{"id":"01KG6GMTCAW2EEZA26B87HJRZ1","cid":"bafkreifllyik6foxn2qeqqidghglgb25xoyybq5dso27dkdpc5i7gvtwwi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11555,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 16","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":11508,"text":"‘_Gent._’ Should he do so, whether out of ignorance or sly impudence,\r\nthe Major would have to hold his temper well in hand to obviate a\r\nviolent breach of the peace. To _Boss_ he objects not, that Dutch\r\nmonosyllable having an honest bovine sound to it, and being, in fact, a\r\nnatural localism of a city first settled by the Hollander; and if\r\n_master_ be not the word’s exact equivalent, it would be difficult to\r\nfind one.\r\n\r\nThe Major’s propensity is to occasional unlicensed emphasis in his talk,\r\na thing assuredly not commendable in anybody, very likely contracted\r\nfrom certain experiences, namely, his adventures in early life among our\r\nfrontiersmen. Nor could his subsequent campaignings during our Civil War\r\nhave served to displace the secular expletives by Biblical ejaculations\r\nsuch as those attributed to Cromwell’s pious troopers, though, indeed,\r\nthe historical sceptics of our time have suggested doubts as to whether\r\neven these same martial deacons for all their psalmody in the tents did\r\nnot during active operations against the foe indulge more or less in\r\nthat ‘horrible swearing’ wherewith ‘the army in Flanders’ stands\r\npre-eminently charged. To terrorise, if possible, this pertains to the\r\ntrue function of a soldier in the field. The point is energetically put\r\nby a Roman consul, one of those schooling his infantry on the eve of an\r\neye-to-eye and hand-to-hand encounter of ancient war. To the same\r\npurpose is a well-known passage in Shakespeare. But there are various\r\nmodes of terrorising as a preliminary to closely engaging. The Chinese\r\nAchilles, for example, hurls at the foe missiles of an unmentionable\r\nname in English, and which explode an abomination of stench. The\r\nsequence is hot air, though disagreeable, and what is ‘horrible\r\nswearing’ but the same? It is perhaps equally efficacious, and, in\r\nmilitary ethics, why may not either be used as an adjunct to the\r\nartillery? But alas for the oathing. It becomes a habit, and so in times\r\nof peace is mechanically resorted to by the retired Christian veteran\r\nwhen there is no military call for it. In short, a soldier’s or sailor’s\r\noath, however shocking to ears polite, is, at least when the man is not\r\nactually engaged in tussle with the foe public or private, but an\r\nidiocratic form given to whatever meaning may lurk in such phrases as\r\nBless my soul! Thunder! Goodness gracious!\r\n\r\nIf, however, sin be not of the heart but the tongue, a theological\r\nopinion to which some would seem to incline, then woe to no few of our\r\nwarriors in the late Civil Unhappiness. For, in that case, who but an\r\northodox Calvinist can with any adequacy appreciate the sublime\r\ndisinterestedness of their patriotism, since from his point of view, not\r\nalone did our heroes jeopardise their lives for us, but mortally\r\nendangered their souls. And for what? Oh futility! in the attempts to\r\nterrorise enemies who, being our own countrymen, of course, refused to\r\nbe terrified, though in the end fate, working through force, made them\r\nsuccumb.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 16"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK9PNVA7517VNR0NXKXAW","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMTCASH5W15SSNNM8BW20","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMTCDX9C19XHN7MJ4X8E7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:12.138Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:21.897Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}