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[ The “Early Diary of Frances Burney, from 1768 to 1778,” recently published, throws some new light upon her education. It is her own statement that her father's library contained but one novel—“Amelia”; yet as a girl we find her acquainted with the works of Richardson and Sterne, of Marivaux and Provost, with “Rasselas” and the “Vicar of Wakefield.” in history and poetry, moreover, she appears to have been fairly well read, and she found constant literary employment as her father's amanuensis. As to Voltaire, she notes, on her twenty-first birthday, that she has just finished the “Heoriade”; but her remarks upon the book prove how little she was acquainted with the author. She thinks he “has made too free with religion in giving words to the Almighty. But M. Voltaire, I understand, is not a man of very rigid principles at least not in religion” (!).—ED.]
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[ This is not quite accurate. Burney secured the relic in the manner described, not, however, to gratify his own enthusiasm, but to comply with the request of his friend Mr. Bewley, of Massingham, Norfolk, that he would procure for him some memento of the great Dr. Johnson. The tuft of the Doctor's hearth-broom, which Burney sent him, half in jest, was preserved with the greatest care by its delighted recipient. “He thinks it more precious than pearls,” wrote Fanny. (“Early Diary,” vol. i, p. 169.) This incident occurred in 1760.—ED.]
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[ The “Early Diary,” however, proves that, in spite of her shyness, Fanny was very much at home in the brilliant society which congregated at her father's house, and occasionally took her full share in the conversation. Nor do we find her by any means avoiding the diversions common to young ladies of her age and station. She goes to dances, to the play, to the Opera, to Ranelagh, and even, on one memorable occasion, to a masquerade—“a very private one,” however.”—ED.]
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[ Mrs. Stephen Allen, a widow, of Lynn. She was married to Dr. Burney (not yet Doctor, however) in October, 1767. His first wife died on the 28th of September, 1761.—ED.]
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[ There is some difficulty here as to the chronology. “This sacrifice,” says the editor of “The Diary,” “was made in the young authoress's fifteenth year.” This could not be; for the sacrifice was the effect, according to the editor's own showing of the remonstrances of the second Mrs. Burney; and Frances was in her sixteenth year when her father's second marriage took place.]