Page 139 - moby-dick

a wicked name. Besides, my boy, he has a wife—not three
voyages wedded—a sweet, resigned girl. Think of that; by
that sweet girl that old man has a child: hold ye then there
can be any utter, hopeless harm in Ahab? No, no, my lad;
stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his humanities!’
As I walked away, I was full of thoughtfulness; what had
been incidentally revealed to me of Captain Ahab, filled
me with a certain wild vagueness of painfulness concern-
ing him. And somehow, at the time, I felt a sympathy and
a sorrow for him, but for I don’t know what, unless it was
the cruel loss of his leg. And yet I also felt a strange awe of
him; but that sort of awe, which I cannot at all describe, was
not exactly awe; I do not know what it was. But I felt it; and
it did not disincline me towards him; though I felt impa-
tience at what seemed like mystery in him, so imperfectly
as he was known to me then. However, my thoughts were
at length carried in other directions, so that for the present
dark Ahab slipped my mind.

1 Moby Dick