I have tried to give such portions of the Memoirs as will present the many-sided character of R.L.Edgeworth in relation to his scientific, literary, and educational work, and in relation to his position as a landlord, a father, and a friend.

He was a singular instance of great mental activity with little ambition; of a genial nature in his own family circle and among his friends, he withdrew from the multitude, and refused to lower his standard of cultivated intercourse in order to win favour with coarser natures.

He is chiefly remembered now as an educational reformer and as the guide of Maria Edgeworth in the earlier stages of her literary career.

What she achieved was in great part due to her father's judicious training and encouragement.
A little more ambition and the spur of poverty might have made Edgeworth better known as an inventor of useful machines: it is curious to remark how nearly he invented the bicycle.

He saw the advantage that light railways would be to Ireland, but the breath of mechanical life, steam, as a power, he did not foresee.
He might have written a book on 'The Domestic Life,' so fully had he mastered the secrets of a happy home.