2887. FARMERS, Happiness of Virginia.—
I know no condition happier than
that of a Virginia farmer might be, conducting
himself as he did during the war [of the
Revolution]. His estate supplies a good table,
clothes himself and his family with their ordinary
apparel, furnishes a small surplus to
buy salt, sugar, coffee, and a little finery for
his wife and daughters enables him to receive
and to visit his friends and furnishes
him pleasing and healthy occupation. To secure
all this, he needs the one act of self-denial,
to put off buying anything till he has the
money to pay for it.—
To Dr. Currie. Washington ed. ii, 219.
(P.
1787)
