Ahab an engine on the Line through America

[Terrance]

>From  M-D, CHAPTER 37, Sunset

And Ahab's "external arts" work their evil on himself. He turns gold to
iron and circles into a straight line. He personifies himself, now an
engine, that symbol of American straight line thinning, a locomotive on
the fixed straight line iron rails. 

"The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails,
whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through
the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I
rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!"