Charles Dickens—A Lecture.

society , Avhether it establish its headquarters for the time being in Exeter Hall or Ebenezer Chapel , or both . " It may appear unnecessary to offer a word of observation on so plain a head , but it is never out of season to protest against that coarse familiarity Avith sacred things Avhich

is busy on the lip and idle in the heart , or against the confounding of Christianity with any class of persons who , in the Avords of Swift , have "just enough religion to make them hate , and not enough to make them love , one another . " " I have found it curious and

interesting , Dickens adds , "looking over the sheets of this reprint to mark what important social improvements have taken place about us , almost imperceptibly , since they were originally Avritten . The license of counsel , and the degree to Avhicli juries are ingeniously beAvilderedare yet susceptible

, of moderation ; Avhilst an improvement in the mode of conducting Parliamentary elections—and even Parliaments too , perhaps—is still Avithin the bounds of possibility . But legal reforms have pared the claivs of Messrs . Dodson and Fogg ; a

spirit of self-respect , mutual forbearance , education , and co-operation for such good ends has diffused itself among their clerks ; places far apart are brought together , to the present convenience and advantage of the public , and to the certain destruction in time of a host of petty jealousies ,

blindnesses , and prejudices by Avhich the public alone have ahvays been the sufferers . The laws relating to imprisonment for debt are altered , and the Fleet Prison is pulled down . " " Who knoAvs , " Dickens suggests , " but b y the time the series readies its conclusion" — alluding to the Charles

Dickens' edition of his Avorks— " it may be discovered that there are even magistrates hi toAAm or country AVIIO should be taught to shake hands every day Avith common sense and justice ; that even Poor Laws may have mercy on the Aveak , the aged , the

unfortunate ; that schools on the broad " princi ples of Christianity are the best adornment for the length and breadth of this civilised land ; that prison doors should be barred on the outside no less heavil and carefully than they are barred

y within ; that the universal diffusion of common means of decency and health is as much the right of the poorest of the poor as it is indispensable to the safety of the

rich and of the State ; that a feAV petty boards and bodies—less than chops in the great ocean of humanity Avhich roars around them—are not for ever to let loose Fever and Consumption on God ' s creatures at their Avill , or always to keep their jobbing little fiddles going for a Dance of

Death . " Faulty in construction as Piclcwick may be , it is nevertheless the most popular , as it is the most humorous , of all his Avorks ; and Professor Ward , AVIIO has Avritten a very interesting lecture on the great

novelist , expresses his belief that many people Avould gladly undergo a term of solitary confinement if only accompanied by the laughter-moving comedy wliich first made the fame of the man of genius lvhose life we are discussing .

The people AVIIO disparaged Dickensand their name at the outset Avas legion—( for what man of genius Avas there who , Avhen he rose to assert himself before the world , did not meet Avith opposition , contumely , reproach , and ridicule 1 ) tried at first to make out that it Avas by sheer luck that Dickens at once established himself as a great novelist , that talent had

little to do Avith it , and that if otherwise he Avould soon Avrite himself out . Croker —fit name , indeed , for the great critic Avho so signally stultified himself in hi . « judgment of Dickens—said that " he Avent up like a rocket and Avould come CIOAVU like a stick . " Salain his eulogistic sketch of

, " Boz , " is very indignant at the ascribing to luck the success of his master , and in trenchant language disposes of the idea . " When Charles Dickens Avas about mid-Avay in his career , " says Sala , "it was a favourite device with those who decried

Mm to exaggerate beyond measure the merits of PickAvick , to the disparagement of his later and more serious Avorks , and to declare that he Avould never again Avrite anytMng half so good as his first , his most facetious , but certainly his least artistically

constructed novel . But these back-biters Avere speedily silenced Avhen it Avas found that the great master of farce AA'as likeAvise a great master of sentiment , that Dickens could be upon occasion not only irresistibly comicnot onlslyly humorousnot only

, y , irresistibly quaint , but that he could be infinitely tender , graceful , and pathetic ., that he could be dramatic , tragical , and terrible . The hand which dieAV " Mr . Piclcwick in