calmness, natural and preternatural

Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916), Portrait of Ida, the Artist's Wife, 1898.
via SMK Statens Museum for Kunst - National Gallery of Denmark

preternatural
adj.

1. Out of or being beyond the normal course of nature; differing from the natural.
2. Surpassing the normal or usual; extraordinary.
3. Transcending the natural or material order; supernatural.

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In Melville's Pierre (1852), the "preternatural calmness" of Isabel is a mask for inner turmoil:

The girl sits steadily sewing; neither she nor her two companions speak. Her eyes are mostly upon her work; but now and then a very close observer would notice that she furtively lifts them, and moves them sideways and timidly toward Pierre; and then, still more furtively and timidly toward his lady mother, further off. All the while, her preternatural calmness sometimes seems only made to cover the intensest struggle in her bosom.  --Pierre

When Scenes Beyond the Western Border resumes in March 1853 after a five-month hiatus, the "natural calmness" of Frank becomes the subject of debate. The very naturalness (even during sleep!) is disputed by the narrator, who regards the calm exterior of his imaginary friend as uncanny, extraordinary, beyond the normal or usual:

F.—"And what was there remarkable in my natural calmness?"

C.—"It was never so! There was a brooding desolation around that could penetrate a sleeping soul! --Scenes Beyond the Western Border, March 1853

The above exchange about "natural calmness" was eventually deleted in revision. In the 1857 book version, the narrator's imaginary friend wakes up cranky after a night of bad dreams. The nightmare that was originally associated with "C." as narrator gets transferred to the imaginary friend--now called "Friend" instead of "Frank." So after revision, the roles are reversed.  Now it is the narrator who represents natural calmness when he cheerfully insists, "it was a calm and beautiful night."

The line with "natural calmness" was cut. And "F." for Frank, that was cut, too.

Also deleted, C's report of "brooding desolation." Yow!

"... ye know not the desolation that broods in bosoms like these. --Moby-Dick (The Chapel)

To the brooding soul of the now desolate Israel, so strange a sight roused a supernatural suspicion.  --Israel Potter