in a church-yard.

Now, there can be little doubt, that their being so much among the guns
is the very thing that makes a gunner's gang so cross and quarrelsome.
Indeed, this was once proved to the satisfaction of our whole company
of main-top-men. A fine top-mate of ours, a most merry and
companionable fellow, chanced to be promoted to a quarter-gunner's
berth. A few days afterward, some of us main-top-men, his old comrades,
went to pay him a visit, while he was going his regular rounds through
the division of guns allotted to his care. But instead of greeting us
with his usual heartiness, and cracking his pleasant jokes, to our
amazement, he did little else but scowl; and at last, when we rallied
him upon his ill-temper, he seized a long black rammer from overhead,
and drove us on deck; threatening to report us, if we ever dared to be
familiar with him again.

My top-mates thought that this remarkable metamorphose was the effect
produced upon a weak, vain character suddenly elevated from the level
of a mere seaman to the dignified position of a _petty officer_. But
though, in similar cases, I had seen such effects produced upon some of
the crew; yet, in the present instance, I knew better than that;--it
was solely brought about by his consorting with with those villainous,
irritable, ill-tempered cannon; more especially from his being subject
to the orders of those deformed blunderbusses, Priming and Cylinder.

The truth seems to be, indeed, that all people should be very careful
in selecting their callings and vocations; very careful in seeing to
it, that they surround themselves by good-humoured, pleasant-looking
objects; and agreeable, temper-soothing sounds. Many an angelic
disposition has had its even edge turned, and hacked like a saw; and
many a sweet draught of piety has soured on the heart from people's
choosing ill-natured employments, and omitting to gather round them
good-natured landscapes. Gardeners are almost always pleasant, affable
people to con-verse with; but beware of quarter-gunners, keepers of
arsenals, and lonely light-house men.

It would be advisable for any man, who from an unlucky choice of a
profession, which it is too late to change for another, should find his
temper souring, to endeavour to counteract that misfortune, by filling
his private chamber with amiable, pleasurable sights and sounds. In
summer time, an Aeolian harp can be placed in your window at a very
trifling expense; a c