e the superstructure of the
accomplishments, while the accomplishments themselves are frequently of
that unsteady nature, that if the foundation is not secured, in
proportion as the building is enlarged, it will be overloaded and
destroyed by those very ornaments, which were intended to embellish,
what they have contributed to ruin.

THE more ostensible qualifications should be carefully regulated, or
they will be in danger of putting to flight the modest train of
retreating virtues, which cannot safely subsist before the bold eye of
public observation, or bear the bolder tongue of impudent and audacious
flattery. A tender mother cannot but feel an honest triumph, in
contemplating those excellencies in her daughter which deserve applause,
but she will also shudder at the vanity which that applause may excite,
and at those hitherto unknown ideas which it may awaken.

THE master, it is his interest, and perhaps his duty, will naturally
teach a girl to set her improvements in the most conspicuous point of
light. SE FAIRE VALOIR is the great principle industriously inculcated
into her young heart, and seems to be considered as a kind of
fundamental maxim in education. It is however the certain and effectual
seed, from which a thousand yet unborn vanities will spring. This
dangerous doctrine (which yet is not without its uses) will be
counteracted by the prudent mother, not in so many words, but by a
watchful and scarcely perceptible dexterity. Such an one will be more
careful to have the talents of her daughter _cultivated_ than
_exhibited_.

ONE would be led to imagine, by the common mode of female education,
that life consisted of one universal holiday, and that the only contest
was, who should be best enabled to excel in the sports and games that
were to be celebrated on it. Merely ornamental accomplishments will but
indifferently qualify a woman to perform the _duties_ of life, though it
is highly proper she should possess them, in order to furnish the
_amusements_ of it. But is it right to spend so large a portion of life
without some preparation for the business of living? A lady may speak a
little French and Italian, repeat a few passages in a theatrical tone,
play and sing, have her dressing-room hung with her own drawings, and
her person covered with her own tambour work, and may, notwithstanding,
have been very _badly educated_. Yet I am far from attempting to
depreciate the value of these qualifications: they