It is said that she left many unpublished works in MS. Her literary labours were not profitable; and she never realized for the best of her tales a third of the sum given for Waverley, yet Waverley was called the Scotch Castle Rackrent, and Scott admitted that he was inspired to write his national tales from a perusal of her Irish sketches. Her Harry and Lucy and other children's books are amongst the best fruits of her genius. "All are agreed in ranking amongst her qualities, the finest powers of observation; the most penetrating good sense; a high moral tone consistently maintained; inexhaustible fertility of invention; firmness and delicacy of touch; undeviating rectitude of purpose; varied and accurate knowledge; a clear flexible style; exquisite humour; and extraordinary mastery of pathos. What she wants — what she could not help wanting with her matter-of-fact understanding and practical turn of mind — are poetry, romance, passion, sentiment. In her judgment, the better part of life and conduct is discretion. She has not only no toleration for self-indulgence or criminal weakness; she has no sympathy with lofty, defiant, uncalculating heroism or greatness; she never snatches a grace beyond the reach of prudence; she never arrests us by scenes of melodramatic intensity, or hurries us along breathless by a rapid train of exciting incidents to an artistically prepared catastrophe." 32 Miss Edgeworth was one of the four ladies who have been honorary members of the Royal Irish Academy — the others being, Miss Beaufort, Mrs. Somerville, and Miss Stokes. 15 32
Edgeworth, Henry Essex, Abbe, cousin of Richard L. Edgeworth, was born at Edgeworthstown in 1745. His father, Essex Edgeworth, who took the name of "de Firmont" from a neighbouring hill (Fairy Mount), became a Catholic and emigrated to France when Henry was but six years of age. The lad was educated for the priesthood at the Sorbonne, and after ordination became distinguished among the Parisian clergy for his talents and piety. In 1789 he was appointed confessor to Madame Elizabeth, and was justly esteemed the friend and adviser of the royal family. When Louis XVI. was condemned to the guillotine, he sent for the Abbe Edgeworth, then in concealment at Choisy, who immediately repaired to his master. The Abbe attended the unfortunate King to the scaffold, 21st January 1793, and has left a minute account of the execution. He makes no mention of the exclamation usually attributed to him as the knife fell — "Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven!" After encountering many dangers, he escaped to England in 1796, where he is stated to have declined a pension offered him by Pitt. He afterwards joined Louis XVIII. at Blankenburg, and accompanied him to Mittau. He was from time to time intrusted with several important missions for the Bourbons. He fell a victim to a virulent fever, caught in his ministrations amongst French prisoners of war at Mittau, and died 22nd May 1807, aged about 62. In his last moments he was attended by the Princess, daughter of Louis XVI.; the exiled French royal family went into mourning, and Louis XVIII. composed his epitaph. 34 121 146
Edmundson, William, the father of Quakerism in Ireland, was born at Little Musgrove, Westmoreland, in 1627. He served as a trooper under Cromwell through the campaigns in England and Scotland. In 1652 he left the army, married, joined his brother, also a Parliamentary trooper, in Ireland, and opened a shop at Antrim. His mind had long been deeply exercised in religious matters, and in 1653, while in England purchasing goods, he was convinced of the truth of the doctrines of the Society of Friends by the preaching of James Naylor, Shortly after his return in 1654, he and his brother, his wife, and others whom he had converted, held at Lisburn the first meeting of that society in Ireland. In consequence of his preaching, and that of George Fox and other expounders of the doctrines of Quakerism, the Society of Friends gained many converts in Ireland, chiefly among the English colonists of the Cromwellian settlement. Meetings were established at Dublin, Londonderry, Cork, Waterford, and Charleville, in 1655; at Mountmellick, in 1659; Wexford and Athlone, in 1668; and at other places, in some of which the Society is now no longer represented. After some years' sojourn in Antrim, he removed to Rosenallis, near Mountmellick. While earning a maintenance for his family, much of his life was devoted to preaching and religious labours at home and abroad. The peculiarities of the Society of Friends — their objection to military service, to oaths, and the sacraments, their refusal to uncover the head as a mark of respect except to God, and their adherence to the use of "thee" and "thou" to all men — subjected William Edmundson and his friends to much persecution. He was imprisoned, without any crime being laid to his charge, no fewer than seven times in the course of his life. The particulars are often too painful for relation. He paid three religious visits to the West
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