Charles Dickens—A Lecture.

the pound " gave us ahnost simultaneousl y " Fagin m the condemned cell . " Prom the same teeming brain haA r e come the death of little Nell and the marriage of Mrs M'Stinger ; the description of Mr . John SmaAvkur ' s swarnj and the picture of the

Gordon riots ; the terrific combat of Mr . Cammles and his sons , and the storm in David Copperfield ; the christening of little Paul Dombey , and the murder of Mr . Tulkinshorne . " '

" I conscientiously believe , " says Sala , " that had Charles Dickens never Avritten Pickwick at all his tenure of the public mind and of tho public love Avould have been as great and as promising of permanence as it is HOAV . Where he had

travelled longest , Avhere he had looked deepest and learned most Avas in inner London . He was at home in all lodging houses , cottages , hovels , Cheap Jack caravans , Avorkhouses , prisons , school rooms , and curiousl y from these localitiesunseemly and

un-, savoury as they might be , he brought pictures of life and manners , and produced characters of men and Avomen and children that have been the Avonder and deli ght and edification of millions , not only of his

own countrymen , but strangers at the uttermost end of the earth . He was the good genius AVIIO turned everything into gold . Upon offal and garbage , upon crime and misery , upon poverty and penitence , upon tho dullest , densest , ugliest things the bright liht of his amazing fancy

g shone , and of the social reptiles he held up to view only the precious jewels in their heads remained . He was a great tiwoller , as earnest and as eloquent a pilgrim , indeed , as that Avanderer ivhoru John Bunyan has shown us travelling from this

Avorldto the next . And he , too , like CM'istian , has got to his journey ' s end—to the cold , dark river Avith the shining city beyond . "

Pickwick soon found an enormous sale , and its great success naturall y led to a variety of offers being made to Mr . Dickon . by the London publishers . He avoAved his name as the author in 1838 , and about this time Mr . Bentley , the

publisheren-, gaged his services as editor of his miscellany , in the second number of Avhich appeared the first instalment of " Oliver Twist . ' This story , published complete at the close of 1838 , lets the reader into some of the secrets of life , as it used too

frequently to be found m the Union workhouses , and in the dark haunts of thievery and villany Avhich form so black a blot upon the modern Babylon . This , Avithout doubt , is one of his chef d'ceuvres , and I think , in pathos , in humour , in a description of the horrible and revolting , and in some of the feAv snatches of the lovely and humanising in life , it is one of the most poAverfully-Avritten works in the

language . This ivas a novel Avritten Avith a purpose , and one cannot doubt but that its publication did great good . In the last preface to the Avork Dickens himself thus speaks of his book : - " Once upon a time it Avas held to be a

coarse and shocking circumstance that some of the characters in these pages are chosen from the most criminal and degraded of London ' s population . " As I saw no reason when I wrote this book Avhy the dregs of life ( so long as their

speech did not offend the ear ) should not serve the purpose of a moral as Avell as its froth and cream , I made bold to believe that this Avorld once upon a time Avould not prove to be all time , or even a long time . I saw many strong reasons for pursuing my

course . I had read of thieves by scores ; seductive felloivs ( amiable for the most part ) , faultless in dress , plump in pocket , choice in horseflesh , bold in bearing , fortunate in gallantry , great at a song , a bottlea pack of cardsa dice boxand

, , , fit companions for the bravest . But I had never met , except hi Hogarth , Avith tho miserable reality . It appeared to me that to draAv a knot of such associates in

crime as really did exist , to paint them m all their depravity , in all their Avretchedness , in all the squalid misery of their . lives ; to show them as they really were , for eA er skulking uneasily through the dirtiest paths of life , Avith the great , black , ghastly galloAvs closing up their prospect ,

turn them Avhere they might ; it appeared to me that to do this would be to attemp t a something which Avas needed , and Avhich Avould be a service to society , and I did it as I best could . What manner of life is

that Avhich is described in these pages as the eveiyday existence of a thief . What charm has it for the young and ill-disposed , what allurements for the most jolterheaded of juveniles ? Here are no canterings on moonlit heaths , no nierry-