Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/146

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, 13th June, 1847.

,—I must wish you happiness for your birthday. It is the most solemn you have yet seen. To look back at this day last year is now a great sorrow for you, for then your mother stood by your side; but may the looking forward at your years to come give you strength and courage, for then also will your mother be with you in all your life and all your actions. May it all be good and worthy, and every step of yours be directed to the goal that she looks forward to for you, and to which her example and her spirit have accompanied you and ever will, so long as you are faithful to her. And, in other words, that means indeed all your life long. Whatever branch of life and knowledge and activity you devote yourself to, it is essential to will, not to wish for, mind, but to will, something useful and noble, and that is enough. Everywhere there is now a want, and ever will be a want, of good, stout-hearted workers. It is not true what people say about it being harder to accomplish anything now than it was formerly. On the contrary, it is and remains, in a sense, easy, or else it