'I confess my surprise at your considering Miss Edgeworth & Miss Austen mistresses in pathos ? when the fault of both those excellent writers appears to me (if indeed that can be a fault which is so closely allied to the peculiarity of their excellencies) a defect in passion altogether, through their habit of considering life & humanity on the cold conventional side. "Persuasion", to be sure, has touching passages ? and Miss Edgeworth permits you to see, not unfrequently, that she can feel as well as teach, though she chooses to teach. I hope I do not ungratefully misprize the writings of Miss Edgeworth ? it wd be rank ingratitude if I did. They are excellent & admirable ? but I cannot say, poetical & passionate. The depths of the heart & the heights of Heaven have no part or lot in them ? and pastoral Nature is as utterly shut out. Still, after their kind, they are excellent; and I too shd be one-sided if I could not honor them aright [?] Woe be to me, if I pretended to misprize Miss Edgeworth!'