'Feb. 25, 1853.

'My dearest Fan,--I must answer your very sensible well-written
letter at once, because on our system of mutual explanation, there
are two or three things I wish to notice in it. First, I never meant
that anything should supersede duties which I am well aware you
practise with real use to yourself and those about you, e.g., the
kindness and sympathy shown to friends, and generally due observance
of all social relations. Second, I quite believe that the practical
application of what is already known, teaching, going about among the
poor, is of far more consequence than the acquisition of knowledge,
which, of course, for its own sake is worth nothing. Third, I think
you perfectly right in keeping up music, singing, all the common
amusements of a country life; of course I do, for indeed what I said
did not apply to Joan or you, except so far as this, that we all know
probably a great deal of which each one is separately ignorant, and
the free communication of this to one another is desirable, I think.

'My own temptation consists perhaps chiefly in the love of reading
for its own sake. I do honestly think that for a considerable time
past I have read, I believe, nothing which I do not expect to be of
real use, for I have no taste naturally for novels, &c. (without,
however,, wishing to deny that there may be novels which teach a real
insight into character). Barring "I Promessi Sposi" which I take up
very seldom when tired, I have not read one for ages: I must except
"Old Mortality," read last Vacation at Feniton; but I can't deny that
I like the study of languages for its own sake, though I apply my
little experience in it wholly to the interpretation of the Bible. I
like improving my scholarship, it is true, but I can say honestly
that it is used to read the Greek Testament with greater accuracy: so