During this preparatory period her mind seems to
have been working in a very different direction from that into which it
ultimately settled. Instead of presenting faithful copies of nature,
these tales were generally burlesques, ridiculing the improbable events
and exaggerated sentiments which she had met with in sundry silly
romances. Something of this fancy is to be found in 'Northanger Abbey,'
but she soon left it far behind in her subsequent course. It would seem
as if she were first taking note of all the faults to be avoided, and
curiously considering how she ought _not_ to write before she attempted
to put forth her strength in the right direction. The family have,
rightly, I think, declined to let these early works be published. Mr.
Shortreed observed very pithily of Walter Scott's early rambles on the
borders, 'He was makin' himsell a' the time; but he didna ken, may be,
what he was about till years had passed. At first he thought of little,
I dare say, but the queerness and the fun.' And so, in a humbler way,
Jane Austen was 'makin' hersell,' little thinking of future fame, but
caring only for 'the queerness and the fun;' and it would be as unfair to
expose this preliminary process to the world, as it would be to display
all that goes on behind the curtain of the theatre before it is drawn up.
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