The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-11
RTr. IDfcLens' Moral Services 10
Literature.
WON me London Spectator.


We wish il were possible to do real justice TO
those of our men of genius who still remain
among us withless of exaggeration, and we might
almost say caTicature, that seems to character
ize those feasts which we give in their honor
Few of Mr. Dickens heartiest, II discriminating,
admirers could have felt much pleasure in read
ing the report of the Liverpool banquest and Of
Lord Dufferin's very able and eloquent but un-
modnloted panyperic. No one can help feeling
that i'm all respects but one, namely, that Mr.
Dickens fortunately is@still with us, speeches OF
that kind are much more like a funeral sermon
than truth" The maxim DC mOrtuls NIL nlsl
.bonn,nn is only trlie of men of literature while
the grave is still green above themi De presen-
tibus nil nis bonum' would benotomy true, but
much less the truth;-"De presentbus nil nisi
optimum" would be nearer the mark. The pane
,,yrists of such really great writers rs Mr.. Dick
ems are apt to speak as If the lights could be
sufficiently appreciated without the shadows,
and by so doing seem to us to pay
but n poor compliment to the literary
insight of an author who can swallow so much
glaring intellectual eulogy without being re-
Volted by its singular uniformity of tone and
deficiency in dclicacy of appreciation. We do
not blame Lord Duffern or any other speaker at
the Liverpool banquet for this; the fault lies
with our false general tone of social morality on
such matters which always expects and de-
mands oral compliment to be undiluted and
broad, and therefore entirely deficient in artistic
flavor. Still it is simply the fact that any man
knowing Mr. Dickens works would find no sort
OF reflection of their specific characteristics in
such speeches rs those of the Liverpool banquet.
He would learn only the raw public opinion of
Mr. Dickens literary merits: and the public
opinion of literary merits, though it. is almost
sure to have something of substantial founda-
tion, is also pretty sure to be shapeless and
vague and little coarse.
We are not going now to attempt any general
estimate of that genius, but on one point, on
which Lord Duiferin dilated, the great moral
services Mr. Dickens works have rendered to
England and all the English-speaking races, we
should like to define his true position; and we
do not think it will lose-indeed, we believe it
will calmly little discrimination and pre-
cison, in place of that very general and compre-
hensive panegyric that he has rendered us
brighter and more gladsome by the reproduce
ton and distribution of. that kindly spirit of do
mestic affection which has been the main pur-
port of his teaching, and that he has made us
'wiser and better more loving and more human,
taught us the duty of gayety and the religion of
mirth, while yet the lambent play of his w.t.
humor, and fancy has only revealed more dis
tnctly the depths of passion in his nature, as
the laughter Of the sea along its thousand
shining shores is but another express
sion of those immeasurable forces which
lie latent in its BOSOM" That is a fine
image of Lord Duiferin's, but to our apprehen-
sion singularly misleading one. No one can
appreciate more highly the wonderful and mex
hausdble humOr of Mr.. Dickens creations than
we do We doubt if there ever were so great
u.
Shakespeare not excepted. But to speak of Mr..
Dickens humoras only revealing more distinctly
the depths OF passion in his nature seems TO us
singular misunderstanding of his genius. There
is passion-no doubt deep passion-in the great
est of his efforts at imaginative pOrtraiture. the
picture of Nancy in "Oliver Twist" some pas
sion in her profound pity for the child, a vast
deal in the mixture of love and terror which she
feels for Sykes. There is very real and true
pathos in the death of little Paul DOmbey and
nrt tNUO other nil Of 1ilya Kind up
think, in the picture of little Nell, which, with
great Difference to Lord Dufferin, we cannot help
regarding as one of Mr. Dickens many over
strained and consciously INDUCED and petted bits
of sentmentalism, constantly passing the verge of
maudlin emotionalism. But take his great and
wonderfully productive genius all in all, and we
scarcely know any genius approaching his in
richness so utterly devoid of passion, so almost
certain to be theatrical and fasetto in its tone
whenever it attempts passion. And as for say
ing that Mr.. Dickens humor is another aspect
an indirect eXpression-of his passion it is i'm
possible in our minds, to conceive more erro-
neous analysis. That is often true of other
humorists, as of Carlyle's humor almost invaria-
bly,, and often of Thackeray's, for both of these
great writers in their highest touches of humOr
seem to register the highest wave of scOrn or
pity IN their nature. But run over Dickens
greatest feats of humor, Mrs. Camps richest
idioms, Elijah Pogram's. elOquence, Putnam
Smifs epical alligator, the transcendentalt tladies'
dissertations on the sublime, Mr.. Weller, SEMI
ors, letter on the Shepherd, Mr.. Lillyvick's and
Miss SnoVelliccis amour, Miss SQuecrs' spite,
the Dodgers relations to Charley Bates,
Noah Claypoles genius for the kinchin'
lay" Mr.. BUNDLES designs on the
matron of the work k-house, Mr.. Toots' waistcoats,
Mr.. Feeder, B. AS, conversation with the
dancing-master on the political economy of raw
materials, Captain Cuttle's notebook, Peggotty'
buttons, Traddles' dear girl," Mrs. r. Wilfers
four copperplate engravers, Silas Wegg's poetry
Mr.. Venus hopeless love-and can you say OF
one of them that the humor. rich and inimitable
as 1t is, is the index OF any deep passion lyln2
beneath? The truth about Mr.. Dickens seems t.
MS to be that looking to the greatness OF hi
achievements as n humorist, it is singular how
very little of passion there is in him. There Il
more passion in Charles Lamb, there is infinitely
more passion in Dr. johnson, than in Dickens
1t is true that his melOdramatic efforts are Otter
very effectively worked up-that the murder o
Mr.. Tigg in Martin Chuzzewit,' for instance
and the craven panic of Jonas Chuzzlewit, SHOW
considerable power, but it is anything but tht
power of true passions it is the power of melo
drama consciously adding stroke after stroke L
the desired effect.
That Dickens moral influence has been or
the whole, healthy and good we heartily believe
1t has been certainly profoundly humane TIT
picture Of Dotheboys' Hall is alone sufficient t
earn him the gratitude of all English-speakinl
peoples. The feeling expressed towards
different kind of cruelty, that of SteerfOrth thu
seducer, in ''David Copperfeld," is equally sin
cere, though less effective. And the hatred o
cruelty is not more keen than the contempt 70
hypocrisy in the narrower sense-such hypocris,
as Pecksnift's or even mere pompous humbu1
like POdsnap's-but here the humorist not unfre
quently swallows up the mOralist and his deligh
i'll the grand incoherency of human nature otte
overpoweTs his scorn for falsehood. Still, tn
last moral service we should think of ascrbn
to Dickens literary influence would be tn
diffusion of genuine reverence for absout
al