The Boarding School; Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils / Consisting of Information, Instruction and Advice, Calculated to Improve the Manners and Form the Character of Young Ladies. To Which Is Added, a Collection of Letters, Written by the Pupils to Their Instructress, Their Friends, and Each Other.

by Hannah Webster Foster

And spoil, like bales unopen’d to the sun.

Had thought been all, sweet speech had been deny’d;

Speech, thought’s canal! Speech, thought’s criterion too.

Thought, in the mine, may come forth gold or dross;

When coin’d in word, we know its real worth:

If sterling, store it for thy future use;

’Twill buy thee benefit, perhaps renown.

Thought, too, deliver’d, is the more possess’d;

Teaching, we learn; and giving, we retain

The births of intellect: when dumb, forgot.