CHARLES DICKENS—WHAT THE WORLD THINKS OF HIM.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1989, 20 May 1875, Page 2

CHARLES DICKENS—WHAT THE WORLD THINKS OF HIM.

IV. It is astonishing to me very often to hear what a lot the world does kno# of Charles Dickens. Your people who are wont loudly to express their, view* without restraint,, and maybe without premeditation—in which case the.views must of course be received as very pfo« found —are eve^. ready- to enter unceremoniously the private life of that remarkable man and tell you of hii weaknesses. It is the privilege of greatness to be thus summed up and settled for by a shrewd ' public; but ifc is a privilege which could well be done without; for the shrewdness.of some people, who. do not confine their penpr trating faculties to literary planets* often leads them very far from the blessed path of truth into that of absurd error, though - they are the last persons in the world to be convinced of the fact. Dickens, it has been said, was an immoral man—a man .of coarse mind. " A bad man, you * may depend, my dear," says Lady See* through'em, " see how he treated his tlbor dear wife. I wouldn't permit my children to read the odious monster's bopks," Alas poor Dickens. Often has the abuse, undeserved, been heaped upon thy noble head hy. weak;brained fools, and worse, by headstrong bigots who could not appreciate thy nature, or accompany thee in thy flights to regions where higher thoughtsoflife'snobilityandnature's grandeur reign supreme as the ambient air. It is very doubtful whether the world will ever be permitted to know the secret of Dickens' domestic infelicity, and, further, whether, if the particulars of the separation were published, they could be relied upon. Of-Byron's difference withchis lady we hear many and different accounts, rand I have always inclined to the opinion that in his case the devil was not so black as he has been painted. The same is the case with Lord Lytton, another brilliant writer, contemporary with Dickens. There is a skeleton .in every house^ojd, and the distinguishing features ■ of; Tine monster are generally known only to those whom he haunts with his presence, And yet, as a clear-sighted and consistent world, it is obviously our duty to paint this skeleton ourselves, and according -to our own idea of color. This is a weakness begot of our great forefather, and sticks to us as pertinaciously as our love for scandal. I may mention with reference to my own little cjrple, where the tide of life might fairly have been presumed to have flowed free from the evils which beset larger centres, that I have listened to statements concerning persons holding highly respectable ~ positions, which, if true, .should brand them with infamy and* alienate them from intercourse with honest men. But of Dickens —the man from whom we learn so much of morality—the preacher of rectitude —the powerful artist.who has pointed such melting' piptureq of bappjness and love—it cannot ho imagined that he, whose pen was pregnant with so much that .was good and beautiful, could be as bad as it- is the happiness of his enemies to paint him. No. Let his work on this earth, tow that his soul has found rest above, bear golden testimony to his worth. "Let the chimes ever ring in our ears, as they did to Trotty Veck, guiding us arjght, and' inclining tfs $6 "do sijch good Tfojrkt on earth as we'may be l permitted to perform.. At home let the I memory pf the " Criijket on the Hearth " ! awaken us tp a sense'of our sacred duty ■ as men and women whose ■ probationary career in this world is but a brief onelet us remember the Cricket, reader, 'and , forget ourselves ia endeavouring to L

lighten the'load of.piany a weary brother. Let us remember the " Haunted Man," and thank God for his blessings. But it were useless to proceed further in this strain. Dickens has done so much in the causeof humanity. He wrote what he felt, and he wrote of the joys of life. JSTot always prosperous, yet he saw the world, and enjoyed it. Sympathising with the distressed, hating their oppressors, how much, has he dove for the poor. Dickens was not an ordinary novel writer. It is this fact.whichlmakes his works so interesting—so peculiarly interesting. He was a philosopher, and never wrote without a direct object..... Even the Pickwick Papers contain an able attack of an abuse «—now non-existent —little less formidable ■•«■ than his>exp6sure of the Circumlocution Office. In my admiration for Dickens I would not compromise my common sense by attributing solely to his hand the improvements made in many quarters to which he referred. The progress made byOld^ Time with his: scythe, and the naturaljadvancelof the [ humane intellect have -worked wonderful changes in social' and political matters in the old country during the present century, but it must be admitted that Dickens did much by the force of his great intellect to ameliorate the condition of the people,! and to wipe off black spots'in the life 'aroumPhim; which dimmed the honor of our great country. In his introduction to Pickwick, published in the form of one volume (the papers originally appeared in monthly I numbers, published by Messrs Chapman andßall)he says,by way of amdaircisment in respect: of Old Mortality, as follows :— "Lest there should be any well-intentioned persons who do not perceive the difference, as some such could not (when Old Mortality was newly published), between religion;and the, cant ; of religion, piety and the* pretbnce of piety, a humble reverence for the great truths of Scripture and an audacious and offensive intrusion of Us letter and not its spirit in the commonest dissensions and meanest affairs of lifej to the extraordinary confusion of ignorant minds, let "them understand that it is always the latter, and never the former which is satirized here. Further, that the latter is here satirized as being, according to all experience, inconsistent with the former, impossible of union with it, and one of, the most evil and mischievous falsehoods j existent: in society--whether it establish its quarters for the time being in Exeter Hall, or. Ebenezer Chapel, or both. It may appear unnecessary to offer a word of explanation on so .plain a head, but it is'neyer out ofseason to protest against that coarse familiarity with sacred things which is busy on the- lip and idle in the 'heart;-or against the confounding of Christianity, with any class of persons who, in the words of Swift, have just religion to make them.: hkte, and: not enough to make ,them love, one; another/? ■-'; ■-.•'.; .-..- ■; ; ' ■ ?.:isy-. ■

Further on, lie says:—" I have found it .curious and interesting, looking over the; sheets of this reprint, to mark what*ini- : ; pbrtant,social improvements have taken; place about us almost imperceptibly, ■ since they were originally written. The .license of counsel, and the degree to ; which juries: are; ingeniously bewildered, are yet susceptible of moderation; while ♦Mi in tb.»" mode of conduct-; ing Parliamentary elections (and even"Parliaments too, perhaps) is":still within; the bounds of possibility. But legal re>;f6irml hare pared the claWs T of Messrs. Dodson and Fog} a spirit of self-respect, s^*turiill forbearance, l education and. «bbp«ration for. such good ends has dif-' "fused itself among; their olerks 5 places far apart are brought together, to the prestat convenience and advantage of the public, and to the certain destruction, in time of • host of petty jealousies, blinds nesses and . prejudicies,. by which the alonp baye always been the sufr ferers j the laws relating to imprisonment : ior debt are altered.and the Fleet Prison is pulled down. Who knows, but by the time th'tteriet reaches its conclusion it may be , discovered that there are even magistrates " ifl, towd [ and country • who should be .. |aught .to shake hands every day with'.jbbiiambn'Sense and Justice 5 that jtren ;Poor Laws may have mercy on ■tii» weati the aged and unfortunate; that schools, on the broad principles of Ohris- ■ tianity, are the "best adornment for the .flength and.breadth of the civilized land; "that prison doors should be barred on the .outside; no less heavily and carefully than they are barred within; that the. Universal diffusion of common means of Recency and health is as much the right j ■off the poorest pf the poor as it is : indi3-! ' pensable to the "safety of the rich, and of the state ; that a few. 'petty boards, and bodies—less than drops in the great ocean .-of humanity which roars around them—are not for ever to let loose Fever and -Consumption on God's creatures at their will, or always to keep their jobbing little ; ftddles going for a Dance of Death. ■>. -, . . , . Poob Jo. J