crashes. I warn you, sir, quit the hearth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Jupiter Tonans,\u201d said I, quietly rolling my body on the stone, \u201cI stand very well here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you so horridly ignorant, then,\u201d he cried, \u201cas not to know, that by far the most dangerous part of a house, during such a terrific tempest as this, is the fire-place?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNay, I did not know that,\u201d involuntarily stepping upon the first board next to the stone.<\/p>\n<p>The stranger now assumed such an unpleasant air of successful admonition, that\u2014quite involuntarily again\u2014I stepped back upon the hearth, and threw myself into the erectest, proudest posture I could command. But I said nothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Heaven\u2019s sake,\u201d he cried, with a strange mixture of alarm and intimidation\u2014\u201cfor Heaven\u2019s sake, get off the hearth! Know you not, that the heated air and soot are conductors;\u2014to say nothing of those immense iron fire-dogs? Quit the spot\u2014I conjure\u2014I command you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Jupiter Tonans, I am not accustomed to be commanded in my own house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCall me not by that pagan name. You are profane in this time of terror.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSir, will you be so good as to tell me your business? If you seek shelter from the storm, you are welcome, so long as you be civil; but if you come on business, open it forthwith. Who are you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a dealer in lightning-rods,\u201d said the stranger, softening his tone; \u201cmy special business is\u2014Merciful heaven! what a crash!\u2014Have you ever been struck\u2014your premises, I mean? No? It\u2019s best to be provided;\u201d\u2014significantly rattling his metallic staff on the floor;\u2014\u201cby nature, there are no castles in thunder-storms; yet, say but the word, and of this cottage I can make a Gibraltar by a few waves of this wand. Hark, what Himalayas of concussions!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou interrupted yourself; your special business you were about to speak of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy special business is to travel the country for orders for lightning-rods. This is my specimen-rod;\u201d tapping his staff; \u201cI have the best of references\u201d\u2014fumbling in his pockets. \u201cIn Criggan last month, I put up three-and-twenty rods on only five buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me see. Was it not at Criggan last week, about midnight on Saturday, that the steeple, the big elm, and the assembly-room cupola were struck? Any of your rods there?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot on the tree and cupola, but the steeple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf what use is your rod, then?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf life-and-death use. But my workman was heedless. In fitting the rod at top to the steeple, he allowed a part of the metal to graze the tin sheeting. Hence the accident. Not my fault, but his. Hark!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever mind. That clap burst quite loud enough to be heard without finger-pointing. Did you hear of the event at Montreal last year? A servant girl struck at her bed-side with a rosary in her hand; the beads being metal. Does your beat extend into the Canadas?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. And I hear that there, iron rods only are in use. They should have\u00a0<em>mine<\/em>, which are copper. Iron is easily fused. Then they draw out the rod so slender, that it has not body enough to conduct the full electric current. The metal melts; the building is destroyed. My copper rods never act so. Those Canadians are fools. Some of them knob the rod at the top, which risks a deadly explosion, instead of imperceptibly carrying down the current into the earth, as this sort of rod does.\u00a0<em>Mine<\/em>\u00a0is the only true rod. Look at it. Only one dollar a foot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis abuse of your own calling in another might make one distrustful with respect to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHark! The thunder becomes less muttering. It is nearing us, and nearing the earth, too. Hark! One crammed crash! All the vibrations made one by nearness. Another flash. Hold!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you?\u201d I said, seeing him now, instantaneously relinquishing his staff, lean intently forward towards the window, with his right fore and middle fingers on his left wrist. But ere the words had well escaped me, another exclamation escaped him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrash! only three pulses\u2014less than a third of a mile off\u2014yonder, somewhere in that wood. I passed three stricken oaks there, ripped out new and glittering. The oak draws lightning more than other timber, having iron in solution in its sap. Your floor here seems oak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHeart-of-oak. From the peculiar time of your call upon me, I suppose you purposely select stormy weather for your journeys. When the thunder is roaring, you deem it an hour peculiarly favorable for producing impressions favorable to your trade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHark!\u2014Awful!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor one who would arm others with fear you seem unbeseemingly timorous yourself. Common men choose fair weather for their travels: you choose thunder-storms; and yet\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat I travel in thunder-storms, I grant; but not without particular precautions, such as only a lightning-rod man may know. Hark! Quick\u2014look at my specimen rod. Only one dollar a foot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA very fine rod, I dare say. But what are these particular precautions of yours? Yet first let me close yonder shutters; the slanting rain is beating through the sash. I will bar up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you mad? Know you not that yon iron bar is a swift conductor? Desist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will simply close the shutters, then, and call my boy to bring me a wooden bar. Pray, touch the bell-pull there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you frantic? That bell-wire might blast you. Never touch bell-wire in a thunder-storm, nor ring a bell of any sort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNor those in belfries? Pray, will you tell me where and how one may be safe in a time like this? Is there any part of my house I may touch with hopes of my life?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is; but not where you now stand. Come away from the wall. The current will sometimes run down a wall, and\u2014a man being a better conductor than a wall\u2014it would leave the wall and run into him. Swoop!\u00a0<em>That<\/em>\u00a0must have fallen very nigh. That must have been globular lightning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVery probably. Tell me at once, which is, in your opinion, the safest part of this house?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis room, and this one spot in it where I stand. Come hither.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reasons first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHark!\u2014after the flash the gust\u2014the sashes shiver\u2014the house, the house!\u2014Come hither to me!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reasons, if you please.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCome hither to me!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you again, I think I will try my old stand\u2014the hearth. And now, Mr. Lightning-rod-man, in the pauses of the thunder, be so good as to tell me your reasons for esteeming this one room of the house the safest, and your own one stand-point there the safest spot in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was now a little cessation of the storm for a while. The Lightning-rod man seemed relieved, and replied:\u2014<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour house is a one-storied house, with an attic and a cellar; this room is between. Hence its comparative safety. Because lightning sometimes passes from the clouds to the earth, and sometimes from the earth to the clouds. Do you comprehend?\u2014and I choose the middle of the room, because if the lightning should strike the house at all, it would come down the chimney or walls; so, obviously, the further you are from them, the better. Come hither to me, now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPresently. Something you just said, instead of alarming me, has strangely inspired confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat have I said?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou said that sometimes lightning flashes from the earth to the clouds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAye, the returning-stroke, as it is called; when the earth, being overcharged with the fluid, flashes its surplus upward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe returning-stroke; that is, from earth to sky. Better and better. But come here on the hearth and dry yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am better here, and better wet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is the safest thing you can do\u2014Hark, again!\u2014to get yourself thoroughly drenched in a thunder-storm. Wet clothes are better conductors than the body; and so, if the lightning strike, it might pass down the wet clothes without touching the body. The storm deepens again. Have you a rug in the house? Rugs are non-conductors. Get one, that I may stand on it here, and you, too. The skies blacken\u2014it is dusk at noon. Hark!\u2014the rug, the rug!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I gave him one; while the hooded mountains seemed closing and tumbling into the cottage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd now, since our being dumb will not help us,\u201d said I, resuming my place, \u201clet me hear your precautions in traveling during thunder-storms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait till this one is passed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNay, proceed with the precautions. You stand in the safest possible place according to your own account. Go on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBriefly, then. I avoid pine-trees, high houses, lonely barns, upland pastures, running water, flocks of cattle and sheep, a crowd of men. If I travel on foot\u2014as to-day\u2014I do not walk fast; if in my buggy, I touch not its back or sides; if on horseback, I dismount and lead the horse. But of all things, I avoid tall men.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo I dream? Man avoid man? and in danger-time, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTall men in a thunder-storm I avoid. Are you so grossly ignorant as not to know, that the height of a six-footer is sufficient to discharge an electric cloud upon him? Are not lonely Kentuckians, ploughing, smit in the unfinished furrow? Nay, if the six-footer stand by running water, the cloud will sometimes\u00a0<em>select<\/em>\u00a0him as its conductor to that running water. Hark! Sure, yon black pinnacle is split. Yes, a man is a good conductor. The lightning goes through and through a man, but only peels a tree. But sir, you have kept me so long answering your questions, that I have not yet come to business. Will you order one of my rods? Look at this specimen one? See: it is of the best of copper. Copper\u2019s the best conductor. Your house is low; but being upon the mountains, that lowness does not one whit depress it. You mountaineers are most exposed. In mountainous countries the lightning-rod man should have most business. Look at the specimen, sir. One rod will answer for a house so small as this. Look over these recommendations. Only one rod, sir; cost, only twenty dollars. Hark! There go all the granite Taconics and Hoosics dashed together like pebbles. By the sound, that must have struck something. An elevation of five feet above the house, will protect twenty feet radius all about the rod. Only twenty dollars, sir\u2014a dollar a foot. Hark!\u2014Dreadful!\u2014Will you order? Will you buy? Shall I put down your name? Think of being a heap of charred offal, like a haltered horse burnt in his stall; and all in one flash!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou pretended envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to and from Jupiter Tonans,\u201d laughed I; \u201cyou mere man who come here to put you and your pipestem between clay and sky, do you think that because you can strike a bit of green light from the Leyden jar, that you can thoroughly avert the supernal bolt? Your rod rusts, or breaks, and where are you? Who has empowered you, you Tetzel, to peddle round your indulgences from divine ordinations? The hairs of our heads are numbered, and the days of our lives. In thunder as in sunshine, I stand at ease in the hands of my God. False negotiator, away! See, the scroll of the storm is rolled back; the house is unharmed; and in the blue heavens I read in the rainbow, that the Deity will not, of purpose, make war on man\u2019s earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImpious wretch!\u201d foamed the stranger, blackening in the face as the rainbow beamed, \u201cI will publish your infidel notions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The scowl grew blacker on his face; the indigo-circles enlarged round his eyes as the storm-rings round the midnight moon. He sprang upon me; his tri-forked thing at my heart.<\/p>\n<p>I seized it; I snapped it; I dashed it; I trod it; and dragging the dark lightning-king out of my door, flung his elbowed, copper sceptre after him.<\/p>\n<p>But spite of my treatment, and spite of my dissuasive talk of him to my neighbors, the Lightning-rod man still dwells in the land; still travels in storm-time, and drives a brave trade with the fears of man.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Best Herman Melville Books to Read<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3QIdzVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3MqbpqM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3QlR6fC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Click on the image to get a copy<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p>Narrated by James K. White, courtesy of Librivox.org<\/p>\n<p>If you enjoyed The Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/the-piazza-by-herman-melville\">The Piazza by Herman Melville here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville was first published in Putnam\u2019s Magazine, August 1854. When the narrator opens his door to a lightning-rod salesman, the two become involved in a philosophical discussion about faith and the will of God. This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}