The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1869-09-29


heroes will live as wonderful written
oharactersT--6otions-r rather than a,
friends wo have mot. We would cal
him the Byron Of novelists. - =.
Dickens, as an artist in fiction, i.
opon to the fault of laying aside biz
art TO attempt social reforms In
schools, prisons, and politics. He
has enoroaohed on the spkers5of the
statesman, and has degraded the no,
vel, as q work Of art, to make force
attacks on society in some of tho evi
phases it presented to his sympathy
Although useful and doubtless bene.
fetal in some respects it detraots from
his power az an artist, and he muy be
compared to that school 2of art OF
which Hogarth is q founder, when by
his pencil he heillustrates the progress OF
industry and |idleness ia the persons OF
two apprentices starting life with the
same advantages, and through d series
of pictures, the one gradually rising
to the dignity of Lord Mayor while
the other ends at the gallows.
Faulty in this respect he has not
withstanding peopled the world of
imagination with many friends and
acquaintances familiar to US all.
Thoy are oddities In real life, but not
unnatural in their lineaments for We
see their traits peePing out here and
there in our onward march.
They are types Of al, extrayagant
class of human beings, No man eyer
saw or met with a Uriah Heap, Sam
Weller, Micawber, ~ Pickwick, or
q Toots, yet we have seen human no.
ture displayed in all theilights brought
out in these characters. SO much SO,
"Piokwickian" has become house
hold word. In this particular sphore
of depicting oddities Dickens is unsur-
passed as portrait painter. His
heads are not those Of gentlemen, he
cannot portray gentleman, but the
jewel of good humor, fuN, honesty and
truth are shown, glisteping in the
rough stone or earthly material he
takes in hand. There.fis no more
noble and heroic character than old
Pegotty he is but a common sea-
man to the end. He is great as an
artist in other respeots.5 Ills street
scenes at night in London, the riot
scene in Barnaby Rudge, his storm
ut sea, in David Coppcr6eld, the
duelling scene in Nicholas Nicholby,
the death scene of Little Dombey,
and the scenes from poor life, arc
natural beautiful and sometimes sub
lime. His style when excited in one
of these scenes is concentrated,
powerful, and grand, while as gene
raj thing, he writes with too little pre-
paration and too much ease, and hos
deteriorated to worthless verbiage on
his last efforts, being for the most part
too verdant and leafy for taste. His
works recall tho italian Onera, :a
which the interludes are indifferent
and sometimes tediously long; but
when the stars coma upon the stage
the music gathers force and swells in
grander tone, and we listen enchanted
to the singer to- whom all interest con.
verges. Enthralled by the voices of
central figures, we forget the minor
scenes and characters, and for mo,
ment the cold blue sky," "the old glad
life" is upon us,
''And this Maria can goethe with a tenor
note,
The souls in Purgatory." -
The whole philosophy Of Dickens
may be summed up in his own felioi-
tous language from 'Barnaby Rudge,
cit is something even to look upon
enjoyment SO that it be free and wild
and in the face Of nature, though it
is but the enjoyment of an IDIOT, It
is something to know that Heaven has
left the capacity of gladness in such
creatures breast it is something to
be assured, that however lightly men
may crush that faculty in their fel.
lows, the Great Creator Of mankind
imparts it oven to his despised and
slighted work. Who would not rather
see a poor idiot happy in tho sunlight,
than O. wise man pining in o darRened
Jail ~ Kindly, loveable, charitable,
is suoh spirit and able to cheer us in
the shadows that fall as we march to
the dark river, but there are many
who would prefer the wise man in
the dungeon to the fool sporting in the
sunshine and his great rival Thaok-
cray is one of that number.s 4sst
s. Capable of greatness in any field,
Thackeray, like many others devoted
his every energy to the oxaltation of
his art in literature. GWithan acute
and observant mind, highly educated,
and noble heart, when he took his pen
to write fiction, it. was no holiday
work. He was determined pto digest
all he had ever learned, and all that
intense thoaght and knowledge could
suggest and giveiS forth to the world
in THE fern, GGSHiSS;;SS;::s s his hisy ao "
OF first, he merely gives s'a sneeping
acquieseencetin the world as it Is, p
but withal, a noble heart, soft with
the, dew Of piety and gentle with char