CASTLE RACKRENT; AN HIBERNIAN TALE. TAKEN FROM FACTS, AND FROM THE MANNERS OF THE IRISH SQUIRES, BEFORE THE YEAR 1782. BY MARIA EDGEWORTH, AUTHOR OF PRACTICAL EDUCATION, LETTERS FOR LITERARY THE FIFTH EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON AND CO. ST. PAUL'S PREFACE. THE HE prevailing taste of the Public for anecdote, has been censured and ridiculed by critics, who aspire to the character of superior wisdom: but if we consider it in a proper point of view, this taste is an incontestible proof of the good sense and profoundly philosophic temper of the present times. Of the numbers who study, or at least who read history, how few derive any advantage from their labours! The heroes of history are so decked out by the fine fancy of the professed historian; they talk in such measured prose, and act from such sublime or such diabolical motives, |