In 1794 he wrote of his son Lovell:  ’He has been employed in building and other active pursuits, which seldom fall to the share of young men, but which seem as agreeable to him as the occupations of a mail-coachman, a groom, or a stable-boy are to some youths.  I am every day more convinced of the advantages of good education.’  He adds:  ’One of my younger boys is what is called a genius—­that is to say, he has vivacity, attention, and good organs.  I do not think one tear per month is shed in the house, nor the voice of reproof heard, nor the hand of restraint felt.  To educate a second race costs no trouble.  Ce n’est que le premier pas qui coute!

The result of this watchful and tender interest in his children’s education may be judged by a passage in the later part of the Memoirs, where his daughter says:  ’When I was writing this page (July 1818), this brother was with me; and when I stopped to make some inquiry from him as to his recollection of that period of his life, he reminded me of many circumstances of my father’s kindness to him, and brought to me letters written on his first entrance into the world, highly characteristic of the warmth of my father’s affections, and of the strength of his mind. . . .  The conviction is full and strong on my own mind, that a father’s confiding kindness, and plain sincerity to a young man, when he first sets out in the world, make an impression the most salutary and indelible.  When his sons first quitted the paternal roof, they were all completely at liberty; he never took any indirect means to watch over or to influence them; he treated them on all occasions with entire openness and confidence.  In their tastes and pursuits, joys and sorrows, they were sure of their father’s sympathy; in all difficulties or disappointments, they applied to him, as their best friend, for counsel, consolation, or support; and the delight that he took in any exertion of their talents, or in any instance of their honourable conduct, they felt as a constant generous excitement.’

Edgeworth had no ambition on his own account to be an author; but his wish to supply wholesome literature for the young led him into writing, conjointly with his daughter, several books.  Besides these was one which had a different object, in the Essay on Irish Bulls he ‘wished’ (his daughter writes) ’to show the English public the eloquence, wit, and talents of the lower classes of people in Ireland. . . .  He excelled in imitating the Irish, because he never overstepped the modesty or the assurance of nature.  He marked exquisitely the happy confidence, the shrewd wit of the people, without condescending to produce effect by caricature.  He knew not only their comic talents, but their powers of pathos; and often when he had just heard from them some pathetic complaint, he has repeated it to me while the impression was fresh.  In the chapter on Wit and Eloquence in Irish Bulls, there is a speech of a poor freeholder to a candidate, who asked for his vote; this speech was made to my father when he was canvassing the county of Longford.  It was repeated to me a few hours afterwards, and I wrote it down instantly, without, I believe, the variation of a word.