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 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 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 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 employments

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 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 mastheads and admonishing them to keep a bright look-out, and

not omit reporting even a porpoise. This vigilance was not long

without reward.