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1Though, consumed with the hot fire of his purpose, Ahab in all his thoughts and actions ever had in view the ultimate
2capture of Moby Dick; though he seemed ready to sacrifice all mortal interests to that one passion; nevertheless it may
3have been that he was by nature and long habituation far too wedded to a fiery whaleman's ways, altogether to abandon
4the collateral prosecution of the voyage. Or at least if this were otherwise, there were not wanting other motives much
5more influential with him. It would be refining too much, perhaps, even considering his monomania, to hint that his
6vindictiveness towards the White Whale might have possibly extended itself in some degree to all sperm whales, and that
7the more monsters he slew by so much the more he multiplied the chances that each subsequently encountered whale would
8prove to be the hated one he hunted. But if such an hypothesis be indeed exceptionable, there were still additional
9considerations which, though not so strictly according with the wildness of his ruling passion, yet were by no means
10incapable of swaying him. To accomplish his object Ahab must use tools; and of all tools used in the shadow of the moon,
11men are most apt to get out of order. He knew, for example, that however magnetic his ascendency in some respects was
12over Starbuck, yet that ascendency did not cover the complete spiritual man any more than mere corporeal superiority
13involves intellectual mastership; for to the purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand in a sort of corporeal
14relation. Starbuck's body and Starbuck's coerced will were Ahab's, so long as Ahab kept his magnet at Starbuck's brain;
15still he knew that for all this the chief mate, in his soul, abhorred his captain's quest, and could he, would joyfully
16disintegrate himself from it, or even frustrate it. It might be that a long interval would elapse ere the White Whale
17was seen. During that long interval Starbuck would ever be apt to fall into open relapses of rebellion against his
18captain's leadership, unless some ordinary, prudential, circumstantial influences were brought to bear upon him. Not
19only that, but the subtle insanity of Ahab respecting Moby Dick was noways more significantly manifested than in his
20superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing that, for the present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of that
21strange imaginative impiousness which naturally invested it; that the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn
22into the obscure background (for few men's courage is proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action); that
23when they stood their long night watches, his officers and men must have some nearer things to think of than Moby Dick.
24For however eagerly and impetuously the savage crew had hailed the announcement of his quest; yet all sailors of all
25sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable--they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its
26fickleness--and when retained for any object remote and blank in the pursuit, however promissory of life and passion in
27the end, it is above all things requisite that temporary interests and employments should intervene and hold them
28healthily suspended for the final dash. Nor was Ahab unmindful of another thing. In times of strong emotion mankind
29disdain all base considerations; but such times are evanescent. The permanent constitutional condition of the
30manufactured man, thought Ahab, is sordidness. Granting that the White Whale fully incites the hearts of this my savage
31crew, and playing round their savageness even breeds a certain generous knight-errantism in them, still, while for the
32love of it they give chase to Moby Dick, they must also have food for their more common, daily appetites. For even the
33high lifted and chivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two thousand miles of land to fight for
34their holy sepulchre, without committing burglaries, picking pockets, and gaining other pious perquisites by the way.
35Had they been strictly held to their one final and romantic object--that final and romantic object, too many would have
36turned from in disgust. I will not strip these men, thought Ahab, of all hopes of cash--aye, cash. They may scorn cash
37now; but let some months go by, and no perspective promise of it to them, and then this same quiescent cash all at once
38mutinying in them, this same cash would soon cashier Ahab. Nor was there wanting still another precautionary motive more
39related to Ahab personally. Having impulsively, it is probable, and perhaps somewhat prematurely revealed the prime but
40private purpose of the Pequod's voyage, Ahab was now entirely conscious that, in so doing, he had indirectly laid
41himself open to the unanswerable charge of usurpation; and with perfect impunity, both moral and legal, his crew if so
42disposed, and to that end competent, could refuse all further obedience to him, and even violently wrest from him the
43command. From even the barely hinted imputation of usurpation, and the possible consequences of such a suppressed
44impression gaining ground, Ahab must of course have been most anxious to protect himself. That protection could only
45consist in his own predominating brain and heart and hand, backed by a heedful, closely calculating attention to every
46minute atmospheric influence which it was possible for his crew to be subjected to. For all these reasons then, and
47others perhaps too analytic to be verbally developed here, Ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good degree continue
48true to the natural, nominal purpose of the Pequod's voyage; observe all customary usages; and not only that, but force
49himself to evince all his well known passionate interest in the general pursuit of his profession. Be all this as it
50may, his voice was now often heard hailing the three mast-heads and admonishing them to keep a bright look-out, and not
51omit reporting even a porpoise. This vigilance was not long without reward.
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