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To give one's life for one's country as the Lombard boy did, is a great virtue; but you must not neglect the lesser virtues, my son. This morning as you walked in front of me, when we were returning from school, you passed near a poor woman who was holding between her knees a thin, pale child, and who asked alms of you. You looked at her and gave her nothing, and yet you had some coppers in your pocket. Listen, my son. Do not accustom yourself to pass indifferently before misery which stretches out its hand to you and far less before a mother who asks a copper for her child. Reflect that the child may be hungry; think of the agony of that poor woman. Picture to yourself the sob of despair of your mother, if she were some day forced to say, "Enrico, I cannot give you any bread even Today!" When I give a soldo to a beggar, and he says to me, "God preserve your health, and the health of all belonging to you!" you cannot understand the sweetness which these words produce in my heart, the gratitude that I feel for that poor man. It seems to me certain that such a good wish must keep one in good health for a long time, and I return home content, and think, "Oh, that poor man has returned to me very much more than I gave him!" Well, let me sometimes feel that good wish called forth, merited by you; draw a soldo from your little purse now and then, and let it fall into the hand of a blind man without means of subsistence, of a mother without bread, of a child without a mother. The poor love the alms of boys, because it does not humiliate them, and because boys, who stand in need of everything, resemble themselves: you see that there are always poor people around the schoolhouses. The alms of a man is an act of charity; but that of a child is at one and the same time an act of charity and a caress—do you understand? It is as though a soldo and a flower fell from your hand together. Reflect that you lack nothing, and that they lack everything, that while you aspire to be happy, they are content simply with not dying. Reflect, that it is a horror, in the midst of so many palaces, along the streets thronged with carriages, and children clad in velvet, that there should be women and children who have nothing to eat. To have nothing to eat! O God! Boys like you, as good as you, as intelligent as you, who, in the midst of a great city, have nothing to eat, like wild beasts lost in a desert! Oh, never again, Enrico, pass a mother who is begging, without placing a soldo in her hand!
像伦巴第男孩那样为国捐躯，是无上的美德,但是你也不要忽略了那些较小的美德啊，我的儿子。今天早上当我们从学校回家时，你走在我前面，你经过了一个穷困的女人，膝上还抱着个瘦小苍白的小孩，她向你求施舍。你看了她一眼，什么也没给，但是你口袋里明明就有些铜币。听着，我的儿子。不幸的人在你面前伸手向你求乞的时候，不要习惯于冷漠地走开，尤其是对于为了自己的孩子讨一枚铜币的母亲，更不该那样。想想那孩子也许正挨着饿呢，想想那可怜的女人是多么痛苦啊。想象一下你母亲绝望的啜泣，假如有一天她不得已要对你说：“安利柯，我今天没法给你面包吃了！”我将一枚铜币给乞讨的人时，他对我说：“上帝保佑您健康，保佑您家人的健康！”你无法体会这些话带给我内心的快乐，和我对那个可怜的人的感激之情。对我而言，那些祝福的话语就好像真的可以让人长久健康一样。我满足地回到家里，想道：“哦，那个可怜的人回报给我的比我给他的要多得多啊！”那么，让我偶尔也感受下因你而产生的祝福吧，时不时地从你的钱包里掏出一枚铜币，把它送到无计谋生的盲人、苦于生计的母亲，或是没有母亲的孤儿手中吧。穷人喜欢男孩们的施舍，因为这不会让他们觉得耻辱，因为男孩们正是处于需求一切的阶段，这和穷人有些类似。你可以看到，校舍周围总有穷人在乞讨。施舍是一种慈善活动，但是一个孩子的施舍则既是一种慈善活动，同时也是爱的举动——你明白吗？就好像将铜币和鲜花一同从你手中送出去。想想你什么都不缺，但是他们什么都没有；你追求快乐的同时，他们但求不死就很满足。想想吧，在如此多华丽的娱乐场所中，在挤满马车的街道上，在身着天鹅绒的孩子们中间，竟有女人和孩子没有食物充饥，这是多么恐怖啊。没有食物充饥啊！哦，上帝啊！像你一样的男孩，像你一样听话和聪明的男孩，在这座大城市里，竟然如同在沙漠中迷路的野兽一般，没有食物充饥啊！哦，安利柯，再遇到乞食的母亲，再也不要一枚铜币都不给就走开了！
Thy Father.
你的父亲