om
she reads whatever she intends to publish. Now, she reads and acts
so admirably well, that she can make what is really dull appear to
be lively.

Indeed, everything was done in public in that family. All Miss
Edgeworth's works were written in the common sitting-room, with the
noise of playing children about her. Her early habits of abstraction
stood her in good stead, and, at her little table by the fire, she would
sit for half an hour together, without stirring, with her pen in her
hand, or else scribble away very fast in the neat writing that never
altered to the end. A certain occasional want of closeness in her
reasoning may perhaps, however, have resulted from this habit of writing
in public, since the effort of abstraction made by the brain must of
necessity absorb some of its power. Considering how large was the family
continually around her, it is sufficiently astonishing that she could do
it at all. Once when such surprise was expressed, Mrs. Edgeworth said:
"Maria was always the same; her mind was so rightly balanced, everything
was so honestly weighed, that she suffered no inconvenience from what
would disturb or distract any ordinary writer."

CHAPTER VIII.

FASHIONABLE AND POPULAR TALES.

When the literary history of the nineteenth century is written, its
historians will be amazed to find how important a part the contributions
of women have played therein. At the meeting-point of the two centuries
it was Miss Edgeworth in Ireland, Miss Austen in England, and Miss
Ferrier in Scotland, who for Great Britain inaugurated an era of female
authorship that stood and sought to stand simply upon its own merits,
neither striving to be masculine nor addressing itself exclusively to
women. Fielding, Smollett and the older novelists were not solicitous
about virtue. They wrote for men readers only, and if they amused, their
end was attained. But when women became readers a new need arose, and
with the need came a new supply. The finer ethical instincts of women
were revolted by the grossness of the Tom Joneses, the Tristram Shandys
of literature; and as society became purer, manners less coarse, men
too asked for mental food that should be less gross in texture. Miss
Burney had led the way to a new era, a new style, both in fictitious
literature and in female authorship. It was in her footsteps that Miss
Edgeworth trod; but while Miss Burney aimed at amusement only, Miss
Edgeworth inaugura