The courtly qualities of Count Baldassare are acknowledged wherever his native literature is known; that they were not inconsistent with his observance of parental feelings is proved by an interesting Latin letter addressed to his children the year before his death, which has been preserved by Negrini in his _Elogii Historici_ of the Castiglione family. "To my beloved children, Camillo, Anna, and Ippolita. "It is my belief, dearest son Camillo, that you, above all things, desire my return home, for nature and the laws equally inculcate veneration for our parents next to God; and in your case there may be a special duty, since I, content with but one boy, would not have another to share with you my property and parental affection. That I may not have to repent of such a resolution, I shall own myself free of doubt as to yourself; yet would I have you aware that I look for such duty at your hands rather as a debt, than with the indifference of most parents. It will be easily paid, if you regard in the light of a father that excellent preceptor obtained by your friends, and implicitly follow his advice. From my prolonged absence, I have nothing to inculcate upon you beyond this line of Virgil, which I may without ostentation quote: "From me, my son, learn worth and honest toil; Fortune from others take."[78] "And do you, Anna, who first endeared to me a daughter's name, so perfect yourself in moral graces, that whatever beauty your person may develop, shall be the handmaid of your virtues, and shall figure last in the compliments paid you. And you, Ippolita, reflect on my love for her whose name you bear; and how charming it would be for your merits to surpass your sister's as much as her years do yours. Go on both, as you are doing, and, having lost the mother who bore you before you could know her to be so, do you imitate her qualities, that all may remark how greatly you resemble her. Adieu. "From Monzoni, the 13th July, 1528. "Your father, "BALTHASSAR CASTILION." [Footnote 78: "Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem; Fortunam ex aliis." _Æneid_ XII., 345. Dryden has missed the point of this passage.] * * * * *