reparatory school.

"Dear Papa,--I hope you are well and I will thank you if you will
send me up some quils. Give my love to mama and _Nancy_ and my
little brothers; pleas to kis them for me and send me up some very
good paper to write to you.

I have as many blackberries as I want I go and pick them myself.

SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE
YOUR SON.
1799."

Finley was never much interested in his studies, but liked better to
read books on whatever subject caught his fancy. "Plutarch's Lives" was
one of his favorites, and it gave him the ambition to become famous,
although exactly how to achieve his purpose he did not then see. But he
kept on reading, and studying and when he was thirteen he wrote a
sketch of Demosthenes and sent it to his father, who was so pleased
with it that he laid it away among his treasures.

The letters written to him by his father were very different from those
written by fathers of today. Here is part of one:

"My dear Son--You do not write to me as often as you ought. In your
next you must assign some reason for this neglect. Possibly I have
not received all of your letters. Nothing will improve you in
epistolary writing as practice. Take great pains with your letters.
Avoid vulgar phrases. Study to have your ideas pertinent and
correct, and clothe them in easy and grammatical dress. Pay
attention to your spelling, pointing, the use of capitals, to your
handwriting. After a little practice these things will become
natural and you will thus acquire a habit of writing correctly and
well. General Washington was a remarkable instance of what I have
now recommended to you. His letters are a perfect model for
epistolary writers.... I will show you some of his letters when I
have the pleasure of seeing you next vacation and when I shall
expect to find you much improved.

Your natural disposition, my dear son, renders it proper for me
earnestly to recommend you to attend to one thing at a time. It is
impossible that you can do two things well at the same time, and I
would therefore never have you attempt it. Never undertake to do
what ought not to be done, and then whatever you undertake,
endeavor to do it in the best manner.... Steady and undissipated
attention to one object is a sure mark of genius, as hurry, bustle
and agitation are the never failing sympt