DICKENS 



1792 



DICTIONARY 



must be undergone but which should be sternly 

 repressed so far as possible. Gradually, 

 through his many books with their wide sale, 

 Dickens made more and more general his own 

 attitude toward children, which was one not 

 of toleration but of sympathy and alert in- 

 terest. Some of his ideas are commonplace 

 to-day, but in his time they were in advance 

 of the age, and the benefit which they conferred 

 on children it is impossible to estimate. 



Summary. One cannot read the novels of 

 Dickens and make the acquaintance of their 

 wonderful characters of Sam Weller and his 

 father, of Mrs. Gamp, Mr. Mantalini, Mr. 

 Toots, the Marchioness and Dick Swiveller 

 without realizing what a delightful companion 

 their creator must have been. To have taken 

 a walk with him about London must have been 

 an enlightening experience, for he possessed the 

 ability instantly to see absurdities, incongrui- 

 ties, queer sidelights on human characters 

 which another might miss, yet could not fail 

 to appreciate once they were pointed out. 

 And it seems most natural to find that Dickens 

 was deeply loved by his friends, to whom he 

 in his turn was devoted. He took an intense 

 interest in everything connected with the the- 

 ater, and delighted to take part in private the- 

 atricals, either for his children's amusement, 

 for charity, or for the pure pleasure of doing a 

 thing which he did very well. His dramatic 

 ability was so pronounced that an old attendant 

 at one of the theaters once said to him, "Oh, 

 Mr. Dickens, if it hadn't been for them books, 

 what an actor you would have made!" 



For a time, about twenty years after his 

 death, Dickens was somewhat underrated, and 

 there are not lacking to-day those who think 

 that his books will some day be so "out of 

 date" that they will lose their popularity; but 

 the weight of opinion is all on the other side. 

 Most authorities hold that Dickens' fame will 

 increase rather than diminish, and there are 

 some who do not hesitate to declare that in 

 generations to come he will stand out as the 

 greatest creative genius that England has pro- 

 duced. Count Tolstoi strongly held to this 

 view. He kept but one picture on the wall 

 in his room, and that was a portrait of Dickens. 

 It is a fact that in 1915 his books were selling 

 more widely than ever before. J.L.H. 



Those who are sufficiently interested in Dickens 

 to wish to study his life will find Forster's Life 

 of Dickens most satisfactory, while Dickens' own 

 Letters afford much information and are as 

 delightful as one of his novels. G. K. Chesterton 

 has written a most appreciative Critical Study, 



and James L. Hughes has published Dickens us 

 an Educator. For assistance in writing a biog- 

 raphy of Dickens, see BIOGRAPHY, page 724. 



DICKSON CITY, PA., a borough of Lacka- 

 wanna County, in the northeastern part of the 

 state, four miles north of Scranton and 166 

 miles north and west of Philadelphia. It is on 

 the Delaware & Hudson and the New York, 

 Ontario & Western railroads. Electric inter- 

 urban lines extend to Scranton and other 

 towns. Dickson City is in the largest anthra- 

 cite coal region in the United States. There 

 are several mine openings within the limits of 

 the borough and coal mining and shipping is 

 the principal industry. There are also foun- 

 dries, machine shops and silk mills. The pop- 

 ulation, which was 9,331 in 1910, had increased 

 to 12,086 in 1916. The area of the borough is 

 three square miles. 



DICOTYLEDON, dikot ele'dun. See sub- 

 head, under COTYLEDON. 



DICTATOR, dik'tatur, a magistrate of the 

 Roman Republic who was elected only in case 

 of great national emergency, and to whom 

 supreme power was given. He could hold office 

 for six months, but was eligible to reelection 

 if the emergency yet existed. When it was 

 found necessary to place a man at the head of 

 affairs the Senate appointed one consul to make 

 the selection. The dictator had power of life 

 and death, without appeal to people or to the 

 Senate, but could not leave Italy and had 

 no control over the treasury. Julius Caesar 

 was on three occasions appointed dictator, the 

 last appointment being for life. Cincinnatus 

 left his plough to become dictator, returning 

 to his farm when he had saved the republic. 

 In 82 B. c. Sulla was elected to the office and 

 contrived to get himself reflected again and 

 again, holding the office for three years. After 

 the death of Julius Caesar the office was abol- 

 ished. See CINCINNATUS. 



DICTIONARY, dik'shunari, from a Latin 

 term meaning word, means literally a word- 

 book. As commonly used, it means a book 

 which contains in alphabetical order all or part 

 of the words of a language, with definitions, 

 pronunciation and examples showing their use, 

 and with frequent illustrations. To a grown 

 person it seems a very simple matter to find a 

 word in a dictionary, but it is not a faculty 

 which comes naturally to children; often the 

 use of a dictionary is one of the difficult things 

 which a teacher must teach. Boys and girls 

 have ability to use correctly only a few hundred 

 words, while their fathers and mothers may not 





