As a rule people's books appeal first to one's imagination, and then
after a time, if the books are good books and alive, not stuffed dummies
and reproductions, one begins to divine the writers themselves, hidden
away in their pages, and wrapped up in their hot-press sheets of paper;
and so it happened by chance that a printed letter once written by Maria
Edgeworth to Mrs. Barbauld set the present reader wondering about these
two familiar names, and trying to realise the human beings which they
each represented. Since those days Miss Edgeworth has become a personage
more vivid and interesting than any of her characters, more familiar
even than 'Simple Susan' or 'Rosamond of the Purple Jar.' She has seemed
little by little to grow into a friend, as the writer has learnt to know
her more and more intimately, has visited the home of that home-loving
woman, has held in her hands the delightful Family Memoirs, has seen the
horizons, so to speak, of Maria Edgeworth's long life. [Now published
and edited by Mr. Hare (Nov. 1894).] Several histories of Miss Edgeworth
have been lately published in England. Miss Zimmern and Miss Oliver
in America have each written, and the present writer has written, and
various memoirs and letters have appeared in different magazines and
papers with allusions and descriptions all more or less interesting.
One can but admire the spirit which animated that whole existence; the
cheerful, kindly, multiplied interest Maria Edgeworth took in the
world outside, as well as in the wellbeing of all those around her.
Generations, changes, new families, new experiences, none of these
overwhelmed her. She seemed to move in a crowd, a cheerful, orderly
crowd, keeping in tune and heart with its thousand claims; with strength
and calmness of mind to bear multiplied sorrows and a variety of care
with courage, and an ever-reviving gift of spirited interest. Her
history is almost unique in its curious relationships; its changes of
step-mothers, its warm family ties, its grasp of certain facts which
belong to all time rather than to the hour itself. Miss Edgeworth lived