ing, in making
those who pretend to be agitated by passion describe the effects of
that passion and talk of the _rending of their hearts_, etc.--a
gross blunder, as gross as any Irish blunder; for the heart cannot
feel and describe its own feelings at the same moment. It is
"_being like a bird in two places at once_." ... Did you really
draw the characters from life, or did you invent them? You excel, I
think, peculiarly, in avoiding what is commonly called _fine
writing_--a sort of writing which I detest, which calls the
attention away from the _thing_ to the _manner_, from the feeling
to the language, which sacrifices everything to the sound, to the
mere rounding of a period, which mistakes _stage effect_ for
_nature_. All who are at all used to writing know and detect the
_trick of the trade_ immediately, and, speaking for myself, I
_know_ that the writing which has the least appearance of literary
_manufacture_ almost always pleases me the best. It has more
originality in narration of fictitious events: it most surely
succeeds in giving the idea of reality and in making the biographer
for the time pass for nothing. But there are few who can in this
manner bear the _mortification_ of staying behind the scenes. They
peep out, eager for applause, and destroy all illusion by crying,
"_I_ said it! _I_ wrote it! _I_ invented it all! Call me to the
stage and crown me directly!"

Mrs. Inchbald had written praising _Patronage_, but she had also found
some faults. To this Miss Edgeworth replied:--

MY DEAR MRS. INCHBALD:

Nobody living but yourself could or would have written the letter I
have just received from you. I wish you could have been present
when it was read at our breakfast-table, that you might have seen
what hearty entertainment and delight it gave to father, mother,
author, aunts, brothers and sisters, all to the number of twelve.
Loud laughter at your utter detestation of poor Erasmus "as
nauseous as his medicines," and your impatience at all the variety
of impertinent characters who distract your attention from Lord
Oldborough. Your clinging to him quite satisfied us all. It was on
this character my father placed his dependence, and we all agreed
that if you had not liked him there would have been no hope for us.
We are in the main of