or 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.

"And to these Four Rules I will add yet another--Fifth: when you smoke
your pipe with a good conscience, trouble not yourself because there are
men in the world who will find fault with you for so doing. If you wait
for a pleasure at which no sour-complexioned soul hath ever girded, you
will wait long, and go through life with a sad and anxious mind. But
I think that God is best pleased with us when we give little heed to
scoffers, and enjoy His gifts with thankfulness and an easy heart.

"Well, Scholar, I have almost tired myself, and, I fear, more than
almost tired you. But this pipe is nearly burned out, and the few short
whiffs that are left in it shall put a period to my too long discourse.
Let me tell you, then, that there be some men in the world who hold not
with these my opinions. They profess that a life of contention and
noise and public turmoil, is far higher than a life of quiet work and
meditation. And so far as they follow their own choice honestly and with
a pure mind, I doubt not that it is as good for t