amatic force. The peculiarities of Irish temper
and character have been studied by Miss Edgeworth with a fidelity which
has given her novels the same national stamp and value which belong to
those of Scott. Like him, too, she did much to raise fiction in
character, scope, and influence. Whether describing Irish, English, or
fashionable life, she is always true to nature, always pure and
elevated in tone. Her works are neither marred by the coarseness of the
past, nor by the false delicacy of the present. She studiously avoids
error and exaggeration in every form. Sentimentality and mock heroism
have no place in her pages. While she is wanting in poetry, she is
singularly rich in the scenes and characters of every-day life, and her
novels are marked by a common-sense knowledge of the world which never
degenerates into commonplace.

Miss Edgeworth has been ably followed by several students of Irish
life. William Carleton's "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry,"
the novels of Samuel Lover and of John Banim are still well known.
Thomas Crofton Croker, with whose amusing description of the "Last of
the Irish Sarpints," the reader is probably familiar, has studied his
countrymen's superstitions and peculiarities with great success.
Charles James Lever has long retained a well-deserved popularity by the
production of about thirty jovial dashing novels, among which the most
celebrated is "Charles O'Malley, the Irish Dragoon."[205]

[Footnote 205: Among other novelists of Irish life and manners may be
mentioned Lady Morgan, Mrs. S.C. Hall, Gerald Griffin, T.C. Grattan,
Justin MacCarthy, and others.]

V.

Novels relating particularly to English life and manners have been
greater in number and more varied in character than those of any other
country. A large volume would be necessary to do any critical justice
to the many distinguished writers whom we can only briefly notice here.
The most considerable subdivision of the English novel has been that
occupied with the study of domestic life,--a department for which women
are particularly fitted, and in which they have been eminently
successful.

Mrs. Opie's "Simple Tales," "Tales of Real Life," and "Tales of the
Heart," although displaying no great talent in construction or style,
excel in a natural pathos and a delicacy of sentiment which have made
them popular for many years. Miss Edgeworth brought to the study of
English life the same practical views and library