oem,
'The Botanic Garden,' and Edgeworth wrote to his friend expressing
his admiration for it; but Maria adds: 'With as much sincerity as he
gave praise, my father blamed and opposed whatever he thought was
faulty in his friend's poem. Dr. Darwin had formed a false theory,
that poetry is painting to the eye; this led him to confine his
attention to the language of description, or to the representation
of that which would produce good effect in picture. To this one
mistaken opinion he sacrificed the more lasting and more extensive
fame, which he might have ensured by exercising the powers he
possessed of rousing the passions and pleasing the imagination.

'When my father found that it was in vain to combat a favourite
false principle, he endeavoured to find a subject which should at
once suit his friend's theory and his genius. He urged him to write
a "Cabinet of Gems." The ancient gems would have afforded a subject
eminently suited to his descriptive powers. . . . The description of
Medea, and of some of the labours of Hercules, etc., which he has
introduced into his "Botanic Garden," show how admirably he would
have succeeded had he pursued this plan; and I cannot help
regretting that the suggestions of his friend could not prevail upon
him to quit for nobler objects his vegetable loves.'

Edgeworth's prediction has not yet come true, nor does it seem
likely that it ever will, 'that in future times some critic will
arise, who shall re-discover the "Botanic Garden,"' and build his
fame upon this discovery.

Dr. Darwin did not follow his friend's advice, to choose a better
subject for his next poem; nor did Edgeworth do what his friend
wished, which was to publish a decade of inventions with neat maps.

In the education of his children, he had already learned the value
of the observation of children's ways and mental states. Having
found that Rousseau's system was imperfect, he was groping after
some better method. His daughter writes: 'Long before he ever
thought of writing or publishing, he had kept a register of
observations and facts relative to his children. This he began in
the year 1798. He and Mrs. Honora Edgeworth kept notes of every
circumstance which occurred worth recording. Afterwards Mrs
Elizabeth Edgeworth and he continued the same practice; and in
consequence of his earnest exhortations, I began in 1791 or 1792 to
note down anecdotes of the children whom he was then educating.
Besides these, I often