TALES AND NOVELS, VOLUME I

MORAL TALES

BY

MARIA EDGEWORTH







PREFACE.

It has been somewhere said by Johnson, that merely to invent a story is
no small effort of the human understanding. How much more difficult
is it to construct stories suited to the early years of youth, and,
at the same time, conformable to the complicate relations of modern
society--fictions, that shall display examples of virtue, without
initiating the young reader into the ways of vice--narratives, written in
a style level to his capacity, without tedious detail, or vulgar idiom!
The author, sensible of these difficulties, solicits indulgence for such
errors as have escaped her vigilance.

In a former work the author has endeavoured to add something to the
increasing stock of innocent amusement and early instruction, which the
laudable exertions of some excellent modern writers provide for the
rising generation; and, in the present, an attempt is made to provide for