{"id":"01KJNXJQYH93T02CMJ13QD0AJN","cid":"bafkreihojym4ca7hslwadb6km55opgadcvv6ch6hd2j5upfper3ev5cc6y","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":484739,"char_start":476940,"chunk_index":67,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1950,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"the shadow of the moon, men are most apt to get out of order. He knew,\r\nfor example, that however magnetic his ascendency in some respects was\r\nover Starbuck, yet that ascendency did not cover the complete spiritual\r\nman any more than mere corporeal superiority involves intellectual\r\nmastership; for to the purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand in\r\na sort of corporeal relation. Starbuck’s body and Starbuck’s coerced\r\nwill were Ahab’s, so long as Ahab kept his magnet at Starbuck’s brain;\r\nstill he knew that for all this the chief mate, in his soul, abhorred\r\nhis captain’s quest, and could he, would joyfully disintegrate himself\r\nfrom it, or even frustrate it. It might be that a long interval would\r\nelapse ere the White Whale was seen. During that long interval Starbuck\r\nwould ever be apt to fall into open relapses of rebellion against his\r\ncaptain’s leadership, unless some ordinary, prudential, circumstantial\r\ninfluences were brought to bear upon him. Not only that, but the subtle\r\ninsanity of Ahab respecting Moby Dick was noways more significantly\r\nmanifested than in his superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing\r\nthat, for the present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of that\r\nstrange imaginative impiousness which naturally invested it; that the\r\nfull terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure\r\nbackground (for few men’s courage is proof against protracted\r\nmeditation unrelieved by action); that when they stood their long night\r\nwatches, his officers and men must have some nearer things to think of\r\nthan Moby Dick. For however eagerly and impetuously the savage crew had\r\nhailed the announcement of his quest; yet all sailors of all sorts are\r\nmore or less capricious and unreliable—they live in the varying outer\r\nweather, and they inhale its fickleness—and when retained for any\r\nobject remote and blank in the pursuit, however promissory of life and\r\npassion in the end, it is above all things requisite that temporary\r\ninterests and employments should intervene and hold them healthily\r\nsuspended for the final dash.\r\n\r\nNor was Ahab unmindful of another thing. In times of strong emotion\r\nmankind disdain all base considerations; but such times are evanescent.\r\nThe permanent constitutional condition of the manufactured man, thought\r\nAhab, is sordidness. Granting that the White Whale fully incites the\r\nhearts of this my savage crew, and playing round their savageness even\r\nbreeds a certain generous knight-errantism in them, still, while for\r\nthe love of it they give chase to Moby Dick, they must also have food\r\nfor their more common, daily appetites. For even the high lifted and\r\nchivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two\r\nthousand miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre, without\r\ncommitting burglaries, picking pockets, and gaining other pious\r\nperquisites by the way. Had they been strictly held to their one final\r\nand romantic object—that final and romantic object, too many would have\r\nturned from in disgust. I will not strip these men, thought Ahab, of\r\nall hopes of cash—aye, cash. They may scorn cash now; but let some\r\nmonths go by, and no perspective promise of it to them, and then this\r\nsame quiescent cash all at once mutinying in them, this same cash would\r\nsoon cashier Ahab.\r\n\r\nNor was there wanting still another precautionary motive more related\r\nto Ahab personally. Having impulsively, it is probable, and perhaps\r\nsomewhat prematurely revealed the prime but private purpose of the\r\nPequod’s voyage, Ahab was now entirely conscious that, in so doing, he\r\nhad indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of\r\nusurpation; and with perfect impunity, both moral and legal, his crew\r\nif so disposed, and to that end competent, could refuse all further\r\nobedience to him, and even violently wrest from him the command. From\r\neven the barely hinted imputation of usurpation, and the possible\r\nconsequences of such a suppressed impression gaining ground, Ahab must\r\nof course have been most anxious to protect himself. That protection\r\ncould only consist in his own predominating brain and heart and hand,\r\nbacked by a heedful, closely calculating attention to every minute\r\natmospheric influence which it was possible for his crew to be\r\nsubjected to.\r\n\r\nFor all these reasons then, and others perhaps too analytic to be\r\nverbally developed here, Ahab plainly saw that he must still in a good\r\ndegree continue true to the natural, nominal purpose of the Pequod’s\r\nvoyage; observe all customary usages; and not only that, but force\r\nhimself to evince all his well known passionate interest in the general\r\npursuit of his profession.\r\n\r\nBe all this as it may, his voice was now often heard hailing the three\r\nmast-heads and admonishing them to keep a bright look-out, and not omit\r\nreporting even a porpoise. This vigilance was not long without reward.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 47. The Mat-Maker.\r\n\r\nIt was a cloudy, sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging\r\nabout the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-coloured waters.\r\nQueequeg and I were mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat,\r\nfor an additional lashing to our boat. So still and subdued and yet\r\nsomehow preluding was all the scene, and such an incantation of reverie\r\nlurked in the air, that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own\r\ninvisible self.\r\n\r\nI was the attendant or page of Queequeg, while busy at the mat. As I\r\nkept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between the\r\nlong yarns of the warp, using my own hand for the shuttle, and as\r\nQueequeg, standing sideways, ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword\r\nbetween the threads, and idly looking off upon the water, carelessly\r\nand unthinkingly drove home every yarn: I say so strange a dreaminess\r\ndid there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea, only\r\nbroken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as\r\nif this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically\r\nweaving and weaving away at the Fates. There lay the fixed threads of\r\nthe warp subject to but one single, ever returning, unchanging\r\nvibration, and that vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise\r\ninterblending of other threads with its own. This warp seemed\r\nnecessity; and here, thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle\r\nand weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads. Meantime,\r\nQueequeg’s impulsive, indifferent sword, sometimes hitting the woof\r\nslantingly, or crookedly, or strongly, or weakly, as the case might be;\r\nand by this difference in the concluding blow producing a corresponding\r\ncontrast in the final aspect of the completed fabric; this savage’s\r\nsword, thought I, which thus finally shapes and fashions both warp and\r\nwoof; this easy, indifferent sword must be chance—aye, chance, free\r\nwill, and necessity—nowise incompatible—all interweavingly working\r\ntogether. The straight warp of necessity, not to be swerved from its\r\nultimate course—its every alternating vibration, indeed, only tending\r\nto that; free will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads;\r\nand chance, though restrained in its play within the right lines of\r\nnecessity, and sideways in its motions directed by free will, though\r\nthus prescribed to by both, chance by turns rules either, and has the\r\nlast featuring blow at events.\r\n\r\nThus we were weaving and weaving away when I started at a sound so\r\nstrange, long drawn, and musically wild and unearthly, that the ball of\r\nfree will dropped from my hand, and I stood gazing up at the clouds\r\nwhence that voice dropped like a wing. High aloft in the cross-trees\r\nwas that mad Gay-Header, Tashtego. His body was reaching eagerly\r\nforward, his hand stretched out like a wand, and at brief sudden\r\nintervals he continued his cries."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3DZQ5YTC2NQ9Q7VBWR","peer_label":"ahab","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKWE5FWX5NYG79H3DYG0K","peer_label":"narrator moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKV94RQAJGYF0Y1PBZWSW","peer_label":"tashtego","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6NN8GY5F9PR4BR6XKKN","peer_label":"moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"mythical_whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6ZHPV5PBYHXDJG13FFK","peer_label":"hunt for moby dick","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"quest","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM70PVBKH0E2X596VYJS9","peer_label":"pequods crew","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"group_of_people","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7ASA9S83R2V3HXYCF0Q","peer_label":"pequods voyage","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"journey","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7YF4QB339VDCYPZK2AV","peer_label":"cash motivation","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"financial_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7P4HW0F6NKD370A1JX3","peer_label":"sword-mat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"woven_object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM7TNE3C72DER9HHBVZM3","peer_label":"chapter 47","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document_section","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM8C6XFGDMXE09D7S1MZM","peer_label":"usurpation legal concept","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"legal_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM8FPJ0SBH2ATT8W24BYS","peer_label":"woof weaving","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weaving_component","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM9592J4VYB216RZRV5VM","peer_label":"shuttle weaving","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weaving_tool","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMAHZ2PD8EVD6YQ9Y1NB0","peer_label":"cross-trees","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ship_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMAKX5F7DJFT4M3GJRP4K","peer_label":"chance philosophical concept","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM8GQTB78HGE6J9T78XAY","peer_label":"warp weaving","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weaving_component","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM8QXSD271TDYKZCQX2YM","peer_label":"crusaders","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"historical_group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM8J4MCA9VZ4YFKJDCJH8","peer_label":"whaling activity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"activity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMARYZS02WCBGJ07BJFWN","peer_label":"necessity philosophical concept","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM9QY2GCW9XC9DBXTVDE7","peer_label":"free will philosophical concept","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"philosophical_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMB0GQWJ20KJ14WV1A41X","peer_label":"the mat-maker","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:03:42.192Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.729Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:04:05.506Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}