Original 21 Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love from a retreat which i had chosen with the fondest predilection as the asylum of my declining years-a retreat whid7-3 and in my flattering hopes with an immutable decision was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruption in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. George Washington, o The Experiment of the American PeopleOriginal 21: Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years – a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruption in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. • （George Washington, • The Experiment of the American People）