The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-17
LITERARY RESPONSIBILITY.
From the N. Y. Tribune.

From the NJ Y. Tribune.
The extraordinary and melancholy interest
excited by the death of Mr.. Dickens has yet
hardly at all abated; the newspapers still
come to us full-freighted with notices of the
departed novelist. No literary man has died
in our time whose loss will be SO generally
regretted. Indeed, Mr. Dickens fame quite
stands out from ordinary literary success
certainly since Voltaire (who was quite diff
ferent writer) we suspect that no one has had
SO many readers; and yet between the num-
Der of Voltaires admirers and that of MIR.
Dickens it would be absurd to make any
comparison. For the purpose of any such
computation the two men are not to be
named together; for Mr.. Dickens was fortu-
nate enough to live in an age of universal
reading. and of light and portable literature
which has made reading universally possible.
When Sir Charles Grandson came, with his
ineffable grace and his inexpressibe goodness,
he came in so many volumes that only rich
people could afford to buy his biography
Smollett, we think, set the example of pub.
fishing one of his new novels in cheap
monthly parts, but even this expedient could
not compensate for the small number of
ordinary people who preferred book to beer
Compare this state of things with the hordes
the swarms, the countless caravans of readers
which Mr. Dickens has had. What tremen-
dous power has been his, and how faithfully
and honorably has that power, on the whole,
been exercised If there be here and there
in these novels few things which have made
people no better, how few are there which
have made them worse!
Now, knowledge may be power, but it is
not always peace of mind or even temporal
prosperity. There is a knowledge of good
and there is knowledge of evil. There are
books which confuse the moral perceptions,
bewilder the heart, and make truth and virtue
seem but empty cheats = popular books,
fascinating books, which the Devil himself
might have written, and then scattered broad
cast to work an infinity of misery and wo and
degradation of body and of mind. There is
one book in the English tongue written by
man of singular literary dexterity, which
has done infinite mischief "a book
not to be named, and for the writ
ing Of which, if the author was not con-
demned to unquenchable fires, he must now
be at least in Purgatory with but in
ifnitesimal chances OF getting out. This
wac the kind of popular literature which was
once supplied for the reading of the poor in
England; and it may be sold there to some
extent sti1 But the difference is that there
are now better chances, if one chooses to seek
them, and inexpensive chances at that. We
question whether Mr.. Dickens works are so
much read IN England as in America; but
mime nee. He is not ''goodyish;" he can call
q snadA a spade upon occasions; but he is a
sinpnlar,v clean writer, and absolutely free
from prur, ency of thought, though employing
occasional r. larseness of expression; and the
morality of h is books is always healthy, ro-
bust, and bene Voleht. u
Rnt ue ara mo- intending criticism of Mr..
Dickens books, nor specially notice OF their
author. Whw We De- ire to point out is the
immense responsibility " "cn tns genera 40 aa,
diction to reading has i'm. 'oSeo upon SIe
literary class-apon the writer, pars, 'rSnonar:
OF poepAs; atamas, novels, and D. rpnob
We CO bot think that there is 50 tbe
bal and cheap psiAted mattet Fn
market as there was a. few years s5o-
It the1,e is enough to do great deal OF nals-
pt though fCxtunately nuch of 1T IS too
ehiei, sllM the genei& endurance OF mankind.
puii pn4 LOT bea, ana hurry Of fugitive literary
i bor 49, o, 'uo re t'autiosS may lapse inso .ne
49,, ,~o, 1veH "a f error or INTO onehs9s
aaoinu. Sa sa'lop -. ID sc~.nd ,rltioism' IL
against good taste . -atios tha you may
sn ! - pieaSant consiae; ga tSlloN creature
u1 10 ~ uahgeI Vi nilsieadnL I'd orc Of us ieI
n, W." .raatn - ms turn, may mlsle. iafmitra y
oW-cfeatnres, and so on, 40 4 in his Nen
makes one see deadly weapoA Mr. Carly !
ind all Tartarus in his inkstand To os,n
'nce humorously said in preface tbot e
,difi0n of hiS oxvn &C. IS tudt A.
vas hool Which da.a-od SoniIer' s.o 'cked
IN the head" yet book once printed un 'os-
uIatsly could not be knocked on the hea, I.
'ut went up and down doing all manner OF
mischief. This is true of much printed mat
er, though during scarcity of rags) the
'aper'mills have sent quantities of folly to
,ohVion. But we have often thought that
he old verse about dying and leaving no line
which one would wish to blot out, had in il
good deal Of pathetic significance. 1t is
asy to be wrong. II is SO difficult to COM
rebend the exact want of the reader. 1t is
o hard, even with the best intention, always
0 avoid the suggestion of the false. We'll.
sod grant that all honest gentlemen who are