Miss Edgeworth "does not," says Hall, "attack religion or inveigh against it, but makes it appear unnecessary by exhibiting perfect virtue without it. No books ever produced so bad an effect on my own mind as hers. I did not expect any irreligion there : I was off my guard ; their moral character beguiled me : I read volume after volume with eagerness ; and the evil effects of them I experienced for weeks " (Hall s Works, vol. i. Bohn s edition, 1846, appendix, note A). Monsieur Taine, again, says that "this regular presence of a moral intention spoils the novel as well as the novelist. It must be confessed a volume of Thackeray has the cruel misfortune of recalling the novels of Miss Edgeworth " (Enrjlish Literature, Criticism on Thackeray). To Uobert Hall s criticism it is to be objected that a novel is scarcely the place to explain and inculcate the systematic theology of the evangelical school ; while we must concede to Taine and the French critics that to burden a novel with a moral, or other special purpose, is artistically a blemish, especially when it is professedly made an aim as in Miss Edgeworth s case. She remarks very beautifully of Sir "Walter Scott, that his morality is not in purple patches, ostentatiously obtrusive, but woven in through the very texture of the stuff" (Helen, 1838 edition, 123) a statement which scarcely holds true of herself. Still, strong national tendencies must be allowed to assert themselves in fiction, and there can be no doubt that the didactic or moralizing tendency is deeply seated in the English-speaking peoples.
No writer teaches a more admirable practical philosophy than Miss Edgeworth ; and she reaches her object by making her characters natural, and capable, as well as worthy, of imitation. She plainly belongs to the realistic school of fiction ; and it is in teresting to remember that her Tales are expressly founded on a carefully thought out philosophy of education. She thus gives no countenance to the popular fallacy that teaching is a mere trick or knack, rather than a science resting on well-ascertained mental phenomena. Few novelists display less extravagance than Miss Edgeworth. We feel that her minor characters especially are genuine flesh and blood. Sometimes the hero or heroine of the story is liable to the charge of being the incarnation of a single quality, rather than a man or woman. However, in the case of one who writes with a didactic purpose, this is almost inevitable. -Hiss Edgeworth has drawn attention to the less brilliant faculties of humanity, and always prefers to be useful, where others would have endeavoured to be striking. In her pages the heroic virtues give place to prudence, industry, kindness, and sweetness of temper. There are few instances of overwhelming emotions or tumultuous passions in her works ; and it is remarkable how little the love of nature appears. She never uses material which does not yield some direct moral lesson. All this is the natural consequence of Miss Edgeworth s method and utilitarian aim. But, working under such self-imposed conditions, she has done wonders. Her represen tations of the humour, pathos, and generous character of the Irish peasantry are an imperishable monument of her genius. Nor is it fair to depreciate the English novels in comparison, Helen being quite equal to any of her distinctively national tales. The freshness of her stories, her insight into character, lively dialogues, originality of invention, and delightfully clear style render it quite possible to read her works in succession without any sense of weariness. As a painter of national life and manners, and an illustrator of the homelier graces of human character, Miss Edgeworth is surpassed by Sir Walter Scott alone ; while as a direct moral teacher she has no peer among novelists. Among the many sweet memories her unsullied pages have bequeathed to the world, not the least precious is her own noble character, which ever responded to all that is best and most enduring in human nature.
In 1832 a collected edition of Miss Edgeworth s novels was published in London In 18 volumes:/. Castle Rackrent; Essay on Irish Bulls; Essay on Se, <f-J unifi cation. II. Forester; the Prussian Vase; the Good Aunt. III. Angelina; the Good French Governess ; Mademoiselle Panache ; the Knapsack. IV. Lame Jervas the mil; the Limerick Gloves; Out of Debt, Out of Danger ; the Lottery; Rosanna V. Muradthe Unlucky; the Manufacturers; the Contrast; the Grateful Negro To-morrow. VI. Ennui ; the Dun. VII. Manoeuvring ; Almeria. VIII. Vivian IX. Tht Absentee. X. Absentee (concluded); Madame de Fleury ; Emilie de Coulanges; the Modern Griselda. XL and XII. Belinda. XIII. Leonora- Letters- XIV. and XV. Patronage. XVI. Comic Dramas. XVII. Harrington; Thougl.ts on Bores. XVIII. Onnond. To this list are to be added Essays on Practical Education, written in conjunction with Mr Edgeworth (1798), Helen (1834) and numerous stories and books for children. In 1848 a new collected edition of iiiss Edgeworth s works appeared in London in nine volumes; and, after her death, an edition was published in ten volumes, with steel engravings.
of the subject of the foregoing notice, and her associate in many literary undertakings, was born at Bath in 1744. The greater part of his life, however, was spent at Edgeworthtown, or Edgeworthstown, in the county of Longford, Ireland, where the Edgeworth family had been settled for upwards of 150 years. He was of gentle blood his father being the son of Colonel Francis Edge- worth, and his mother, Jane Lovell, being the daughter of Samuel Lovell, a Welsh judge. Richard s mother taught him to read at a very eaiily age ; his young imagination was nurtured on the beautiful stories in the book of Genesis and on Shakespeare s characters of Coriolanus and Julius Caesar; and, when he was only seven years old, a Mr Deane explained to him the uses and structure of several pieces of machinery, a circumstance to which he ever afterwards traced his strong love for mechanical science. The Rev. Patrick Hughes initiated him in Lilly s Latin Grammar an office he also performed for Goldsmith, who was born on the property of the Edgeworths and his public education began, in August 1752, in a school at Warwick. He subsequently attended Drogheda school, then reputed the best in Ireland ; and, after spending two years at a school in Longford, entered Trinity College, Dublin, in April 1761, from which he was transferred to Corpus Chris ti College, Oxford, in October of the same year. While still at college, he made a runaway match, marrying at Gretna Green one of the daughters of Mr Paul Elers, an old friend of his father, by whom he had a son, who was born before Edgeworth reached his twentieth birth-day, and his daughter Maria. Shortly after the birth of his son, he and his wife went to Edgeworthtown, where he met a severe trial in the death of his mother. Her dying advice to him, to " learn how to say no," was the germ of Vivian, one of Miss Edgeworth s best novels. For some time after this Edgeworth devoted himself to scientific reading and ex- periments ; and he claims to be the reviver of telegraphic communication in modern times (Memoirs, second edition, i. 144). His home was now at Hare Hatch, in Berkshire, where he endeavoured to educate his son according to the method explained in Rousseau s Emile. In later life, how ever, he saw reason to doubt many of Rousseau s views (Memoirs, ii. 374). At the same time he went on keeping terms at the Temple, and formed the greatest friendship of his life with Thomas Day an able man, of noble character, excessively eccentric, and known to all boys as the author of Sandford and Merton, which was written at Edge- worth s suggestion. In 1769, on the death of his father, he gave up the idea of being a barrister ; but, instead of immediately settling on his Irish estate, he spent a con siderable time in England and France, mainly in Day s company. In Lyons, where he resided for about two years, he took an active part in the management of public works intended to turn the course of the Rhone. He was summoned to England by the death of his wife, with whom his autobiography tells us plainly he was not happy. Edgeworth hurried to Lichfield, to Dr Erasmus Darwin s, one of his greatest friends, and at once declared his passion for Miss Honora Sneyd, which had been the cause of his flight to France two years before. They were married (1773) in the cathedral, and after residing at Edgeworthtown for three years, settled at Northchurch, in Hertfordshire. When six years of great domestic happiness had elapsed, Mrs Honora Edgeworth died, after recommending her husband to marry her sister Elizabeth which he did, on Christmas Day 1780. In 1782 Edgeworth returned to Ireland, determined to improve his estate, educate his seven children, and ameliorate the condition of the tenants. Up to this point Edgeworth has told his own story. The rest of his life is written by his daughter, and opens with an account of the improve ments he effected, and a lengthy panegyric on Mr Edge- worth as a model landlord (Memoirs, ii. 12-36). In 1785 he was associated with others in founding the Royal Irish Academy ; and, during the two succeeding years, mechanics and agriculture occupied most of his time. In October 1789 his friend Day was killed by a fall from his horse, and this trial was soon followed by the
loss of a daughter, who had just reached her fifteenth.
