DICKENS, CHARLES. 



ity, of domestic virtue, of patience and brotherly 

 as tow even of England's rarest poets had 

 hunted it hefore. Those perhaps, if not 

 i!i.- II.-M >!' Ids writings, are the creations which 

 in >( clearly, as Thackeray aays, rauk as per- 

 ! bcnotits. Filled with "sweet store of 

 us thoughts," and "figures so delightful 

 that niio fools happier and better for knowing 

 tli-iii, as one does for being brought into the 

 iv of very good men and women," "The 

 -unas Carol," " The Chimes," and " The 

 Criikoton the Hearth," are books which the 

 worlil must be better and happier for owning. 

 During part of the years 1844 and 1846, he 

 travollod with his family in Italy, and, unlike 

 every other man of genius who has visited that 

 country, he found in it principally now mate- 

 rial tor humorous and racy description. When 

 he returned to London it was to enter once 

 more upon the profession of journalism. His 

 engagement with Bontley had lasted but a lit- 

 tle while, and indeed the "Answers to Corre- 

 spondents " in the The Miscellany, while it was 

 under his charge, displayed sometimes a comi- 

 cal sort of irritability which hinted significant- 

 ly at his unfit ness to bear with bores and don- 

 keys. But his present undertaking was noth- 

 ing less than the establishment of a new daily 

 newspaper, Liberal in politics and cheap in 

 price. This was The Daily News, which, after 

 many vicissitudes, has become, next to The 

 Times, the strongest and most influential of 

 the English dailies. Mr. Dickens, however, 

 came near killing it. Political discussion was 

 not his strong point ; and, of the brilliant 

 staff who gathered around him, including Mr. 

 C. W. Dilke, father of the present editor of 

 The AthencBum, and Mr. George Hogarth, the 

 historian of music, none were much better 

 qualified for manager than himself. Ho soon 

 resigned the uncongenial post, and devoted 

 himself to " Dealings with the Firm of Dom- 

 bey and Son," wherein he gave the beautiful 

 sketch of Little Paul, the fine satire of Dr. 

 Blimber's Academj, Toots and Susan Nipper, 

 dear, ridiculous Captain Cuttle, and the pure 

 fun of Jack Bunsby. The pathos of Paul 

 Dombey is not so genuine and wholesome as 

 the sad story of Little Nell ; indeed, we begin 

 to trace in all Dickens's novels from this time 

 a more frequent prevalence of sombre hues 

 coloring certain chapters with a sickly tinge, 

 and deepening at other times into tragic black- 

 ness. There is much of this in " Dombey and 

 Son ; " there is perhaps less in " David Cop- 

 perfield," which followed in 1850. This novel 

 is, in our judgment, the greatest of them all; 

 the most perfect in construction, the most 

 varied in its characters, the most natural in 

 incident, while there is very little of the mor- 

 bid element which is now and then conspicu- 

 ous in so many of the other novels. In humor 

 Dickens never did any thing superior to Mr. 

 Micawber; in pathos he never surpassed Peg- 

 gotty's narrative of the search for Emily. 

 "Bleak House," which appeared in 1853, with 



the never-to-be forgotten Jollybys, and Mr. 

 Jarndyco, and the great Guppy, with tho 

 stinging satire on Chancery practice, the mod- 

 el detective, and the Small weed family, may 

 bo said to have been the las^ of hut ^r.-.-a 

 works, if we except "The Tale of Two Cit- 

 ies," which some critics rate above even " I.-i- 

 vid Copperfield." In all the other novels since 

 "Bleak House" there is traceable a growth 

 of mannerism in stylo, an increasing tendency 

 toward the sensational and grotesque, and a 

 falling off, not in the quality, but in the abun- 

 dance of the humor. " Little Dorrit," how- 

 ever, will be immortalized by the Circumlocu- 

 tion Office ; " Hard Times," by its noble ap- 

 peals for the rights of the working-classes 

 against the tyranny of capital ; " Great Ex- 

 pectations," by Joe Gargery and Uncle Pum- 

 blechook. " Our Mutual Friend '' appeared in 

 1864, and, despite many characteristic excel- 

 lences, caused general disappointment. " The 

 Mystery of Edwin Drood," begun after a six 

 years' cessation from serious literary labor, 

 promised a revival of the old power, though the 

 blackest gloom brooded over it from the open- 

 ing scene in an opium-hell, to the significant, al- 

 most prophetic closing words of the last chap- 

 ter published in Every Saturday : " ' There, 

 there, there! Get to bed, poor man, and cease 

 to jabber 1 ' With that he extinguished his 

 light, pulled up the bedclothes around him, 

 and, with another sigh, shut out the world." 



The miscellaneous labors of the last twenty 

 years must be passed over briefly, though they 

 were, indeed, not light. The weekly periodi- 

 cal, Household Words, was conducted by Mr. 

 Dickens from its foundation, in 1850, until, 

 through some disagreement with the publish- 

 er, after several years, he established All the 

 Year Round, of which he remained really or 

 nominally editor up to the time of his death. 

 He wrote for these periodicals the sketches 

 entitled "The Uncommercial Traveller," and 

 began, about a year and a half ago, a series 

 of " New Uncommercial Samples," of which, 

 however, he completed only five or six. For 

 many years it was his custom to issue, in con- 

 nection with these periodicals, a Christmas 

 budget of stories and sketches by five or six 

 of his contributors, with a connecting thread, 

 or a tale, or something happy, from his own 

 hand ; and it is to these that we owe some of 

 the pleasantest of his lighter characters such 

 as Mrs. Lirriper, Chops the Dwarf, and the 

 Cheap Jack. No complete collection of these 

 minor papers has ever been made. 



During the last few years Mr. Dickens had 

 been winning almost as much fame and money 

 as a reader of his own writings as he ever won 

 by his books. There had long been rumors of 

 his extraordinary abilities as an actor, and the 

 favored few who obtained admission to the 

 private theatricals at Tavistock House were 

 loud in their praises of his histrionic talent. 

 When ho gave occasionally a reading of the 

 Christmas Carol or the Chimes for a charitable 



