In the end chapter 76, The Battering Ram, Melville references Friedrich Von Schiller’s poem “The Veiled Image at Sais”:

“But clear Truth is a thing for salamander giants only to encounter; but how small the chances for the provincials then? What befel the weakling youth lifting the dread goddess’s veil at Sais?”

What Melville is saying here, is that humans, in the search of truth are naive and blind to the power of the natural world. When they try to know uncover its secrets, their fate always ends in death. “Lifting the veil of Isis” is an expression to uncover something for you to see it with your own eyes. However, to conquer and own this truth for ourselves is where humans dig their own grave. Melville says that natural forces are so strong that humans would be crushed and it would take some giant salamander to bear them. Salamanders were considered to be borne out of fire, so by Melville, they are the only ones able to withstand the clear and burning truth. With this chapter, Melville basically gives us the ending of the book.

Here is an excerpt from Von Schiller’s poem:

“But what he saw, or what did there befall, his lips disclosed not.

Ever from his heart

Was fled the sweet serenity of life, and the deep anguish dug the early grave…”