DICKENS AND AUSTRALIA.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1729, 18 July 1874, Page 2

DICKENS AND AUSTRALIA.

A contributor to the Warnambool Examiner writes and quotes as follows :— " The world that read and liked him wished to see and hear him, and the Island Empire of Britain and the United States of America heard his voice, and saw his speaking eye sparkled with the light of soul, as he read to unnumbered audiences from the pages of the magical works of his "own creation. And Australia might hare both seen and heard him, too —well, as he is gone from amongst men, it may be briefly told—but for 'an unfortunate occurrence ' that happened to a male relative of his wife's in an Australian colony. But there was a place in his great heart for Australia ; his prayers for its welfare were wafted with his youngest aud best-loved son by whom he would be lovingly remembered when far away:— ' I need not tell you that I love you dearly, and am very sorry in my heart to part with you. But this life is half made up of partings, and these pains must be borne. It is my comfort and my Bincere conviction that you are going to try the life for which you are best fitted. I think its ! freedom and wildness more suited to you than any experiment in a study or office | would have been ; and without that training, yoti could have followed no suitable occupation. . . Whatever you have to do, do as well as you can do it. I was not so old as you when I had to win my food. . . Try to do to others as you would have them do to you, and do not be discouraged if they fail something. It is much better for you that they should fail in obeying the greatest rule laid down by our Saviour than that you should, I put a New Testament among your books for the same reason, and with the very same hopes; that "made me write an easy account of it for you, when you ware a little child. Because it is the best book that ever there was, or will be, known in the world; and because it teaches you the best lessons by which any human creature, who tries to be true and faithful to duty, can possibly be guided.' . . Deprecating the enforcement, on the very young,.j of * mere , formalities,' he concludes bistruly paternal and model letter thus :— ' I now most solemnly impress upon you the truth and beauty of the Christiau religion, as it came from Christ himse'f. . . Never abandon the wholesome practice of saying your own private, prayers night and morning. I have never abandoned it myself, and I know the comfort of it. Ihope that you will always be able to say in after life that you had a kind father. You cannot show your affection for him so well, or make him so happy, as by doing your duty.'"