r
Patrick's funeral, you might have heard it to the farthest end of the
county, and happy the man who could get but a sight of the hearse.' Then
came Sir Murtagh, who used to boast that he had a law-suit for every
letter in the alphabet. 'He dug up a fairy-mount against my advice,'
says Thady, 'and had no luck afterwards. . . . Sir Murtagh in his
passion broke a blood-vessel, and all the law in the land could do
nothing in that case. . . . My lady had a fine jointure settled upon
her, and took herself away, to the great joy of the tenantry. I never
said anything one way or the other,' says Thady, 'whilst she was part
of the family, but got up to see her go at three o'clock in the morning.
"It's a fine morning, honest Thady," says she; "good-bye to ye," and
into the carriage she stepped, without a word more, good or bad, or even
half-a-crown, but I made my bow, and stood to see her safe out of sight
for the sake of the family.'

How marvellously vivid it all is! every word tells as the generations
pass before us. The very spirit of romantic Irish fidelity is incarnate
in Thady. Jason Quirk represents the feline element, which also belongs
to our extraordinary Celtic race. The little volume contains the
history of a nation. It is a masterpiece which Miss Edgeworth has never
surpassed. It is almost provoking to have so many details of other
and less interesting stories, such as EARLY LESSONS, A KNAPSACK, THE
PRUSSIAN VASE, etc., and to hear so little of these two books by which
she will be best remembered.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The Prevailing taste of the public for anecdote has been censured and
ridiculed by critics who aspire to the character of superior wisdom;
but if we consider it in a proper point of view, this taste is an
incontestable proof of the good sense and profoundly philosophic temper
of the present times. Of the numbers who study, or at least who read
history, how few derive any advantage from their labours! The heroes of
history are so decked out by the fine fancy of the professed historian;
they talk in such measured prose, and act from such sublime or such
diabolical motives, that few have sufficient taste, wickedness, or
heroism, to sympathise in their fate. Besides, there is much uncertainty
even in the best authenticated ancient or modern histories; and that
love of truth, which in some minds is innate and immutable, necessarily
leads to a love of secret memoirs and private anecdotes. We canno