And where Ahab's chances of accomplishing his object
have hitherto been spoken of, allusion has only been made
to whatever way-side, antecedent, extra prospects were his,
ere a particular set time or place were attained, when all
possibilities would become probabilities, and, as Ahab
fondly thought, every possibility the next thing to a certainty.
That particular set time and place were conjoined in the one
technical phrase--the Season-on-the-Line. For there and then,
for several consecutive years, Moby Dick had been periodically
descried, lingering in those waters for awhile, as the sun,
in its annual round, loiters for a predicted interval in any
one sign of the Zodiac. There it was, too, that most of
the deadly encounters with the white whale had taken place;
there the waves were storied with his deeds; there also was
that tragic spot where the monomaniac old man had found
the awful motive to his vengeance. But in the cautious
comprehensiveness and unloitering vigilance with which Ahab
threw his brooding soul into this unfaltering hunt, he would not
permit himself to rest all his hopes upon the one crowning fact
above mentioned, however flattering it might be to those hopes;
nor in the sleeplessness of his vow could he so tranquillize
his unquiet heart as to postpone all intervening quest.
Pages:
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334