The Ruling Passion: Tales of Nature and Human NatureVan Dyke, Henry
General
The Ruling Passion: Tales of Nature and Human Nature
Van Dyke, Henry
Fiction; Short stories, American
“Well, it is done; and well done, too! Marry, the flesh of this fish is
as red as rose-leaves, and as sweet as if he had fed on nothing else.
The flavour of smoke from the fire is but slight, and it takes nothing
from the perfection of the dish, but rather adds to it, being clean and
delicate. I like not these French cooks who make all dishes in disguise,
and set them forth with strange foreign savours, like a masquerade. Give
me my food in its native dress, even though it be a little dry. If we
had but a cup of sack, now, or a glass of good ale, and a pipeful of
tobacco?
“What! you have an abundance of the fragrant weed in your pouch? Sir, I
thank you very heartily! You entertain me like a prince. Not like King
James, be it understood, who despised tobacco and called it a 'lively
image and pattern of hell'; nor like the Czar of Russia who commanded
that all who used it should have their noses cut off; but like good
Queen Bess of glorious memory, who disdained not the incense of the
pipe, and some say she used one herself; though for my part I think the
custom of smoking one that is more fitting for men, whose frailty and
need of comfort are well known, than for that fairer sex whose innocent
and virgin spirits stand less in want of creature consolations.
“But come, let us not trouble our enjoyment with careful discrimination
of others' scruples. Your tobacco is rarely good; I'll warrant it comes
from that province of Virginia which was named for the Virgin Queen; and
while we smoke together, let me call you, for this hour, my Scholar;
and so I will give you four choice rules for the attainment of that
unhastened quietude of mind whereof we did lately discourse.
“First: you shall learn to desire nothing in the world so much but that
you can be happy without it.
“Second: you shall seek that which you desire only by such means as are
fair and lawful, and this will leave you without bitterness towards men
or shame before God.
“Third: you shall take pleasure in the time while you are seeking, even
though you obtain not immediately that which you seek; for the purpose
of a journey is not only to arrive at the goal, but also to find
enjoyment by the way.
“Fourth: when you attain that which you have desired, you shall think
more of the kindness of your fortune than of the greatness of your
skill. This will make you grateful, and ready to share with others
that which Providence hath bestowed upon you; and truly this is both
reasonable and profitable, for it is but little that any of us would
catch in this world were not our luck better than our deserts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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