23 



fifty pounds of best clover seed.' What a touch- 

 ing illustration of the simple habits and practical 

 sense of this illustrious man. — At the time this letter 

 was penned^ he had just returned victorious from 

 the revolutionary struggle to the shades of Mount 

 Vernon ; — we there find him turning from the voice 

 of praise and the blaze of military glory to his farm 

 and garden — with the same fondness with which the 

 infant seeks the maternal bosom^ and in the unosten- 

 tatious amusements and healthful exercises of his 

 fields, becoming the first American farmer, as he 

 had proved himself the greatest hero and general on 

 the tented plain. 



What a lesson and rebuke should this incident 

 convey to the noisy pride and bustling littleness of 

 some of the miscalled great men of our day. — To the 

 placeman and demagogue, even the garden of Mount 

 Vernon, blooming under the eye and hand of Wash- 

 ington, could afford no charm or solace for the loss 

 of power or emolument — these serve their country 

 but to serve themselves. — Marius in his defeated hour, 

 sighed amid the ruins of Carthage, and the impe- 

 rial exile wept upon a barren rock. — Washington, 

 whether at the head of armies or guiding the desti- 

 nies of his country, was the same exalted character ; 

 simple in his tastes, manly and noble in all the rela- 

 tions of life. — In him education found a patron, 

 religion and virtue a model and support, and agri- 

 culture its most distinguished benefactor. — So happily 



