Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER 118

  The Quadrant

  The season for the Line at length drew near; and everyday when Ahab, coming from his cabin cast his eyes aloft,the vigilant helmsman would ostentatiously handle his spokes,and the eager mariners quickly run to the braces, and would standthere with all their eyes centrally fixed on the nailed doubloon;impatient for the order to point the ship's prow for the equator.In good time the order came. It was hard upon high noon;and Ahab, seated in the bows of his high-hoisted boat,was about taking his wonted daily observation of the sunto determine his latitude.

  Now, in that Japanese sea, the days in summer are as freshetsof effulgences. That unblinkingly vivid Japanese sunseems the blazing focus of the glassy ocean's immeasurableburning-glass. The sky looks lacquered; clouds there are none;the horizon floats; and this nakedness of unrelievedradiance is as the insufferable splendors of God's throne.Well that Ahab's quadrant was furnished with colored glasses,through which to take sight of that solar fire.So, swinging his seated form to the roll of the ship,and with his astrological-looking instrument placed to his eye,he remained in that posture for some moments to catch the preciseinstant when the sun should gain its precise meridian.Meantime while his whole attention was absorbed, the Parseewas kneeling beneath him on the ship's deck, and with facethrown up like Ahab's, was eyeing the same sun with him;only the lids of his eyes half hooded their orbs, and hiswild face was subdued to an earthly passionlessness.At length the desired observation was taken; and with his pencilupon his ivory leg, Ahab soon calculated what his latitude mustbe at that precise instant. Then falling into a moment's revery,he again looked up towards the sun and murmured to himself:"Thou seamark! thou high and mighty Pilot! thou tellest me trulywhere I am--but canst thou cast the least hint where I shall be?Or canst thou tell where some other thing besides me is thismoment living? Where is Moby Dick? This instant thou mustbe eyeing him. These eyes of mine look into the very eyethat is even now beholding him; aye, and into the eye thatis even now equally beholding the objects on the unknown,thither side of thee, thou sun!"

  Then gazing at his quadrant, and handling, one after the other,its numerous cabalistical contrivances, he pondered again,and muttered: "Foolish toy! babies' plaything of haughty Admirals,and Commodores, and Captains; the world brags of thee,of thy cunning and might; but what after all canst thou do,but tell the poor, pitiful point, where thou thyself happenestto be on this wide planet, and the hand that holds thee:no! not one jot more! Thou canst not tell where one dropof water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yetwith thy impotence thou insultest the sun! Science! Curse thee,thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that cast man's eyesaloft to that heaven, whose live vividness but scorches him,as these old eyes are even now scorched with thy light, O sun!Level by nature to this earth's horizon are the glances of man's eyes;not shot from the crown of his head, as if God had meanthim to gaze on his firmament. Curse thee, thou quadrant!"dashing it to the deck, "no longer will I guide my earthly wayby thee; the level ship's compass, and the level deadreckoning,by log and by line; these shall conduct me, and show me my placeon the sea. Aye," lighting from the boat to the deck, "thus Itrample on thee, thou paltry thing that feebly pointest on high;thus I split and destroy thee!"

  As the frantic old man thus spoke and thus trampled with his liveand dead feet, a sneering triumph that seemed meant for Ahab,and a fatalistic despair that seemed meant for himself--these passed over the mute, motionless Parsee's face.Unobserved he rose and glided away; while, awestruck by the aspectof their commander, the seamen clustered together on the forecastle,till Ahab, troubledly pacing the deck, shouted out--"To the braces!Up helm!--square in!"

  In an instant the yards swung round; and as the ship half-wheeledupon her heel, her three firm-seated graceful masts erectly poisedupon her long, ribbed hull, seemed as the three Horatii pirouettingon one sufficient steed.

  Standing between the knight-heads, Starbuck watched the Pequod'stumultuous way, and Ahab's also, as he went lurching along the deck.

  "I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow,full of its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it waneat last, down, down, to dumbest dust. Old man of oceans!of all this fiery life of thine, what will at length remainbut one little heap of ashes!"

  "Aye," cried Stubb, "but sea-coal ashes--mind ye that, Mr. Starbuck--sea-coal, not your common charcoal. Well, well! I heardAhab mutter, 'Here some one thrusts these cards into these oldhands of mine; swears that I must play them, and no others.'And damn me, Ahab, but thou actest right; live in the game,and die in it!"