ery?"

"I will say no more about the nunnery. But would not you, as a good
mother, consent to have your daughter turned into an automaton for
eight hours in every day for fifteen years, for the promise of hearing
her, at the end of that time, pronounced the first private performer
at the most fashionable and most crowded concert in London?"

"Eight hours a day for fifteen years, are too much. No one need
practise so much to become the first performer in England."

"That is another question. You have not told me whether you would
sacrifice so much of your daughter's existence for such an object,
supposing that you could obtain it at no other price."

"For _one_ concert?" says the hesitating mother; "I think it would be
too high a price. Yet I would give any thing to have my daughter play
better than any one in England. What a distinction! She would be
immediately taken notice of in all companies! She might get into the
first circles in London! She would want neither beauty nor fortune to
recommend her! She would be a match for any man, who has any taste for
music! And music is universally admired, even by those who have the
misfortune to have no taste for it. Besides, it is such an elegant
accomplishment in itself! Such a constant source of innocent
amusement! Putting every thing else out of the question, I should wish
my daughter to have every possible accomplishment, because
accomplishments are such charming _resources_ for young women; they
keep them out of harm's way; they make a vast deal of their idle time
pass so pleasantly to themselves and others! This is my _chief_ reason
for liking them."

Here are so many reasons brought together at once, along with the
chief reason, that they are altogether unanswerable; we must separate,
class, and consider them one at a time. Accomplishments, it seems, are
valuable, as being the objects of universal admiration. Some
accomplishments have another species of value, as they are tickets of
admission to fashionable company. Accomplishments have another, and a
higher species of value, as they are supposed to increase a young
lady's chance of a prize in the matrimonial lottery. Accomplishments
have also a value as resources against ennui, as they afford continual
amusement and innocent occupation. This is ostensibly their chief
praise; it deserves to be considered with respect. False and odious
must be that philosophy which would destroy any one of the innocent
pleasures of