Page:Maria Edgeworth (Zimmern 1883).djvu/60

48 the ever delightful “Great Panjandrum” therein introduced is not her own, but only a quotation from a little-known nonsense genius.

This sequel to Harry and Lucy was far from finding universal favour. Sir Walter Scott wrote of it to Joanna Baillie:—

That both she and her father exacted much from their pupils and readers is beyond question, but they regarded this as a wholesome effort, and they were probably right. One thing is certain; that whatever their short-comings, Miss Edgeworth's children's tales exercised a wide, deep, and lasting influence over a long range of time, and nothing of equal or even approximate importance arose coeval with them. It was she who first brought rational morality to the level of the comprehension of childhood, who taught the language of virtue and truth in the alphabet of the young, thus forestalling the teaching of schools by her rare power of combining ethics with entertainment. Miss Edgeworth can still with advantage and pleasure hold her own even upon the present well-stocked nursery book-shelves, and it might be well