master, is indeed a severe and mortifying task, to which none will
submit, but such as have great views, with fortitude sufficient to forego
the gratifications of present vanity for future honour. When the student
has succeeded in some measure to his own satisfaction, and has
felicitated himself on his success, to go voluntarily to a tribunal where
he knows his vanity must be humbled, and all self-approbation must
vanish, requires not only great resolution, but great humility. To him,
however, who has the Ambition to be a real master, the solid satisfaction
which proceeds from a consciousness of his advancement (of which seeing
his own faults is the first step) will very abundantly compensate for the
mortification of present disappointment. There is, besides, this
alleviating circumstance. Every discovery he makes, every acquisition of
knowledge he attains, seems to proceed from his own sagacity; and thus he
acquires a confidence in himself sufficient to keep up the resolution of
perseverance.

We all must have experienced how lazily, and consequently how
ineffectually, instruction is received when forced upon the mind by
others. Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own
teachers. We prefer those instructions which we have given ourselves,
from our affection to the instructor; and they are more effectual, from
being received into the mind at the very time when it is most open and
eager to receive them.

With respect to the pictures that you are to choose for your models, I
could wish that you would take the world's opinion rather than your own.
In other words, I would have you choose those of established reputation
rather than follow your own fancy. If you should not admire them at
first, you will, by endeavouring to imitate them, find that the world has
not been mistaken.