Ahab: Will I wander forever the seas? Shall I go overboard and walk forever the sea floor? Are these phantom seas, and do they have no floor?

Is this why I could not pass into the gardens I saw in the stars, with rivers flowing across the stars?

I cannot stand bright places: I must stretch myself out when night comes, stretch myself out when the shadows stretch themselves out, and live wild in the cold darkness. I cannot stand hot places or bright sun. And the time of the dawn is here. I shall stay down in this cabin and try to block out the brightness of the day.

These are your wild fish and pinching crawfish: they live in your gut, they open up your gut and swim through your gut: their names are Lust and Terror. They are the purest urges, they are woven of urges upon a loom of instinct, they are your friends, and they shall be as gods to you in death: they shall be the idols and fetishes before which you make your offerings, and you shall let them show you how to live.

Where is my strength, where is my might; I am nothing, I am made to be a tiny little worm, a fearful little morsel of flesh, afraid of being eaten, afraid of starving, afraid of the wide world and afraid of death; I am no longer the proud captain who sought to slaughter the mighty creatures of the seas; I am terrified of the smallest shark, the poisonous jellyfish; I have been humbled, and it is a terrible humiliation. I am a tiny bit of flesh crying out into the wideness of the seas: God, am I nothing to you but food for your sharks, and compost for your earth? Are we no longer your beloved children, but mere beasts vying for survival with the beasts, and mere creatures terrified of the creatures?