Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adult and children's literature, and a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She held advanced views for a woman of her time on subjects including politics and education amd corresponded with some of the leading literary and economic writers. This educational treatise co-written with her father and published in 1798 is a comprehensive theory of education combining the ideas of philosophers such as John Locke and Rousseau with thoss of the most eminent educational writers. The first of two volumes.