 have
those articles produced on his own ground.
    These objections did not deter Mr. Dennison, because they were chiefly
founded on the supposition, that he would be obliged to lead a life of
extravagance and dissipation, which he and his consort equally detested,
despised, and determined to avoid - The objects he had in view, were health of
body, peace of mind, and the private satisfaction of domestic quiet, unallayed
by actual want, and uninterrupted by the fears of indigence - He was very
moderate in his estimate of the necessaries, and even of the comforts of life -
He required nothing but wholesome air, pure water, agreeable exercise, plain
diet, convenient lodging, and decent apparel. He reflected, that if a peasant
without education, or any great share of natural sagacity, could maintain a
large family, and even become opulent upon a farm, for which he paid an annual
rent of two or three hundred pounds to the landlord, surely he himself might
hope for some success from his industry, having no rent to pay, but, on the
contrary, three or four hundred pounds a-year to receive - He considered, that
the earth was an indulgent mother, that yielded her fruits to all her children
without distinction. He had studied the theory of agriculture with a degree of
eagerness and delight; and he could not conceive there was any mystery in the
practice, but what he should be able to disclose by dint of care and
application. With respect to household expence, he entered into a minute detail
and investigation, by which he perceived the assertions of his friends were
altogether erroneous - He found he should save sixty pounds a-year in the single
article of house-rent, and as much more in pocket-money and contingencies; that
even butcher's-meat was twenty per cent. cheaper in the country than in London;
but that poultry, and almost every other circumstance of house-keeping, might be
had for less than one half of what they cost in town; besides, a considerable
saving on the side of dress, in being delivered from the oppressive imposition
of ridiculous modes, invented by ignorance, and adopted by folly.
    As to the danger of vying with the rich in pomp and equipage, it never gave
him the least disturbance. He was now turned of forty, and, having lived half
that time in the busy scenes of life, was well skilled in the science of
mankind. There cannot be in nature a more contemptible figure than that of a
man, who with five hundred a year presumes to rival in expence
