No Millennium

Recently I came across a copy of Melville's Moby Dick -- a book which, it is embarrassing to admit, I had not revisited in a long time and which in fact I had never read all the way through.  It opened, unbidden, to this passage:


And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago.  It came in a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances.  I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

"Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States

"WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL

"BLOODY BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN."


. . . which would date Ishmael's voyage to some time around the year 2001.