But being paid,--
what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a
man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we
so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills,
and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven.
Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!
Finally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the
wholesome exercise and pure air of the fore-castle deck.
For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds
from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim),
so for the most part the Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his
atmosphere at second hand from the sailors 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 invisible 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 any one else.
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