and, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me; if i shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed world which i might not be unreasonably ambitious of; if hereafter i shall do anything that, upon the whole, a man might rather have done than to have left undone; if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my creditors, find any precious mss. in my desk, then here i prospectively ascribe all the honor and the glory to whaling; for a whale-ship was my yale college and my harvard.