This exclusive quality it is,

which causes the thought of whiteness,

when divorced from more kindly associations,

and coupled with any object terrible in itself,

to heighten that terror to the furthest bounds.

Witness the white bear of the poles,

an the white shark of the tropics;

what but their smooth,

flaky whiteness makes them the transcendent horrors they are?

That ghastly whiteness it is which imparts such an abhorrent mildness,

even more loathsome than terrific,

to the dumb gloating of their aspect.

So that not the fierce-fanged tiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger

courage as te white-shrouded bear or shark.

-Herman Melville Moby Dick (1851)