Thereafter he quitted the quiet life always with reluctance. Amid long and trying years he constantly looked forward to the day when he could lay down his burden and retire to the peace and freedom of Mount Vernon, there to take up again the task of farming. As Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the Revolution and as first President of the Republic he gave the best that was in him--and it was always good enough--but more from a sense of duty than because of any real enthusiasm for the rôle of either soldier or statesman. We can well believe that it was with heartfelt satisfaction that soon after independence was at last assured he wrote to his old comrade-in-arms the Marquis de Chastellux: "I am at length become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, where under my own vine and fig-tree free from the bustle of a camp and the intrigues of a court, I shall view the busy world with calm indifference, and with serenity of mind, which the soldier in pursuit of glory, and the statesman of a name, have not leisure to enjoy." Years before as a boy he had copied into a wonderful copy-book that is still preserved in the Library of Congress some verses that set forth pretty accurately his ideal of life--an ideal influenced, may we not believe, in those impressionable years by these very lines. These are the verses--one can not call them poetry--just as I copied them after the clear boyish hand from the time-yellowed page: TRUE HAPPINESS These are the things, which once possess'd Will make a life that's truly bless'd A good Estate on healthy Soil, Not Got by Vice nor yet by toil; Round a warm Fire, a pleasant Joke, With Chimney ever free from Smoke: A strength entire, a Sparkling Bowl, A quiet Wife, a quiet Soul, A Mind, as well as body, whole Prudent Simplicity, constant Friend, A Diet which no art Commends; A Merry Night without much Drinking A happy Thought without much Thinking; Each Night by Quiet Sleep made Short A Will to be but what thou art: Possess'd of these, all else defy And neither wish nor fear to Die These are things, which once Possess'd Will make a life that's truly bless'd. George Washington did not affect the rôle of a Cincinnatus; he took it in all sincerity and simpleness of heart because he loved it.