 Fuller, Channing and many other American intellectuals of their time based their conception of self-improvement on the faculty psychology of the Scottish moral philosophers Thomas Reid, Lord Kames, and Dugald Stewart. The word “faculty”, like the word “facility”, is derived from the Latin word for “power”, and faculty psychology throughout ancient, medieval, and modern times has been the study of human powers. The conventional vision of human nature in Fuller’s day was hierarchical, with reason being rightly superior to the emotions. Conscience was considered a rational power. Channing Unitarians endorsed metaphysical dualism and sought to subordinate matter to mind in the process of self-culture. A key issue for self-improvement was subordinating “the passions” (including selfish, mercenary motives) to reason, the divine quality in human nature. This version of Christian humanism took academic shape in the moral philosophy taught at Harvard during Fuller’s lifetime (D. Howe 1988, especially chap. 2, “The Moral Nature of Man”). Margaret Fuller became the first woman granted library privileges at what was then an all-male university.