life, threads, warp and woof

"But the mingled, mingling threads of life are woven by warp and woof...."  

-- Moby-Dick (1851) chapter 114, The Gilder   

 

"Thus do the silent Fates prepare for our warped life-threads their sombre woof!" -- "Scenes Beyond the Western Border," Southern Literary Messenger 18 (September 1852) page 554.

"Thus do the Fates spin our warped life-threads,--thus do we weave its chequered or sombre web!" -- Scenes and Adventures in the Army (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857 and 1859).