well as abilities, or what is
popularly called genius, we believe to be the result of education, not
the gift of nature. A fond mother will tremble at the idea, that so
much depends upon her own care in the early education of her children;
but, even though she may be inexperienced in the art, she may be
persuaded that patience and perseverance will ensure her success: even
from her timidity we may prophesy favourably; for, in education, to
know the danger, is often to avoid it. The first steps require rather
caution and gentle kindness, than any difficult or laborious
exertions: the female sex are, from their situation, their manners,
and talents, peculiarly suited to the superintendence of the early
years of childhood. We have, therefore, in the first chapters of the
preceding work, endeavoured to adapt our remarks principally to female
readers, and we shall think ourselves happy, if any anxious mother
feels their practical utility.

In the chapters on Toys, Tasks, and Attention, we have attempted to
show how the instruction and amusements of children may be so managed
as to coincide with each other. _Play_, we have observed, is only a
change of occupation; and toys, to be permanently agreeable to
children, must afford them continued employment. We have declared war
against _tasks_, or rather against the train of melancholy, which,
associated with this word, usually render it odious to the ears of the
disgusted scholar. By kind patience, and well timed, distinct, and
above all, by short lessons, a young child may be initiated in the
mysteries of learning, and in the first principles of knowledge,
without fatigue, or punishment, or tears. No matter how little be
learned in a given time, provided the pupil be not disgusted; provided
the wish to improve be excited, and the habits of attention be
acquired. Attention we consider as the faculty of the mind which is
essential to the cultivation of all its other powers.

It is essential to success in what are called accomplishments, or
talents, as well as to our progress in the laborious arts or abstract
sciences. Believing so much to depend upon this faculty or habit, we
have taken particular pains to explain the practical methods by which
it may be improved. The general maxims, that the attention of young
people should at first be exercised but for very short periods; that
they should never be urged to the point of fatigue; that pleasure,
especially the great pleasure of s