{"id":"01KG8AMESE38R0JX4GDHSX303C","cid":"bafkreifu6apbakzp7ixqoge44thjm22tkwuq6bkiyw2npeiocbj7aliwpq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1872,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1808,"text":"disposition has had its even edge turned, and hacked like a saw; and\r\nmany a sweet draught of piety has soured on the heart from people’s\r\nchoosing ill-natured employments, and omitting to gather round them\r\ngood-natured landscapes. Gardeners are almost always pleasant, affable\r\npeople to converse with; but beware of quarter-gunners, keepers of\r\narsenals, and lonely light-house men.\r\n\r\nIt would be advisable for any man, who from an unlucky choice of a\r\nprofession, which it is too late to change for another, should find his\r\ntemper souring, to endeavour to counteract that misfortune, by filling\r\nhis private chamber with amiable, pleasurable sights and sounds. In\r\nsummer time, an Aeolian harp can be placed in your window at a very\r\ntrifling expense; a conch-shell might stand on your mantel, to be taken\r\nup and held to the ear, that you may be soothed by its continual\r\nlulling sound, when you feel the blue fit stealing over you. For\r\nsights, a gay-painted punch-bowl, or Dutch tankard—never mind about\r\nfilling it—might be recommended. It should be placed on a bracket in\r\nthe pier. Nor is an old-fashioned silver ladle, nor a chased\r\ndinner-castor, nor a fine portly demijohn, nor anything, indeed, that\r\nsavors of eating and drinking, bad to drive off the spleen. But perhaps\r\nthe best of all is a shelf of merrily-bound books, containing comedies,\r\nfarces, songs, and humorous novels. You need never open them; only have\r\nthe titles in plain sight. For this purpose, Peregrine Pickle is a good\r\nbook; so is Gil Blas; so is Goldsmith.\r\n\r\nBut of all chamber furniture in the world, best calculated to cure a\r\nhad temper, and breed a pleasant one, is the sight of a lovely wife. If\r\nyou have children, however, that are teething, the nursery should be a\r\ngood way up stairs; at sea, it ought to be in the mizzen-top. Indeed,\r\nteething children play the very deuce with a husband’s temper. I have\r\nknown three promising young husbands completely spoil on their wives’\r\nhands, by reason of a teething child, whose worrisomeness happened to\r\nbe aggravated at the time by the summer-complaint. With a breaking\r\nheart, and my handkerchief to my eyes, I followed those three hapless\r\nyoung husbands, one after the other, to their premature graves.\r\n\r\nGossiping scenes breed gossips. Who so chatty as hotel-clerks, market\r\nwomen, auctioneers, bar-keepers, apothecaries, newspaper-reporters,\r\nmonthly-nurses, and all those who live in bustling crowds, or are\r\npresent at scenes of chatty interest.\r\n\r\nSolitude breeds taciturnity; _that_ every body knows; who so taciturn\r\nas authors, taken as a race?\r\n\r\nA forced, interior quietude, in the midst of great out-ward commotion,\r\nbreeds moody people. Who so moody as railroad-brakemen,\r\nsteam-boat-engineers, helmsmen, and tenders of power-looms in cotton\r\nfactories? For all these must hold their peace while employed, and let\r\nthe machinery do the chatting; they cannot even edge in a single\r\nsyllable.\r\n\r\nNow, this theory about the wondrous influence of habitual sights and\r\nsounds upon the human temper, was suggested by my experiences on board\r\nour frigate. And al-though I regard the example furnished by our\r\nquarter-gunners—especially him who had once been our top-mate—as by far\r\nthe strongest argument in favour of the general theory; yet, the entire\r\nship abounded with illustrations of its truth. Who were more\r\nliberal-hearted, lofty-minded, gayer, more jocund, elastic,\r\nadventurous, given to fun and frolic, than the top-men of the fore,\r\nmain, and mizzen masts? The reason of their liberal-heartedness was,\r\nthat they were daily called upon to expatiate themselves all over the\r\nrigging. The reason of their lofty-mindedness was, that they were high\r\nlifted above the petty tumults, carping cares, and paltrinesses of the\r\ndecks below.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3M4AHHCAW4MDTNFNN5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMEARWNAR10BMSQZ9C3XH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMESEBQCKTBS6HQTGRB8G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.678Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.916Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}