Please help me with a paragraph from Moby Dick
It was not in nature that these things should fail in latently engendering an element in him, which, under suitable circumstances, would break out from its confinement, and burn all his courage up.
Chapter 26(Knights and Squires) - page 126
Can someone please help me understand what this means? I have read this over and over and I still don't get it. I guess it's just his writing style, but I want to understand exactly what he is saying. Please help.