Not P but Moby-Dick (55)

[Mike Jing]

>From Chapter 70:

“Sail ho!” cried a triumphant voice from the main-mast-head.

“Aye? Well, now, that’s cheering,” cried Ahab, suddenly erecting himself,
while whole thunder-clouds swept aside from his brow. “That lively cry upon
this deadly calm might almost convert a better man.—Where away?”

“Three points on the starboard bow, sir, and bringing down her breeze to
us!”

“Better and better, man. Would now St. Paul would come along that way, and
to my breezelessness bring his breeze! O Nature, and O soul of man! how far
beyond all utterance are your linked analogies! not the smallest atom stirs
or lives in matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind.”

First, does "convert" here refer to converting to Christianity?

Second, is "bringing down her breeze to us" literal, or is there any other
nautical meaning?

Third, what does "not the smallest atom stirs or lives in matter" mean here?