y be essentially serviceable in the instruction of her family.
And that she may be essentially serviceable, let no false humility
lead her to doubt. She need not be anxious for the rapid progress of
her little pupils; she need not be terrified if she see their equals
in age surpass them under what she thinks more able tuition; she may
securely satisfy herself, that if she but inspires her children with a
desire to excel, with the habits of attention and industry, they will
certainly succeed, sooner or later, in whatever it is desirable that
they should learn. The exact age at which the music, dancing, or
drawing master, should begin their instructions, need not be fixed. If
a mother should not be so situated as to be able to procure the best
masters for her daughters whilst they are yet children, she need not
be in despair; a rapid progress is made in a short time by well
educated young people; those who have not acquired any bad habits, are
easily taught: it should, therefore, seem prudent, if the best masters
cannot be procured at any given period of education, to wait
patiently, than to hazard their first impressions, and the first
habits which might be given by any inferiour technical instruction. It
is said, that the celebrated musician Timotheus, whose excellence in
his art Alexander the conqueror of the world was forced to
acknowledge, when pupils flocked to him from all parts of the world,
had the prudence to demand double _entrance money_ from every scholar
who had had any other music master.

Besides the advantage of being entirely free from other bad habits,
children who are not taught by inferiour masters, will not contract
habits of listless application. Under the eye of an indolent person,
children seldom give their entire attention to what they are about.
They become mere machines, and, without using their own understanding
in the least, have recourse to the convenient master upon every
occasion. The utmost that children in such circumstances can learn, is
all the technical part of the art which the master can teach. When the
master is at last dismissed, and her education completed, the pupil is
left both fatigued and helpless. "Few have been taught to any purpose,
who have not been their own teachers," says Sir Joshua Reynolds. This
reflection upon the art of teaching, may, perhaps, be too general; but
those persons who look back upon their education, will, in many
respects, allow it to be just. They wil