500 
Contemporary Authors, No. XI.—Miss Edgeworth. j^Jan. 1, 
the marvellous, of apparitions, impri¬ 
soned ladies, vaulted castles, horrible 
ruffians, knights, tournaments, all the 
clap-traps of the circulating library, 
the hack machinery which writers of 
inferior genius find it necessary to use, 
and which even the author of Waverly 
does not disdain, find no favour in the 
eyes of Miss Edgeworth. Like Fielding 
and Smollett, she draws largely from 
actual life; and her sketches being 
worked up with skill and effect, the 
finished painting as it is true, so is it 
likely to be permanent in public esteem. 
As her subject is modern life, so her 
great aim seems to be moral improve¬ 
ment. To this every thing else is sub¬ 
servient. And it is a high degree of 
praise, more perhaps than can be said 
of most of her contemporaries, who only 
teach incidentally what, with her, forms 
the chief design. 
She seems to have surveyed mankind, 
so far as a woman’s opportunities ad¬ 
mit, with a keen and accurate eye ; and 
in those points which seldom come 
under female remark, to have been 
well informed by the extensive know¬ 
ledge of life and manners possessed by 
her father. It is not difficult to disco¬ 
ver, what in reality she has admitted, 
that facts have mostly furnished her 
with models and materials. We might 
go farther and say, that passing occur¬ 
rences have been on the instant care¬ 
fully noted down, serving, like masses 
of ore, to form the rough materials from 
which the metal was after wards to be 
extracted. This impression is so strong, 
that we never put down her volumes 
without feeling convinced we have 
gained something in experience of the 
world, as well as much in amusement. 
Her Essays on Education are ingeni¬ 
ous,and display great attention to detail, 
but they are not, perhaps, what will 
carry her name down to posterity. Many 
of her opinions, and her father’s opi¬ 
nions, are controverted, and their con¬ 
clusions denied. They have able and 
numerous competitors, equally acute, 
equally philosophical, equally practical 
in the process of unfolding the latent 
germ of the human understanding. Of 
all knowledge upon this extensive sub¬ 
ject, that which is derived from experi¬ 
ence is the best. We, therefore, ques¬ 
tion whether one family can furnish 
sufficient general deductions for the 
guidance of mankind upon what, as it 
interests all, must ever elicit various 
views, opinions, and systems. 
As the faithful delineator of the 
national character and manners of Ire¬ 
land she is beyond all rivalry. Though 
not, we believe, exactly born there, she 
is nevertheless Irish in education, in 
connexions, in property, in family, in 
all the relative associations which, in 
fact, constitute country; with the ad¬ 
vantage of having been so often and so 
long in England, as fully to appreciate 
the local peculiarities which prevail in 
the sister island. For contrast and 
comparison are essential to all who 
would correctly describe the manners of 
a people. That to which we have been 
always accustomed necessarily excites 
little notice and no surprise ; and were 
even a wise man to remain all his life in 
his native village, it is not likely that he 
would note the manners of those around 
him as peculiar or strange. To know 
ourselves thoroughly, it is first neces¬ 
sary to become intimately acquainted 
with others. 
To do this so as to penetrate to the 
heart; to shew at one view, not merely 
the language, but the feelings, senti¬ 
ments, and even thoughts of a peculiar 
people, requires a moral anatomist of 
the first-rate order. Miss Edgeworth is 
second to none of her day. She has 
displayed for our inspection, with al¬ 
most intuitive sagacity, the inmost re¬ 
cesses of the minds of her countrymen 
of every class; the peasantry, indeed, 
most powerfully and distinctly; hut the 
higher and middling ranks with those 
delicate shadings which alone distin¬ 
guish people of education and good 
breeding in different countries. To 
quote examples at random, the tale of 
the 44 Absentee” furnishes samples 
from the peer to the peasant. 44 Or¬ 
mond,” her last, is equally rich in ori¬ 
ginal portraits. None who are ac¬ 
quainted with the mental constitution 
of Ireland, but will immediately recog¬ 
nize Sir Ulick O'Shane. His brother, 
44 King Corny,” a humourist, eccentric, 
acute, strong-minded, a despiser of 
rank, yet the king of his companions, 
is of a higher and richer stamp, very 
difficult of delineation, but unques¬ 
tionably true to nature. Such a cha¬ 
racter, at least in all its leading linea¬ 
ments, we think we have seen. The 
scenes in his dominions of the 44 Black 
Islands ” are admirable. To continue 
them would have been a work of great 
labour and ingenuity ; and we are half 
inclined to think what has been sug¬ 
gested, that it was necessary to kill 
44 King Corny,” in order to let the story 
run more freely. 
As 
