An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second.  It is time for you now to begin to be choice in your reading; to begin to pursue a regular course in it; and not to suffer yourself to be turned to the right or left by reading any thing out of that course. 1 have long ago digested a plan for you, suited to the circumstances in which you will be placed.  This I will detail to you, from time to time, as you advance.  For the present, I advise you to begin a course of ancient history, reading every thing in the original and not in translations.  First read Goldsmith’s History of Greece.  This will give you a digested view of that field.  Then take up ancient history in the detail, reading the following books in the following order:  Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophontis Hellenica, Xenophontis Anabasis, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus, Justin.  This shall form the first stage of your historical reading, and is all I need mention to you now.  The next, will be of Roman history.* From that we will come down to modern history.  In Greek and Latin poetry, you have read or will read at school, Virgil, Terence, Horace, Anacreon, Theocritus, Homer, Euripides, Sophocles.  Read also Milton’s Paradise Lost, Shakspeare, Ossian, Pope’s and Swift’s works, in order to form your style in your own language.  In morality, read Epictetus, Xenophontis Memorabilia, Plato’s Socratic dialogues, Cicero’s philosophies, Antoninus, and Seneca.

     * Livy, Sullust, Caesar, Cicero’s Epistles, Suetonius,
     Tacitus, Gibbon.

In order to assure a certain progress in this reading, consider what hours you have free from the school and the exercises of the school.  Give about two of them every day to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning.  A strong body makes the mind strong.  As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun.  While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind.  Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind.  Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.  Never think of taking a book with you.  The object of walking is to relax the mind.  You should therefore not permit yourself even to think while you walk; but divert your attention by the objects surrounding you.  Walking is the best possible exercise.  Habituate yourself to walk very far.  The Europeans value themselves on having subdued the horse to the uses of man; but I doubt whether we have not lost more than we have gained, by the use of this animal.  No one has occasioned so much the degeneracy of the human body.  An Indian goes on foot nearly as far in a day, for a long journey, as an enfeebled white does on his horse; and he will tire the best horses.  There is no habit you will value so much as that of walking far without fatigue.  I would advise you to take your,exercise in the afternoon: