is a tendency to describe
natural objects. Until now there had never been in Miss Edgeworth's
writings a description of scenery or a sign of delight in it. She had,
as we know, a contempt for the mere pleasures of the senses, and so
little appreciation of the beautiful that she once condemns a character
who buys something to gratify the eye, not recognizing that the eye, as
well as the body and mind, must be fed. Yet in _Helen_, to our surprise,
we encounter some lovingly detailed scenic bits; we even find her citing
Wordsworth. It is clear she had not remained wholly untouched by the new
influences surging around her. Another feature of _Helen_ is the lack of
a didactic tone. Speaking of Scott's novels, she remarks that his
morality is not in purple patches, ostentatiously obtrusive, but woven
in through the very texture of the stuff. She knew that her faults lay
in the opposite direction, and it is evident she had striven to avoid
them. A writer who can learn from criticism and experience, who can
adopt a new method of writing when past the age of sixty, is a
remarkable writer indeed.

The fears that Miss Edgeworth had felt concerning _Helen_ were truly
uncalled for, but the eagerness with which she listened to criticisms
upon it showed how little confident she felt of it herself. To her
friend Dr. Holland she wrote after its appearance:--

DEAR SIR:

I am very glad that you have been pleased with _Helen_--far above
my expectations! And I thank you for that warmth of kindness with
which you enter into all the details of the characters and plan of
the story. Nothing but regard for the author could have made you
give so much importance to my tale. It has always been my fault to
let the moral end I had in view appear too soon and too clearly,
and I am not surprised that my old fault, notwithstanding some
pains which I certainly _thought_ I took to correct it, should
still abide by me. As to Lady Davenant's loving Helen better than
she did her daughter--I can't help it, nor could she. It is her
fault, not mine, and I can only say it was very natural that, after
having begun by mistake and neglect in her early education, she
should feel afterwards disinclined to one who was a constant object
of self-reproach to her. Lady Davenant is not represented as a
perfect character. All, then, that I have to answer for is, whether
her faults are n