Be pleased to advise
the young gentlemen who were so friendly towards me that I have
already sent them, in silence, but with emotions deep enough, perhaps
too deep, my loving farewell, and that ingratitude or want of regard
is by no means among the causes that keep me absent. With a fine
youthful enthusiasm, beautiful to look upon, they bestowed on me that
bit of honour, loyally all they had; and it has now, for reasons one
and another, become touchingly memorable to me--touchingly, and even
grandly and tragically--never to be forgotten for the remainder of
my life. Bid them, in my name, if they still love me, fight the good
fight, and quit themselves like men in the warfare to which they are
as if conscript and consecrated, and which lies ahead. Tell them to
consult the eternal oracles (not yet inaudible, nor ever to become so,
when worthily inquired of); and to disregard, nearly altogether, in
comparison, the temporary noises, menacings, and deliriums. May they
love wisdom, as wisdom, if she is to yield her treasures, must be
loved, piously, valiantly, humbly, beyond life itself, or the prizes
of life, with all one's heart and all one's soul.
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