to one your
child will have more vanity than you could wish. This is one evil to be
guarded against. Formerly, indeed till within these few years, children
were very carelessly brought up; at present they too early and too
habitually feel their own importance, from the solicitude and
unremitting attendance which is bestowed upon them. A child like yours,
I believe, unless under the wisest guidance, would prosper most where
she was the least noticed and the least made of; I mean more than this
where she received the least cultivation. She does not stand in need of
the stimulus of praise (as much as can benefit her, _i.e._ as much as
her nature requires, it will be impossible to withhold from her); nor of
being provoked to exertion, or, even if she be not injudiciously
thwarted, to industry. Nor can there be any need to be _sedulous_ in
calling out her affections; her own lively enjoyments will do all this
for her, and also point out what is to be done to her. But take all the
pains you can, she will be too much noticed. Other evils will also beset
her, arising more from herself; and how are these to be obviated? But,
first, let us attempt to find what these evils will be.

Observe, I put all gross mismanagement out of the question, and I
believe they will then probably be as follows: first, as mentioned
before, a considerable portion of vanity. But if the child be not
constrained too much, and be left sufficiently to her own pursuits, and
be not too anxiously tended, and have not her mind planted over by art
with likings that do not spring naturally up in it, this will by the
liveliness of her independent enjoyment almost entirely disappear, and
she will become modest and diffident; and being not apt from the same
ruling cause,--I mean the freshness of her own sensations--to compare
herself with others, she will hold herself in too humble estimation. But
she will probably still be selfish; and this brings me to the
explanation of what I hinted at before, viz., in what manner she will be
selfish.

It appears, then, to me that all the permanent evils which you have to
apprehend for your daughter, supposing you should live to educate her
yourself, may be referred to this principle,--an undue predominance of
present objects over absent ones, which, as she will surely be
distinguished by an extreme love of those about her, will produce a
certain restlessness of mind, calling perpetually for proofs of
ever-living regard and