exercises except in my presence, until a better touch has been
thoroughly established. You must also give up entirely, for a time,
playing your previous pieces; for they would give you opportunity to
fall again into your faulty mode of playing. I shall also soon put in
practice one of my maxims in teaching; viz., that, merely for the
acquisition of mechanical facility, all my pupils shall be in the habit
of playing daily some appropriate piece, that by its perfect mastery
they may gain a fearless confidence. They must regard this piece as a
companion, friend, and support. I wish you to learn to consider it a
necessity every day, before practising or studying your new piece of
music, to play this piece, even if it is done quite mechanically, two or
three times, first slowly, then faster; for without ready, flexible
fingers, my teaching and preaching will be valueless.

MRS. SOLID. But what pieces, for instance?

DOMINIE. For beginners, perhaps one or two of Hünten's Etudes
Melodiques; a little later, one of Czerny's very judicious Etudes from
his opus 740; and for more advanced pupils, after they are able to
stretch easily and correctly, his Toccata, opus 92,--a piece which my
three daughters never give up playing, even if they do not play it every
day. They practise pieces of this description as a remedy for mechanical
deficiencies, changing them every three or four months. In the selection
of these, I aim especially at the practice of thirds, trills,
stretches, scales, and passages for strengthening the fourth finger; and
I choose them with reference to the particular pieces, sonatas,
variations, concertos, &c., which they are at the time studying.
Likewise, in the choice of the latter, I pursue a different course from
that which the teachers alluded to above and others are accustomed to
follow; though I hope my management is never pedantic, but cautious,