Therefore their minds are of stanch immobility, to restore the due share of firm element.

And not only that, but these men have compressed (through generations of circumstance), from small complications, simplicity.
Being out in all weathers, and rolling about so, how can they stand upon trifles?
Solid stays, and stanchions, and strong bulwarks are their need, and not a dance of gnats in gossamer; hating all fogs, they blow not up with their own breath misty mysteries, and gazing mainly at the sky and sea, believe purely in God and the devil.

In a word, these sailors have religion.
Some of their religion is not well pronounced, but declares itself in overstrong expressions.

However, it is in them, and at any moment waiting opportunity of action--a shipwreck or a grape-shot; and the chaplain has good hopes of them when the doctor has given them over.
Now one of their principal canons of faith, and the one best observed in practice, is (or at any rate used to be) that a man is bound to wear ear-rings.

For these, as sure tradition shows, and no pious mariner would dare to doubt, act as a whetstone in all weathers to the keen edge of the eyes.