{"id":"01KG8AKTGPW409B1XMZDQZW8SM","cid":"bafkreiaaozkcrvppygvbkdmtswi4morih567mbhfjrajumi67j27medzeq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1964,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":1907,"text":"Hospital, where they had nothing to do, but prepare themselves for\r\ntheir latter end. And I wondered whether there were any such good\r\nsailors among my ship-mates; and observing that one of them laid on\r\ndeck apart from the rest, I thought to be sure he must be one of them:\r\nso I did not disturb his devotions: but I was afterward shocked at\r\ndiscovering that he was only fast asleep, with one of the brown jugs by\r\nhis side.\r\n\r\nI forgot to mention by the way, that every once in a while, the men\r\nwent into one corner, where the chief mate could not see them, to take\r\na “swig at the halyards,” as they called it; and this swigging at the\r\nhalyards it was, that enabled them “to taper off” handsomely, and no\r\ndoubt it was this, too, that had something to do with making them so\r\npleasant and sociable that night, for they were seldom so pleasant and\r\nsociable afterward, and never treated me so kindly as they did then.\r\nYet this might have been owing to my being something of a stranger to\r\nthem, then; and our being just out of port. But that very night they\r\nturned about, and taught me a bitter lesson; but all in good time.\r\n\r\nI have said, that seeing how agreeable they were getting, and how\r\nfriendly their manner was, I began to feel a sort of compassion for\r\nthem, grounded on their sad conditions as amiable outcasts; and feeling\r\nso warm an interest in them, and being full of pity, and being truly\r\ndesirous of benefiting them to the best of my poor powers, for I knew\r\nthey were but poor indeed, I made bold to ask one of them, whether he\r\nwas ever in the habit of going to church, when he was ashore, or\r\ndropping in at the Floating Chapel I had seen lying off the dock in the\r\nEast River at New York; and whether he would think it too much of a\r\nliberty, if I asked him, if he had any good books in his chest. He\r\nstared a little at first, but marking what good language I used, seeing\r\nmy civil bearing toward him, he seemed for a moment to be filled with a\r\ncertain involuntary respect for me, and answered, that he had been to\r\nchurch once, some ten or twelve years before, in London, and on a\r\nweek-day had helped to move the Floating Chapel round the Battery, from\r\nthe North River; and that was the only time he had seen it. For his\r\nbooks, he said he did not know what I meant by good books; but if I\r\nwanted the Newgate Calendar, and Pirate’s Own, he could lend them to\r\nme.\r\n\r\nWhen I heard this poor sailor talk in this manner, showing so plainly\r\nhis ignorance and absence of proper views of religion, I pitied him\r\nmore and more, and contrasting my own situation with his, I was\r\ngrateful that I was different from him; and I thought how pleasant it\r\nwas, to feel wiser and better than he could feel; though I was willing\r\nto confess to myself, that it was not altogether my own good endeavors,\r\nso much as my education, which I had received from others, that had\r\nmade me the upright and sensible boy I at that time thought myself to\r\nbe. And it was now, that I began to feel a good degree of complacency\r\nand satisfaction in surveying my own character; for, before this, I had\r\npreviously associated with persons of a very discreet life, so that\r\nthere was little opportunity to magnify myself, by comparing myself\r\nwith my neighbors.\r\n\r\nThinking that my superiority to him in a moral way might sit uneasily\r\nupon this sailor, I thought it would soften the matter down by giving\r\nhim a chance to show his own superiority to me, in a minor thing; for I\r\nwas far from being vain and conceited.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ10PHN931C809JMCG8H","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGPZP5TAFJ3E7AQF39C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGP6H76N6FAERXKTS8Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.918Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.273Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}