'
'Then I summoned the elder girls, who have been my especial
charge. I reminded them of the ignorance in which some of them
were found, and showed them how all my efforts had necessarily
been directed to stimulating their minds,--leaving undone
much which, under other circumstances, would have been deemed
indispensable. I thanked them for the favorable opinion of
my government which they had so generally expressed, but
specified three instances in which I had been unjust. I
thanked them, also, for the moral beauty of their conduct,
bore witness that an appeal to conscience had never failed,
and told them of my happiness in having the faith thus
confirmed, that young persons can be best guided by addressing
their highest nature. I declared my consciousness of having
combined, not only in speech but in heart, tolerance and
delicate regard for the convictions of their parents, with
fidelity to my own, frankly uttered. I assured them of my true
friendship, proved by my never having cajoled or caressed
them into good. Every word of praise had been earned; all
my influence over them was rooted in reality; I had never
softened nor palliated their faults; I had appealed, not to
their weakness, but to their strength; I had offered to them,
always, the loftiest motives, and had made every other end
subordinate to that of spiritual growth.
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