He was a man of action and could live only when occupied in risky enterprises.
He would be bored to death on land and at the same time would be considered belittled, degraded, like one who comes down to an inferior grade in a country of hierarchies.

The captain of a romantic, adventurous life would be converted into a real estate proprietor, knowing no other struggles than those which he might sustain with his tenants.

Perhaps, in order to avoid a commonplace existence, he might invest his capital in navigation, the only business that he knew well.
He might become a ship-owner acquiring new vessels and, little by little, because of the necessity of keeping a sharp watch over them, would eventually renew his voyages....

Well, then, why should he abandon the _Mare Nostrum ?_ Upon asking himself anxiously what his life had so far amounted to, he underwent a profound moral revolution.
All his former existence appeared to him like a desert.

He had lived without knowing why nor wherefore, challenging countless dangers and adventures for the mere pleasure of coming out victorious.