just in this direction
that they err somewhat; for though no doubt true pictures of one section
of society, there is no denying that Miss Edgeworth's outlook is not
catholic; that the world, as she saw it, was prescribed almost
exclusively within the bounds of so-called "good society"--a circle in
which the heights and depths of life and feeling are rarely touched,
because of the conventional boundaries within which its inmates are
cooped.

Whence, then, the undeniable fact that Miss Edgeworth has gradually
grown to join that band of authors known as standard, who are more
spoken of than read? There is so much in her mode of life-conception
that is entirely modern, so much that is in keeping rather with the
advanced school of utilitarian ethicists than with the more sentimental
school of her day, that it certainly does appear puzzling why she has
not better maintained her place; for it would be idle to pretend that
she has maintained it such as it was in her life-time. It cannot be
because her plots are ill-constructed. When at her best she holds
attention notwithstanding. Nor does an author's power to engross us at
all depend on his constructive faculty. Indeed, some of those writers
who most hold their readers have distinctly lacked this gift, which
often exists independently of fine novelistic qualities. In portions of
her work Miss Edgeworth need fear no rivals. Why is it, then, that in
attempting an estimate of her powers, while allowing to her first-class
excellences, we have to deny her a first-class place, thus condoning, to
some extent, those who leave her unread to turn to less edifying and
admirable writers? Is it not because there is absent from Maria
Edgeworth's writings that divine spark of the ideal that alone allows
works to live for all time--that spark which it is given to many an
inferior author to own, while it is here denied to a woman of great
intellectual power? While preeminently upright, high-principled and
virtuous, Miss Edgeworth's ethics are pervaded by a certain coldness
and self-consciousness that irresistibly give to her good people a
pharisaical character; an impression from which it is always difficult
and at times impossible for the reader to shake himself free. Her heroes
and heroines act with too little spontaneity; they seem to calculate and
know too surely the exact sum total of ultimate gain that will, in a
justly-ordered world, accrue to them for their good actions, their
self-sa