printer. Her
father's educational conversations with his family were often committed
to paper, and these also furnished material from which Miss Edgeworth
made it her object in life to interweave knowledge, amusement, and
ethics. Indeed, it has been most aptly said that between the narrow
banks of Richard Edgeworth's theories "his daughter's genius flowed
through many volumes of amusement."

[Illustration: _Jacob Johnson's Book-Store._]

Her first collection of tales was published under the title of "The
Parent's Assistant," although Miss Edgeworth's own choice of a name had
been the less formidable one of "The Parent's Friend." Based upon her
experience as eldest sister in a large and constantly increasing family,
these tales necessarily struck many true notes and gave valuable hints
to perplexed parents. In "The Parent's Assistant" realities stalked full
grown into the nursery as

"Every object in creation
Furnished hints for contemplation."

The characters were invariably true to their creator's original drawing.
A good girl was good from morning to night; a naughty child began and
ended the day in disobedience, and by it bottles were smashed,
strawberries spilled, and lessons disregarded in unbroken sequence. In
later life Miss Edgeworth confessed to having occasionally introduced in
"Harry and Lucy" some nonsense as an "alloy to make the sense work
well;" but as all her earlier children's tales were subjected to the
pruning scissors of Mr. Edgeworth, this amalgam is to-day hardly
noticeable in "Popular Tales," "Early Lessons," and "Frank," which
preceded the six volumes of "Harry and Lucy."

Although a contemporary of Mrs. Barbauld, who had written for little
children "Easy Lessons," Miss Edgeworth does not seem to have been well
known in America until about eighteen hundred and five. Then "Harry and
Lucy" was brought out by Jacob Johnson, a Philadelphia book-dealer.
This was issued in six small red and blue marbled paper volumes,
although other parts were not completed until eighteen hundred and
twenty-three. Between the first and second parts of volume one the
educational hand of Mr. Edgeworth is visible in the insertion of a
"Glossary," "to give a popular meaning of the words." "This Glossary,"
the editor, Mr. Edgeworth, thought, "should be read to children a little
at a time, and should be made the subject of conversation. Afterwards
they will read it with more pleasure." The popular meaning of wor