Chapter I- LOOMINGS

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth (...) then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. What do you see? - Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries.

But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land. (...)Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?

Once more. Say, you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent- minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries - stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region.

Qüestions:

—1. Write down the motives for which you think Ismael stands out to sea.

—2. Which adventures will he undergo on the high seas? Which is the main motif for the boat trip developed in the novel?

—3. Discuss the following sentences and decide if you are in agreement or not.

a.- "If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me"

b.- "Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries"

c.- "Let the most absent- minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries - stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region"

—4. It is possible nowadays to set out for daring trips like the ones described in Melville's novel Moby Dick?