Never indeed was any man more contented with doing his duty in that state of life to which it had pleased God to call him. And well he might be so, for no man ever passed through the world with less to disquiet or to sour him. Bred up in habits which secured the continuance of that humble but sure independance to which he was born, he had never known what it was to be anxious for the future. At the age of twenty-five he had brought home a wife, the daughter of a little landholder like himself, with fifteen pounds for her portion: and the true-love of his youth proved to him a faithful helpmate in those years when the dream of life is over, and we live in its realities. If at any time there had been some alloy in his happiness it was when there appeared reason to suppose that in him his family would be extinct; for though no man knows what parental feelings are till he has experienced them, and Daniel therefore knew not the whole value of that which he had never enjoyed, the desire of progeny is natural to the heart of man; and though Daniel had neither large estates, nor an illustrious name to transmit, it was an unwelcome thought that the little portion of the earth which had belonged to his fathers time out of mind, should pass into the possession of some stranger, who would tread on their graves and his own without any regard to the dust that lay beneath. That uneasy apprehension was removed after he had been married fifteen years, when to the great joy of both parents, because they had long ceased to entertain any hope of such an event, their wishes were fulfilled in the birth of a son. This their only child was healthy, apt and docile, to all appearance as happily disposed in mind and body as a father's heart could wish. If they had fine weather for winning their hay or shearing their corn, they thanked God for it; if the season proved unfavourable, the labour was only a little the more and the crop a little the worse. Their stations secured them from want, and they had no wish beyond it. What more had Daniel to desire? The following passage in the divine Du Bartas he used to read with peculiar satisfaction, applying it to himself:— O thrice, thrice happy he, who shuns the cares Of city troubles, and of state-affairs; And, serving Ceres, tills with his own team, His own _free land_, left by his friends to him! Never pale Envy's poisony heads do hiss To gnaw his heart: nor Vulture Avarice: His fields' bounds, bound his thoughts: he never sups, For nectar, poison mixed in silver cups; Neither in golden platters doth he lick For sweet ambrosia deadly arsenic: His hand's his bowl (better than plate or glass) The silver brook his sweetest hippocrass: Milk cheese and fruit, (fruits of his own endeavour) Drest without dressing, hath he ready ever.