In the Propontis, as far as I can learn, none of that
peculiar substance called brit is to be found, the
aliment of the right whale. But I have every
reason to believe that the food of the sperm whale—
squid or cuttle-fish—lurks at the bottom
of that sea, because large creatures, but by no means
the largest of that sort, have been found at its surface.
If, then, you properly put these statements together,
and reason upon them a bit, you will clearly perceive
that, according to all human reasoning, Procopius’s
sea-monster, that for half a century stove the ships
of a Roman Emperor, must in all probability have been
a sperm whale.
Surmises
Though, consumed with the hot fire of his purpose,
Ahab in all his thoughts and actions ever had in view
the ultimate capture of Moby Dick; though he seemed
ready to sacrifice all mortal interests to that one
passion; nevertheless it may have been that he was
by nature and long habituation far too wedded to a
fiery whaleman’s ways, altogether to abandon
the collateral prosecution of the voyage. Or
at least if this were otherwise, there were not wanting
other motives much more influential with him.
It would be refining too much, perhaps, even considering
his monomania, to hint that his vindictiveness towards
the White Whale might have possibly extended itself
in some degree to all sperm whales, and that the more
monsters he slew by so much the more he multiplied
the chances that each subsequently encountered whale
would prove to be the hated one he hunted. But
if such an hypothesis be indeed exceptionable, there
were still additional considerations which, though
not so strictly according with the wildness of his
ruling passion, yet were by no means incapable of
swaying him.
To accomplish his object Ahab must use tools; and
of all tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are
most apt to get out of order. He knew, for example,
that however magnetic his ascendency in some respects
was over Starbuck, yet that ascendency did not cover
the complete spiritual man any more than mere corporeal
superiority involves intellectual mastership; for
to the purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand
in a sort of corporeal relation. Starbuck’s
body and Starbuck’s coerced will were Ahab’s,
so long as Ahab kept his magnet at Starbuck’s
brain; still he knew that for all this the chief mate,
in his soul, abhorred his captain’s quest, and
could he, would joyfully disintegrate himself from
it, or even frustrate it. It might be that a
long interval would elapse ere the White Whale was
seen. During that long interval Starbuck would
ever be apt to fall into open relapses of rebellion
against his captain’s leadership, unless some
ordinary, prudential, circumstantial influences were
brought to bear upon him. Not only that, but
the subtle insanity of Ahab respecting Moby Dick was
noways more significantly manifested than in his superlative
