New-York daily tribune., 1856-02-28

inl Should we not get mp and press him
to our heat prepare the best chamber
and ak him TO stay forever This was the way
Charles Dickens came into English literature: he
cleared away the old stage; the characters were no
longer a Baron and his retainers-they were men and
women. In English literature, Feudalisrn died with
Scott and Humanity was born with Dickens; ours
was much the great age of English fiction as Queen
Elzabeths was Of the drama. The sudden culnjna
tiOn Of that remarkable as any fact in our
literary history. Echoes to the song of Burns-"A
"man's mum for a that''-started up all over Eu.
gland. While Carlyle was stOrming and battling in
the old reviews, the humorists started PmRck and
HoOd sang the Song Of the Shirt" and "The
Bridge of Sighs.' Elizabeth Barrett with the
same inspiration uttered The Cry of the
Children, ," and Mrs. Gaske put that cry in scatbpe
prose- Thackeray, though unrecognzed, was tragi.
oally true to the same spirit; Savage Lsndor pro-
claimed it in his poems, Charlotte Bronte and her sis
tens cherished 1t pleasantly in Yorkshire, and Charles
Kingsley and Robert Browning gave it emphatic ex-
preston. English fiction still sang that song; the
greatness of Dickens Yves not bis humor nor his
afiuence nor bis variety; 1t was bis humanity. His
stories did something mere than to make laugh and
c'y they made us better men. A foolish farce made
us laugh more than kindly wit; sentimental ballad
made cry more than the Miserere; we wanted 10
be touched, to be made more kind thoughtful for
Others. Like Jenny Lind among singers, he WAS be-
fore oil Others in good done the human heart. No
stories had so direct an influence upon life as
his. Almost each one distinct battery
opened upon a particular road. Pickwick, in ite
like the finger Of noble man at great national abuse
in the treatment Of poor debtors. Nicholas Nickeby
directed at boarding schools with hilarious jeers
in which England and the world joined, and Do the
boys Hels were laughed away. Oliver Twist turned
the cold poor house out and warmed it with the sun
Of human charity. David COpperfeld looked into
model factories Bleak House was blow at the cruel
DELAYS of Cbancery, and the Christmas stories peaod
like angel chimes the crystal Stiffness ringing
London and Paris, Boston and New York the
angels song at Botllehem Peace on earth and
good will to men, But Dickenss humanity was q
wise humanity. He above all things what
Bulwer was not-an Engshman. He was full of COM
sense, and preached downright English phil4n-
throphy; he cared not much about d plausible
theory of the universe os about feeding the hungry
and winning the cold. Mr. Curtis had once been
nervously asked by uneasy clergyman why all the
best novels nOw-a-days made fun OF the clergy. lie
told him that where there was go much smoke there
must be fire. and consoed him with the idea that
none were 80 much interested that quacks should he
exposed doctors. And we must all Ike in Dickens
this hearty adherence of religious humbug. There
was no more benevolent action in the world than
pulling off the white cravat of reverend Chadband
and revealing his uDctuous treble chin beneath.
But there ever such merry missionary as Dick
epsl Did man 60 about the world pricking all
beautiful blsdders with such sparkling grace and such
an irresistible smile He sat at table with chatted,
oked and sang and turning to his neghbor would say
suddenly: What prepoSterous par OF false wins
kers here, John, get the scissor. and take these
whiskers on The company laughed with sympathy,
and Dr. Chaff was delighted to be nd of his bushy
ambush. The children were brought in from the
nursery by Polly Puritan the nurse, who pulled q
long face. The laughing preacher pulled longer
face. The company laughed, and Polly Puritan re-
treated ashamed of her gravity There was school
across the way. A puny boy looked out of the win
dow sad and cold smartng with the last brchlng.
Dickens stepped across, put the fools cap upon
the masters head threw open the window and Invited
the World to look and the eyes of the boy were no
longer sad. This was all done with perfect sincerity,
though with infinite bonhomie. Dickens's books had
more animated spirits than any Others in literature.
Thsy bubbed and burst with fun, and II was infectious.
AS IN Irvings story Of the bold dagoon, where tables,
boots and all 90 dancing, SO, as we looked at
Dickens, the whole world grotesque. His faults
as an artist came from this very eXuberanee OF
humor and sentiment. His characters were all men
and women, but his fancy and his sympathy exag-
gerated them, and they were all little distorted.
His characters were ike the pictures in Punch, admir-
able portraits and caricatares. No artist could give
us a better likeness of Lord Brougham or Lord John
Russell but they hardly the portraits which the
wives Of their bosoms would care to hang about
their necks. Ii he saw funny nose on one OF his
figures, they gradually became nothing but nose 1t
was so with Nj. Turveytrop, the Cheerybles, Mcaw-
ber and Sam Weller So, with all their essential re-
aty there was an air of carcaure in Dickens stories
They were hammered in the handling, yet so haI1no-
NOUS was his treatment that this slight departure from
reality was seldom noticed. Little Nell, Paul DOmOey,
and the child wife, Dora were not desirable human
beings but expressed sweetness aud tenderness ol
feeling which sufused the stories with rosy NE.
Dick ers WAS not ike Shakespeare CeTyanes Goethe,
and Thackeray Independent of the world he created;
he had fayortes among his creations. He did not as
Young man of genius and promise long since io't
TO his friends and the world profoundly said OF shake
speare pensive and alone above the hundI ed-anu-
led play of his imagination" Dickens lov ed the freaks
of his fancy but who did not love them with him Ills
other defects lay in his delineation Of women: lhe
portrature OF really lovely woman seemed 10 he oe-
yond the power of any novelist. LONELINESS was an
aroma which could not be caught or conveyed. Kate
Nickeby Agnes and the heroine OF Bleak House We're
but pasteboard puppets they had no round life They
sweet, gentle and good, o1t ther goo1ness nau
field married Dora instead of Agnes for Agnes always
seemed like his aunt. The good young women ii
novels always did seem Ike aunts. hut al the women
of fiction were entirely inferior to the men, Dickens be-
ing sentimental was sometimes melodramatc; occa-
sionalv il seemed though he worked VEN OF story
or character less because he was sincerely terestedu
il than because be had found that the public was ea-
silly moved bv it, However, we must grant that the
afAuence of his genius was Sbakespearean. tie had
enriched literature and general experience with more
characters than any other man IN the world except
Shakespeare. We knew Pickwick, Sam Weller aud
the vo, Boy as we knew Hamlet, Mercutio and Imo-
gene He could not but pity the uniorunates VINO
lived before Dickens Ylote, and died believing Buiwer
10 he the last word OF English fiction. Dickens was
the Columbus OF the new English fiction. Others had
dreamed. and speculated, and hoped about lOftier
tone in that literature, but he led the way INTO
that better region. He did not SIT below the
salt and soothe gently after dinner he did not en-
broder new and graceful figures upon the woJn-out
tonestry on the walls he did not prefer the roast
beef Of Old England" 70 the human welfare Of Old
Eng and nor lOnor Lord Dediook wlth the govt os-
cause he Lad an ancestry who alec had the gout. HE
precerred noble men TO noblemen: he would not see
Dr. johnson standing in Lord ChesteThelds ante room
without laundering at the door OF my Lords cabinet,
and halooing that he kept his betteTs waiting This
true Democrat led us through St. Jamess and pointed
ont the King and royal family, the glded courers and
the weary mads of honor and whispered to us these
nre men and women" and then be led us through 81.
Gess and pointed out squahd SIN, the red murderer,
the steathy thief and whispered again, " these Gis0