re of
incident, power, knowledge of the world, in the place of that one subtle
quality of humour which for some persons outweighs almost every other.
Something, some indefinite sentiment, tells people where they amalgamate
and with whom they are intellectually akin; and by some such process of
criticism the writer feels that in this little memoir of Miss Edgeworth
she has but sketched the outer likeness of this remarkable woman's life
and genius; and that she has scarcely done justice to very much in Miss
Edgeworth, which so many of the foremost men of her day could
appreciate--a power, a versatility, an interest in subjects for their
own sakes, not for the sakes of those who are interested in them, which
was essentially hers.

It is always characteristic to watch a writer's progress in the
estimation of critics and reviewers. In 1809 Miss Edgeworth is
moderately and respectfully noticed. 'As a writer of novels and tales
she has a marked peculiarity, that of venturing to dispense common sense
to her readers and to bring them within the precincts of real life.
Without excluding love from her pages she knows how to assign to it its
true limits.' In 1812 the reviewer, more used to hear the author's
praises on all sides, now starts from a higher key, and, as far as truth
to nature and delineation of character are concerned, does not allow a
rival except 'Don Quixote' and 'Gil Blas.' The following criticism is
just and more to the point:--

To this power of masterly and minute delineation of character Miss
Edgeworth adds another which has rarely been combined with the
former, that of interweaving the peculiarities of her persons with
the conduct of her piece, and making them, without forgetting
for a moment their personal consistency, conduce to the general
lesson.... Her virtue and vice, though copied exactly from nature,
lead with perfect ease to a moral conclusion, and are finally
punished or rewarded by means which (rare as a retribution in this
world is) appear for the most part neither inconsistent nor
unnatural.

Then follows a review of 'Vivian' and of the 'Absentee,' which is
perhaps the most admirable of her works. We may all remember how
Macaulay once pronounced that the scene in the 'Absentee' where Lord
Colambre discovers himself to his tenantry was the best thing of the
sort since the opening of the twenty-second book of the 'Odyssey.'

An article by Lord Dudley,