“My mother took too much, a great deal too much, care of me; she over-educated, over-instructed, over-dosed me with premature lessons of prudence: she was so afraid that I should ever do a foolish thing, or not say a wise one, that she prompted my every word, and guided my every action. So I grew up, seeing with her eyes, hearing with her ears, and judging with her understanding, till, at length, it was found out that I had not eyes, ears or understanding of my own.”
Source : Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1826). “Works of Maria Edgeworth: Tales of fashionable life. 1826.- -v. 7. Patronage. 1825”, p.2
