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Table of Contents
Chapter 46
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 ..
2 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 sense and shrewdness in foreseeing that, for the
present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of that strange imaginative
impiousness which naturally invested it; that the full terror of the voyage
must be kept withdrawn into the obscure background (for few men's courage is
proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action); that when they
stood their long night watches, his officers and men must have some nearer
things to think of than Moby Dick. For however eagerly and impetuously the
savage crew had hailed the announcement of his quest; yet all sailors of all
sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable --they live in the varying
outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness --and when retained ..
3 for any object remote
and blank in the pursuit, however promissory of life and passion in the end,
it is above all things requisite that temporary interests and employment
should intervene and hold them healthily suspended for the final dash. Nor was
Ahab unmindful of another thing. In times of strong emotion mankind disdain
all base considerations; but such times are evanescent. The permanent
constitutional condition of the manufactured man, thought Ahab, is sordidness.
Granting that the White Whale fully incites the hearts of this my savage crew,
and playing round their savageness even breeds a certain generous knight-errantism
in them, still, while for the love of it they give chase to Moby Dick, they
must also have food for their more common, daily appetites. For even the high
lifted and chivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two
thousand miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre, without committing
burglaries, picking pockets, and gaining other pious perquisites by the way.
Had they been strictly held to their one final and romantic object --that
final and romantic object, too many would have turned from in disgust. I will
not strip these men, thought Ahab, of all hopes of cash --aye, cash. They may
scorn cash now; but let some months go by, and no perspective promise of it to
them, and then this same quiescent cash all at once mutinying in them, this
same cash would soon cashier Ahab. Nor was there wanting still another
precautionary motive more related to Ahab personally. Having impulsively, it
is probable, and perhaps somewhat prematurely revealed the prime but private
purpose of the Pequod's voyage, Ahab was now entirely conscious that, in so
doing, he had indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of
usurpation; and with perfect impunity, both moral and legal, his crew if so
disposed, and to that end competent, could refuse all further obedience to
him, and even violently wrest from him the command. From even the barely
hinted imputation of usurpation, and the possible consequences of such a
suppressed impression gaining ground, Ahab must of course have been most
anxious to protect himself. That protection could only consist in his own
predominating brain and heart and hand, backed by a heedful, closely
calculating ..
4 attention to every
minute atmospheric influence which it was possible for his crew to be
subjected to. For all these reasons then, and others perhaps too analytic to
be verbally developed here, Ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good
degree continue true to the natural, nominal purpose of the Pequod's voyage;
observe all customary usages; and not only that, but force himself to evince
all his well known passionate interest in the general pursuit of his
profession. be all this as it may, his voice was now often heard hailing the
three mast-heads and admonishing them to keep a bright look-out, and not omit
reporting even a porpoise. This vigilance was not long without reward. ..
..
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