“Then that will be more than seven thousand hours of musical lessons which you have yet to endure, Laura! There [76] ]are many more things of still greater importance to learn also, if you wish to be any better than a musical snuff-box. For instance, when visitors come to see me, they are often from France or Italy; but perhaps you will not mind sitting in the room as if you were deaf and dumb, gazing at those foreigners, while they gaze at you, without understanding a syllable they say, and causing them to feel strange and uncomfortable as long as they remain in the house.”

“No! I would not for the world seem so unkind and uncivil. Pray, let me learn plenty of languages.”

“Very well! but if you study no geography, what ridiculous blunders you will be falling into! asking the Italians about their native town Madrid, and the Americans if they were born at Petersburgh. You will be fancying that travellers go by steam-boats to Moscow, and travel in a day from Paris, through Stockholm to Naples. How ashamed I should be of such mistakes!”

“And so should I, grandmama, still more than you; for it would be quite a disgrace.”

“Do you remember, Laura, your uncle David laughing, when he last went to live at Leamington

, about poor Mrs. Marmalade coming up stairs to say, she did not wish to be troublesome, but should feel greatly obliged if he would call at Portsmouth occasionally to see her son Thomas. And when Captain Armylist’s regiment was ordered last winter to the village of Bathgate near this, he told me they were to march in the course of that morning, all the way to Bagdad.”

“Yes, grandmama! and Mrs. Crabtree said some weeks ago, that if her brother went to Van Dieman’s Land, she thought he would of course in passing, take a look at Jerusalem; and Frank was amused lately to hear Peter Grey maintain, that Gulliver was as great a man as Columbus, because he discovered Liliput!”

“Quite like him! for I heard Peter ask one day lately, [77] ]what side Bonaparte was on at the battle of Leipsic? We must include a little history I think, Laura, in our list of studies, or you will fancy that Lord Nelson fought at the battle of Blenheim, and that Henry VIII. cut off Queen Mary’s head.”

“Not quite so bad as that, grandmama! I seem to have known all about Lord Nelson and Queen Mary, ever since I was a baby in long frocks! You have shewn me, however, that it would be very foolish not to feel anxious for lessons, especially when they are to make me a fit companion for you at last.”

“Yes, Laura! and not only for me, but for many whose conversation will entertain and improve you more than any books. The most delightful accomplishment that a young person can cultivate, is that of conversing agreeably; and it is less attended to in education than any other. You cannot take a harp or piano about with you, but our minds and tongues are always portable, and accompany us wherever we go. If you wish to be loved by others, and to do good to your associates, as well as to entertain them, take every opportunity of conversing with those who are either amiable or agreeable; not only attending to their opinions, but also endeavouring to gain the habit of expressing your own thoughts with ease and fluency; and then rest assured, that if the gift of conversation be rightly exercised, it is the most desirable of all, as no teaching can have greater influence in leading people to think and act aright, than the incidental remarks of an enlightened Christian, freely and unaffectedly talking to his intimate friends.”