isdom of the ancients? The use of the offensive
phrase "excessively pretty," as applied to a lace tidy by a very tiny
female named Lucy, brings down upon her sinful head eleven pages
of such moralizing as would only be delivered by a modern mamma on
hearing a confession of robbery or murder.

All this does strike us as insufferably didactic, yet we cannot
approve the virulence with which Southey and Charles Lamb attacked
good Mrs. Barbauld in her old age; for her purpose was eminently
earnest, her views of education healthy and sensible for the time in
which she lived, her style polished and admirably quiet, her love
for young people indubitably sincere and profound, and her character
worthy of all respect and admiration in its dignity, womanliness, and
strength. Nevertheless, Charles Lamb exclaims in a whimsical burst of
spleen: "'Goody Two Shoes' is out of print, while Mrs. Barbauld's and
Mrs. Trimmer's nonsense lies in piles around. Hang them--the cursed
reasoning crew, those blights and blasts of all that is human in man
and child."

Miss Edgeworth has what seems to us, in these days, the same overplus
of sublime purpose, and, though a much greater writer, is quite as
desirous of being instructive, first, last, and all the time, and
quite as unable or unwilling to veil her purpose. No books, however,
have ever had a more remarkable influence upon young people, and there
are many of them--old-fashioned as they are--which the sophisticated
children of to-day could read with pleasure and profit.

Poor, naughty Rosamond! choosing the immortal "purple jar" out of
that apothecary's window, instead of the shoes she needed; and in a
following chapter, after pages of excellent maternal advice, taking
the hideous but useful "red morocco housewife" instead of the coveted
"plum."

People may say what they like of Miss Edgeworth's lack of proportion
as a moralist and economist, but we have few writers for children at
present who possess the practical knowledge, mental vigor, and moral
force which made her an imposing figure in juvenile literature for
nearly a century.

There has never been a time when the difficulty of making a good use
of books was as great as it is to-day, or a time when it required so
much decision to make a wise choice, simply because there is so much
printed matter precipitated upon us that we cannot "see the wood for
the trees."

It is not my province to discriminate between the various writers for