The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1864-03-11
MARCH H. 1864.
Thackeray's Last Work.


Charles Dickens, writing about Mr.. Thask.
cray, In the February number OF the Cornhii
Magazine, says:
ION the table before me there lies all that b,
had written Of his latest and last story. Ths'
1t would be very sad to any one-that u Is In.
expressbly 80 to o writer--.in Its evidences o.
matured designs never to be accomplished, o.
intentions begun to be executed and destined
never to be completed, OF careful preparation
for long roads Of thought that ne was never 70
traverse, and for shining goals that no was nev'
or to reach, will be readily believed. The pain.
however, that have felt In perusing i has not
been deeper than the conviction that ne was IN
the healthiest vigOr OF his powers when nc
wrought on this last labor. In respect Of ear.
nest feeling, far-seeing purpose, character, IN.
cident, and certain loving picturcsqueness
blending the whole, believed It 70 be much the
best of all his works. That he fully meant 1t to
y be 80, that he had become strongly attached TO
1t, and that he bestowed great pains upon It,
trace In almost every page. 1t contains one
picture which must have cost him extreme dis
tress. and which Is q masterpiece. There are
two children In II, touched with hand as lov-
ing and tender rs ever father caressed his 1T
tie child with. There Is some young love %
pure and innocent and pretty as tho truth:
And Il Is very remarkable that. by reason oi
the singular construction OF the story, moro than
one main incident usually belonging to the end
of such q fiction is anticipated In the beginning,
and thus there Is On approach to completeness
in tho fragment, as to the satisfaction OF the
readers mind concerning the most Interesting
persons, which could hardly have been better
attained II the writer's breaking-of had been
foreseen. The last line he wrote and the last
proof he corrected are among these papers
through which have 30 sorrowfully made my
way. The condition OF the little pages OF man:
uscript where death stopped his hand, showed
that he had carried them about, and oiten tax.
en- them out OF his pocket, here and there, for
patient revision and interlineation. The last
words he corrected IN print were. "And my
heart throbbed with an exquisite bliss" God
grant that on that Christmas.eve when he laid
his head back on his pillow and threw MP his
arms, rs he had been wont TO do when very
weary, some consciousness Of duty done anu
Christian hope throughout life humbly cherish
cd, may have caused his own heart to throo,
when he passed away to his Redeemer's rest:
,''He was found peacefully lying rs above de-
scribcd, composed, undisturbcd, and to all APP
pearance asleep, on the twenty fourth OF Dccem.
Der 1863. lie was only In his ffty.t third year
sO young man, that the mother who blessed
him In his first sleep, blessed him In his last.
Twenty years before, he had written, after be-.
ing in white squall:-
And when, its force expended,
The harmless storm was ended,
And, as the sunrise splendid
Came blushiny DER tho sea;
Thought, as day was breaking,
My little girls were waking,
And smiling, and making
prayer ut home for me-
Those little girls had grown to be women when
the mournful day broke that saw their father
lying dead. In those twenty years. Of compan.
ionship with him, they had learned much from
him; and one of them has literary course bo'
fore her, worthy of her famous name. .-.. .-