you before long. Meanwhile and
always, God bless you, is the prayer of

"Your affectionate son,
"JOHN STERLING."

_To the same_.
"FALMOUTH, 12th April, 1843.

"DEAREST MOTHER,--I have just received my Father's Letter; which gives
me at least the comfort of believing that you do not suffer very much
pain. That your mind has remained so clear and strong, is an infinite
blessing.

"I do not know anything in the world that would make up to me at all for
wanting the recollection of the days I spent with you lately, when I was
amazed at the freshness and life of all your thoughts. It brought back
far-distant years, in the strangest, most peaceful way. I felt myself
walking with you in Greenwich Park, and on the seashore at Sandgate;
almost even I seemed a baby, with you bending over me. Dear Mother,
there is surely something uniting us that cannot perish. I seem so sure
of a love which shall last and reunite us, that even the remembrance,
painful as that is, of all my own follies and ill tempers, cannot shake
this faith. When I think of you, and know how you feel towards me, and
have felt for every moment of almost forty years, it would be too dark
to believe that we shall never meet again. It was from you that I first
learnt to think, to feel, to imagine, to believe; and these powers,
which cannot be extinguished, will one day enter anew into communion
with you. I have bought it very dear by the prospect of losing you in
this world,--but since you have been so ill, everything has seemed to me
holier, loftier and more lasting, more full of hope and final joy.

"It would be a very great happiness to see you once more even here; but
I do not know if that will be granted to me. But for Susan's state, I
should not hesitate an instant; as it is, my duty seems to be to remain,
and I have no right to repine. There is no sacrifice that she would not
make for me, and it would be too cruel to endanger her by mere anxiety
on my account. Nothing can exceed her sympathy with my sorrow. But she
cannot know, no one can, the recollections of all you have been and
done for me; which now are the most sacred and deepest, as well as
most beautiful, thoughts that abide with me. May God bless you, dearest
Mother. It is much to believe that He feels for you all that you have
ever felt for your chil