e and charitable life of her
father. That brilliant lawyer, the late Rufus Choate, remarked, on
reading this life, that there did not seem to have been in Burr a
single glimpse of so much as the last and poorest tribute vice pays
to virtue, not even the affectation of a noble sentiment. But we may
claim with justice, that the friendship with his daughter is one
bright place in that frightfully stained, one golden gleam on that
dismally mutilated, career. Mention should be made of Richard and
Maria Edgeworth, among those whose union as father and daughter, was
merged in a superior fellowship as friends, in a more intimate and
delightful junction of ideas, sentiments, and labors. Their united
lives, their mutual devotion, their shared counsels, pleasures, and
tasks, form one of the finest of domestic pictures, a model of a
Christian household. In the preface to the life of himself which he
left for Maria to complete and publish, he says, "If my daughter
should perceive any extenuation or any exaggeration, it would wound
her feelings, she would be obliged to alter or omit, and her
affection for me would be diminished: can the public have a better
surety than this for the accuracy of these memoirs?" And Maria says,
"Few, I believe, have ever enjoyed such happiness, or such
advantages, as I have had in the instructions, society, and unbounded
confidence and affection of such a father and such a friend. He was,
in truth, ever since I could think or feel, the first object and
motive of my mind." One of the most remarkable friendships of this
sort was that of Madame de Stael and her father. Necker was a kind,
good, and able man, who occupied a distinguished position and played
a prominent part in his time. But the genius of his impassioned
daughter transfigured him into a hero and a sage. Her attachment to
him was, in personal relations, the dominant sentiment of her life.
With distinct comprehension and glowing sympathy, she entered into
his thoughts and fortunes. She was to him an invaluable source of
strength, counsel, and consolation.

An instance, partly ludicrous, illustrates her tender solicitude for
him; and it also shows how the mere idea of an event has, with a
person of her genius, the power of the actual occurrence. The
coachman chanced to overset and considerably damage the empty family
carriage. When told of it, she was indifferent until the idea of
danger to her father struck her; then, exclaiming, "My God! had