This should be the aim of every course of education and the object of all improvement. We cannot but hope that you yourselves see the improvement which these faculties have received in the habits of investigation attention and reasoning which you have acquired by the regimen you have passed thro. But we have but just placed you on the threshold of improvement and it is to your after exertions that you must owe the acuteness of excellent reasoning. The rules of the mathematics and logic can be of little service unless the mind is kept in continual practice by subjects fitted to call out its powers. No man ever became an acute reasoner except by practice. We trust therefore that under whatever circumstances you may be placed it will be your aim to acquire the practical management of the powers of mind which you all possess. [Illustration: PL. XXX.—WHERE LYMAN BEECHER PREACHED From pencil drawing by Mary Ann Lewis ] * * * * * CONNECTION OF REV. LYMAN BEECHER WITH THE SCHOOL. The Rev. Lyman Beecher was called to the Congregational Church in Litchfield, and moved there in 1810. From his autobiography, and the writings of members of his family, and the autobiography of Edward Mansfield, the following passages have been culled to show his friendship for Miss Pierce, and his marked influence on the school for some years. His daughter, Miss Catherine E. Beecher, writes:[43] “Among those associated most intimately with my father, (Rev Lyman Beecher) and his family during his whole Litchfield life was Miss Sarah Pierce, a woman of more than ordinary talent, sprightly in conversation, social and full of benevolent activity. She was an earnest Christian, and, being at the head of a large school of young ladies, found frequent occasions for seeking counsel and aid from her pastor. In return she gave gratuitous schooling to as many of our children as father chose to send, for occasionally young boys found admission. “Her school house was a small building of only one room, probably not exceeding 30 ft by 70, with small closets at each end, one large enough to hold a piano, and the others used for bonnets and over garments. The plainest pine desks, long plank benches, a small table and an elevated teacher’s chair, constituted the whole furniture. When I began school there, she was sole teacher, aided occasionally by her sister in certain classes, and by her brother in law in penmanship. At that time the ‘higher branches’ had not entered female schools. Map-drawing, painting, embroidery and the piano, were the accomplishments sought, and history was the only study added to geography, grammar and arithmetic. In process of time her nephew, Mr. John Brace became her associate and introduced a more extended course. At the time father came, the reputation of Miss Pierce’s school exceeded that of any other in the country.