r comprehend that virtue is its own reward, while avoiding the
error invariably fallen into by writers for the young, of representing
virtues as always triumphant, vice as uniformly punished--a fallacy even
children are quick to detect. It has been objected to her that she
checks enthusiasm, the source of some of the noblest actions of mankind.
This is true; she has somewhat erred on the repressive side, but her
purpose was right and good. She saw plainly that enthusiasm, generous in
its origin, is but too often the source of misfortune, ill-judged
effort, and consequent disappointment. Moderation, the duties of
contentment and industry, are what she loves to uphold; the lower,
humbler, but no less effective virtues of existence.

On the other hand it is clear, from her letters, that she herself was
not devoid of enthusiasm, and here, again, it was probably her father's
influence that made her exclude it from her writings. In one of her
letters she says:--

_Vive l'enthousiasme!_ Without it characters may be very snug and
comfortable in the world, but there is a degree of happiness which
they will never taste, and of which they have no more idea than an
oyster can have.

_Harry and Lucy_ falls sharply into two parts. The earlier portion was
intended to be read before _Rosamond_, and after _Frank_; the latter was
the last of the juvenile series. The work had been begun by Mr.
Edgeworth and his wife Honora, from the need of a book to follow Mrs.
Barbauld's lessons, and as a story to be inserted in this work Mr. Day
had originally written _Sandford and Merton_. _Harry and Lucy_ was
printed, but not published. It was kept, as originally meant, only for
the Edgeworth children; but after more than twenty years Mr. Edgeworth
passed the work on to his daughter, and bade her complete it and prepare
it for publication. The first portion thus came out early in the
century, while the last part did not appear till 1825.

_Harry and Lucy_ is unquestionably heavy in parts, especially the latter
half, yet first principles are well explained and popularized, and
instruction and tale so skillfully blended that the young reader cannot
skip the one and read the other. The main idea and the chief merit of
these volumes, not at once perhaps obvious, is that of enforcing in a
popular form the necessity of exercising the faculties of children, so
that they should be, in part, their own instructors, and of adding to
thos