The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-06-26
Death Of Dickens.

Volumes have been written on the death
and life, and life work of this celebrated
author within the shortest possible time
after his demise. The Protestant pulpit
derived its inspiration one Sabbath from
readers with solid and loaded columns
heavy reading this hot weather-of lamen-
tations; and the magazines and quarterlies
will no doubt fttingly treat the subject.
The following, from the Irish CitiSen, is the
best criticism we have seen-at once ac-
curate and discriminating
The most popular author of the language
ia dead and many thousands of people
who never saw him are really and sincerely
mourning for him as for a household friend
of many years. Since Walter Scott, no
novelist has had SO wide an audience, or
has delighted his audience SO much, On
the whole, too, it must be said to. his honor
that he has not soiled his bright pages with
vice, nor barbed his wit with spite, nor
offered moral poison hidden in the flowers
of his genius! And this is very much to-
say in our days.
The place of Dickens in literature is not
Thigh. He}was not n man of learning, nor
of much wisdom; but had the keenest pos
sible perception of everything laughable
and grotesque, and a great faculty in pre-
senting the same by way of caricature.
Most vt his characters are improbable, and
he is intolerable his minute and cumul9-
tive descriptions, as of that windy night
at the opening of "Chuzzlewit," are always
mAwkish and in bad taste; whilst his pa
thos makes the judicious laugh. The man
was a witty satisist and caricaturist, the
know this, and went often into the business!
of prose poetry. Like every other literary
man, he could not appreciate his own work |
and thus loved, in his readings, to drivei
out his monstrous "Little Nell" or his
maudlin "Christmas Carol" little suspect
neys' clerks, servants and policemen, and!
in such scenes as the trial of Mr.. Pickwick!
and the "Swarry" at Bath.
The reading public is now very vast andI
.multitudinous; and the larger it's quantity
\ the worse its average quality. The de- \
sexactly he struck the British reader be
tween wind and water, and completely sat-
4sfied that individuals bad taste. OF coursel
Ehe has had his reward, both in reputation
8and in fortune. Certain of his personages,E
their sayings and doings, are at the tip of
Severy tongue, and people quote for you'll
kPecksniff or Uriah Heep, expecting you toI
z be familiar with your Dickens, just as the
3French say that a man cOnnait son Rdbelias.
This fact, in itself, may amount to veryE
{great praise for a literary man; and so i'll
lis, for 1t represents highly serviceable5
land marketable talent. Thus it is impos-
Ssible to class Dickens with the great writer's, 4
but he must be allowed to have amusedk
more of his fellow citizens without hurt
Sing them) than any other man of his day I
sAnd after all, it may seem ungrateful TOT
3say one word now in disparagement OF theE
3gay fdr'ccur who has So often shaken us ally
with wholesome laughter-even though thef
laughter may have been sometimes pro
evoked not by his genuine humor but by hisE
Ssliam pathos. We are well aware, too,
8that many readers will regard our estimateE
9of MIR. Dickens as made from too low al
Spoint of view. Many there are who hodS
2him not as mere caricaturist, satirist5
flor the fun of the thing, but as Il great
Ssociaf reformer, aiming the shafts of his
Hrldicule always at some tyrannous abuse,
Sstriying forever to make the world better,
and SO forth. We regard this rather as his
greatest fault.
The mans mission was to make people,
laugh, to set the table in a roar, and not tof
Improve the world. This notion of i'm
proving the world is modern cant, andy
The, as popular writer, purveying fer al
fpu bic of modern canters, had to fall into
this cant little but just in the proportion
that he did SO, virtue was gone out of him.
aAs for mending the human race, it is praise
enough for him if he left the world no
worse than he found it. He has, at alE
events, given us many vivid types of COM
mon sorts of character and manners. How
many authentic Pecksniffs there are In
'Englandl Sir Robert Peel was a noble
sample. How many Dick Swivellers are
quill driving this moment for London at
'torneys! Have we not ourselves met, on
h steamboat out West, the veritable Elijah
IPogram, one of the greatest minds of our
'countryf And has not Mrs. Homminyk
com m unicated to us her ideas 2
1t is singular enough that Mr.. Dickens,
amidst the great multiplicity of his crea- +
lions, has never produced an Irish charac-
ter, although Irish nature is said to afford
certain elements of jocosity which might
be useful to the humOrist. Dickens avoid +
I'd us Irish as scrupuiously as the far nobleie
artist Walter Scott did and if Shakespeare
had done the same, and left out his Captain
Jamy Mac Morris, with his "By Crish- la !'l
lis play would have been none the worse.
indeed, thought he could han
lie an Irish character or two; but as h gen
raj rule, English writers are wary of tread
Dg that ground, and they are right. WeN
10 not by any means mention the omission
" way of complaint, and remembering
he ininiitable and innumerable portraitures
10 has given us of his own countrymeD, weS
ire disposed to be thankful for what we
AVE received, and to cast only flowers on
he grave of the merry being who has dis
ipated for us 30 many hours Of gloom