"MY DEAR EDWARD,--I was very glad to receive your Letter,which showed me that you have learned something since I left home.If you knew how much pleasure it gave me to see your handwriting,I am sure you would take pains to be able to write well,that you might often send me letters,and tell me a great many things which I should like to know about Mamma and your Sisters as well as yourself.
"If I go to Vesuvius,I will try to carry away a bit of the lava,which you wish for.There has lately been a great eruption,as it is called,of that Mountain;which means a great breaking-out of hot ashes and fire,and of melted stones which is called lava.
"Miss Clark is very kind to take so much pains with you;and I trust you will show that you are obliged to her,by paying attention to all she tells you.When you see how much more grown people know than you,you ought to be anxious to learn all you can from those who teach you;and as there are so many wise and good things written in Books,you ought to try to read early and carefully;that you may learn something of what God has made you able to know.There are Libraries containing very many thousands of Volumes;and all that is written in these is,--accounts of some part or other of the World which God has made,or of the Thoughts which he has enabled men to have in their minds.
Some Books are descriptions of the earth itself,with its rocks and ground and water,and of the air and clouds,and the stars and moon and sun,which shine so beautifully in the sky.Some tell you about the things that grow upon the ground;the many millions of plants,from little mosses and threads of grass up to great trees and forests.
Some also contain accounts of living things:flies,worms,fishes,birds and four-legged beasts.And some,which are the most,are about men and their thoughts and doings.These are the most important of all;for men are the best and most wonderful creatures of God in the world;being the only ones able to know him and love him,and to try of their own accord to do his will.
"These Books about men are also the most important to us,because we ourselves are human beings,and may learn from such Books what we ought to think and to do and to try to be.Some of them describe what sort of people have lived in old times and in other countries.By reading them,we know what is the difference between ourselves in England now,and the famous nations which lived in former days.Such were the Egyptians who built the Pyramids,which are the greatest heaps of stone upon the face of the earth:and the Babylonians,who had a city with huge walls,built of bricks,having writing on them that no one in our time has been able to make out.There were also the Jews,who were the only ancient people that knew how wonderful and how good God is:and the Greeks,who were the wisest of all in thinking about men's lives and hearts,and who knew best how to make fine statues and buildings,and to write wise books.By Books also we may learn what sort of people the old Romans were,whose chief city was Rome,where I am now;and how brave and skilful they were in war;and how well they could govern and teach many nations which they had conquered.It is from Books,too,that you must learn what kind of men were our Ancestors in the Northern part of Europe,who belonged to the tribes that did the most towards pulling down the power of the Romans:and you will see in the same way how Christianity was sent among them by God,to make them wiser and more peaceful,and more noble in their minds;and how all the nations that now are in Europe,and especially the Italians and the Germans,and the French and the English,came to be what they now are.--It is well worth knowing (and it can be known only by reading)how the Germans found out the Printing of Books,and what great changes this has made in the world.
And everybody in England ought to try to understand how the English came to have their Parliaments and Laws;and to have fleets that sail over all seas of the world.
"Besides learning all these things,and a great many more about different times and countries,you may learn from Books,what is the truth of God's will,and what are the best and wisest thoughts,and the most beautiful words;and how men are able to lead very right lives,and to do a great deal to better the world.I have spent a great part of my life in reading;and I hope you will come to like it as much as I do,and to learn in this way all that I know.
"But it is a still more serious matter that you should try to be obedient and gentle;and to command your temper;and to think of other people's pleasure rather than your own,and of what you _ought_to do rather than what you _like_.If you try to be better for all you read,as well as wiser,you will find Books a great help towards goodness as well as knowledge,and above all other Books,the Bible;which tells us of the will of God,and of the love of Jesus Christ towards God and men.
"I had a Letter from Mamma to-day,which left Hastings on the 10th of this month.I was very glad to find in it that you were all well and happy;but I know Mamma is not well,and is likely to be more uncomfortable every day for some time.So I hope you will all take care to give her as little trouble as possible.After sending you so much advice,I shall write a little Story to divert you.--I am,my dear Boy,"Your affectionate Father,"JOHN STERLING."The "Story"is lost,destroyed,as are many such which Sterling wrote,with great felicity,I am told,and much to the satisfaction of the young folk,when the humor took him.
Besides these plentiful communications still left,I remember long Letters,not now extant,principally addressed to his Wife,of which we and the circle at Knightsbridge had due perusal,treating with animated copiousness about all manner of picture-galleries,pictures,statues and objects of Art at Rome,and on the road to Rome and from it,wheresoever his course led him into neighborhood of such objects.