Such a child will almost always be too much noticed; and it is scarcely possible entirely to guard against the evil:  hence vanity, and under bad management selfishness of the worst kind.  And true it is, that under better and even the best management, such constitutions are liable to selfishness; not showing itself in the shape of tyranny, caprice, avarice, meanness, envy, skulking, and base self-reference; but selfishness of a worthier kind, yet still rightly called by that name.  What I mean I shall explain afterwards.

Vanity is not the necessary or even natural growth of such a temperament; quite the contrary.  Such a child, if neglected and suffered to run wild, would probably be entirely free from vanity, owing to the liveliness of its feelings, and the number of its resources.  It would be by nature independent and sufficient for itself.  But as such children, in these times in particular, are rarely if ever neglected, or rather rarely if ever not far too much noticed, it is a hundred 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.