THE WHITE WHALE 
5 
ors on the forecastle. He thinks he breathes it first; but not so. In 
much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many other 
things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it. But wherefore 
it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a merchant sailor, I 
should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage ; this the in- 
visible police officer of the Fates, who has the constant surveillance of 
me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unaccountable way 
— he can better answer than anyone else. I take it that this part of the 
bill of these three mysterious ladies must have run something like this : 
“Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. 
“whaling voyage by one ishmael. 
“BLOODY BATTLE IH AFFGHANISTAH .” 
Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, 
the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when 
others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short 
and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces — though 
I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the cir- 
cumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which 
being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me 
to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the 
delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiassed free- 
will and discriminating judgment. 
Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great 
whale himself. ’Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all 
my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his 
island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; these, 
with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and 
sounds, helped to sway me to my wish. With other men, perhaps, 
such things would not have been inducements; but as for me, I am 
tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail 
forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. Hot ignoring what is 
good, I am quick to perceive a horror, and could still be sociable with 
it — would they let me — since it is but well to be on friendly terms with 
alj the inmates of the place one lodges in. 
