So that there are instances among them of men, who, named with Scripture names,a singularly common fashion on the island,and in childhood naturally imbibing the stately dramatic thee and thou of the Quaker idiom; still, from the audacious, daring, and boundless adventure of their subsequent lives, strangely blend with these unoutgrown peculiarities, a thousand bold dashes of character, not unworthy a Scandinavian sea-king, or a poetical Pagan Roman.

岛上的人们还有个习惯，那就是用《圣经》中的人物为自己起名字。他们的称呼中，有“你”与“您”的区别，显得有礼有节；然而他们的血液之中却始终流淌着冒险的成分，勇猛与大无畏的精神,使他们可以成为斯堪的那维亚的海中之霸，也可以成为颇有诗人气质的罗马教徒。

And when these things unite in a man of greatly superior natural force, with a globular brain and a ponderous heart; who has also by the stillness and seclusion of many long night-watches in the remotest waters, and beneath constellations never seen here at the north, been led to think untraditionally and independently; receiving all nature's sweet or savage impressions fresh from her own virgin voluntary and confiding breast, and thereby chiefly, but with some help from accidental advantages, to learn a bold and nervous lofty language,that man makes one in a whole nation's census,a mighty pageant creature, formed for noble tragedies.

这种不乏浪漫色彩的勇猛性格蕴育出了像比勒达船长这种静如处女、动若脱兔的人物，隐居于如此荒蛮之海域，从来没有见过被领导,也有如此的独立性格;他身上有与大自然相谐的宁和与恬美，也有自然斗士的桀骜不驯。他是悲剧中的伟人，支配别人成了他人格的一种病态表现。