“To this great object they dedicate the choicest instruction, the noblest personal influences, and the refinements of a cultivated home.”
It was to carry out this, that religious instruction was made prominent.
Not only was the Bible a weekly text-book for careful and critical study, but, in accordance with an established custom of the school, among the distinguished men and women who nearly every week gave lectures or addresses to the young ladies, were to be found those who told them of the religious movements and interests of the day. Not only those of our own country, but those of a broader field, covering all the known world.
Returned missionaries, with their pathetic stories of their past life.
Heads of the great philanthropic societies, each 41 one with its claim of special and immediate importance.
Professors for theological seminaries and from prominent colleges, discussing the prevailing questions that were agitating the public mind.
Trained scholars in the scientific world, laden with their rich treasures of research into nature’s hidden secrets.
Musicians of wide repute, who found an inspiration in the glowing young faces before them, that called from them their choicest and their best.
Elocutionists, with their pathetic and humorous readings, always finding a ready response in their delighted audience.
These, and many others of notoriety, were brought to the academy; for Miss Ashton had not been slow in learning what is so valuable in modern teaching,—variety.