To the improvement of memory succeeds the culture of the imagination a faculty which at your age requires the constant care of some guardian power. It is still problematical whether the possession of a vivid imagination be of service and how far the light which it throws over the darkness and roughness of the path of life should be followed without hesitation. Imagination is a dangerous faculty where no control exists over its exercise and if accompanied in its unshackled efforts as it too often is by warm feelings it often hurries the possessor to the very brink of imprudence. But imagination when controlled gives a gift to every situation in life and throws a moonlight radiance over every feeling. To direct this faculty in its proper course we have put Universal History into your hands. In addition to the effect which this science has upon the memory the advantage it gives to the imagination is immense, it destroys that sickly relish for fictitious writings which are so justly considered the bane of imagination; it places before the imagination the contemplation of the scenes of real life and by giving a relish for such scenes takes away that morbid restlessness for something new and interesting in life which the readers of fictitious works so constantly desire. Still farther to regulate this faculty and especially to create or direct the taste we have been particularly anxious for your improvement in rhetoric and composition. Besides the ordinary requisitions in this branch we have endeavored to initiate you into the very popular and pleasing theory of Addison and tho’ you may sometimes think he carries the principles of association rather too far yet you must acknowledge that his reasonings are founded on experience. To improve those general principles of morality upon which all ought to act you have studied Paley’s Moral Philosophy and I trust that you will find that in the knowledge it has given you of your duty and the motives for its performance it has not been an unnecessary or useless part of your education. Chemistry with its useful effects on human life and its importance at present in a course of study has not been neglected and the practical advantages you will gain from it as women may be small yet you must have acquired many new ideas on that subject which will be of service to you in the business of life. But all these employments and studies are but subservient to that great and important end the cultivation of the reasoning faculty.