My dear, dear boys, for the sake of that
mother who loved you very dearly- and for the sake of your own
happiness for ever and ever- attend to and try to remember, and from
time to time read over again the last words she can ever speak to you.
When I think about leaving you all, two things press heavily upon
me: one, your father's sorrow (for you, my darlings, after missing
me a little while, will soon forget your loss), the other, the
everlasting welfare of my children. I know how long and deep the
former will be, and I know that he will look to his children to be
almost his only earthly comfort. You know (for I am certain that it
will have been so), how he has devoted his life to you and taught
you and laboured to lead you to all that is right and good. Oh,
then, be sure that you are his comforts. Let him find you obedient,
affectionate, and attentive to his wishes, upright, self-denying,
and diligent; let him never blush for or grieve over the sins and
follies of those who owe him such a debt of gratitude, and whose tude,
and whose first duty it is to study his happiness. You have both of
you a name which must not be disgraced, a father and a grandfather
of whom to show yourselves worthy; your respectability and
well-doing in life rest mainly with yourselves, but far, far beyond
earthly respectability and well-doing, and compared with which they
are as nothing, your eternal happiness rests with yourselves.
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