The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-07-09
The Death of Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens is no more. The common fate
of men who overwork their brains has overtaker
him. A sudden giving way of the nervous system.
confused stupor, the blackness of the abyss, rig.
idity, death. Paralysis, like q blow from the un-
seen Power, Frustrated him in an instant the
light of a brilliant genius went suddenly out ; the
throbbings of a genial. heart were in a moment
arrested. All that was mortal of Charles Dickens
has gone to decay and dust. The announcement
of the fact will cast a gloom over m .llions Of homes
Of English-speaking people. He had grown to be
an intellectual necessity of the generation in
which he lived. Probably no author of ancient
or modern times achieved a more brilliant success.
His readers were numbered by millions. The
tendency of his writings was not only to amuse
but to humanize and ennoble.
If sordidness, meanness and rapacity-if the
most r~epulsiye aspects of human nature received
no mercy at his ~hands-glimpses of Heaven were
furnished in IS Little Nell " and So Little Dorrit.' -
His characters were all the characters of actual
life. We all, in our restricted spheres, have
made the acquaintance of Harold Skimpoles, Will
kins Micawbers and Pecksniffs. The follies, as
well as the virtues of mankind, were painted with
truth and fidelity. If his satire was sometimes
keen and merciless, who shall say that he has not
effected much good by it? His sympathies were
always on the side of the weak, the oppressed and
the suffering. Who can estimate the priceless
boon of " David Copperfeld ?" 1t can indeed be
said with truth, that the world is much better for
the appearance in it of this man, with the keen,
penetrating glance, comprehensive mind, and en-
larged benevolence. If any writer, since the days
of William Shakespeare, ever held up the mirror
to Natures face, it was our genial ' Boz"
Nor did he labor solely in the social field. The
political bias of his writings was entirely in favor
of the amelioration of the condition of the masses.
How much has he done to abolish Imprisonment
for debt and to spread abroad the idea that a hu-
man soul is to be found just as surely under the
seedy garments of the lowly as the glittering
robes of the exalted-the princes and aristocrats
of the earth. No absurdity, no matter how ven
cradle, no matter how sanctifed by custom and
usage, received any reverence from him. We
have reason to believe his exposure of the utilities
of g red tape" that his quaint picture of the
dreadful radical and revolutionist "who wanted
to know, you know, J" have not been wholly with
out effect in the high places of government, not
only in his own England but in other countries.
Dickens was a product of Anglo-Saxon civiliza-
ton. all English-speaking people can claim a
right in him. He was, and will continue to be,
q g household word among us all. 1t is APP
pointed to all men to die. Hundreds Of thousands
are breathing away their lives as we write. But
when a great luminary like Dickens-a great
centra. sun in the frmanent of literature-sud-
denly goes out and disappears forever, the shock
cannot fail to be general and severe ; and poor
humanity can only stammer IN its futile,
distressed manner, Peace to his ashes. Ala,
June IL.