The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-11
CHARLES DICKENS WILL.
A Severe Criticism ON the Great Noveltst-ssTh
Pride Which Apes Humility"

Pride Which Apes Hum1ltty.'
From the London Saturday Revieto.
Mr.. Dickens will stands on different grounds and
as the worlds judgment has been invoked on its
merits must say that it strikes us being rather
this is diminished by the fact that the will was
written to the world. Mr.. Dickens' last
a " Solemn rescript, % urbt ct orb orSi, quite Quite as as
much as testamentary document. 1t is piece JUS
tifcati0e; which implies that theres Is something to
invited the whole world to survey his private and
domestic concerns. His will is the complement of
lished-and which Messrs. Bradbury d Evans would
not allow to be published in periodical of which he
was editor and they were proprietors-when he was
separated from his wife. AS to the rights or wrongs
OF that separation, or rather what led to 1t,
we pronounce no Judgment, because we
incident furnished remarkable absence OF good
taste and as most people thought, OF good feeling,
mestc life to the world; Mrs. Dickens from that day
to this has kept a modest and credtable silence.
That Mr.. Dickens had wrongs we shall neither deny
nor affirm that Mrs. Dickens had none, 1t would be
hard to believe. One wrong she certainly had; she
was assaled by her husband in public. Mr.. Dickens
say that he had not but generosity that occasion
he old not display. And generosity he
,n has not .o displayed in his dying testament
in the vigor OF life, atfronted his wife
by making his married life public property and
1use and unctuous and stlted in his expressions OF
gratitude to his wifes sister, liberal in the provision
Inat ne mas mduc lOr Jndt lduy, not 1Orgetful OF
another lady, he has reduced his wifes income by
one-haf after his death, with something OF a self
laudatory announcement that he has already been
far too generous TO her during his life. He leaves
to his wife, an annuity, the interest OF eSOOO
coupled with the boastful reminder that he has since
their separation allowed her e60O a year. We
hardly call this 'brave" earnest" IL Mr. Dickens
had been annoyed by his wife!s temper, or lack OF
sympathy with his noble nature, some lingering
touch OF the human kindness OF which we are told
that he is the evangelist might have warmed his
heart or his pen when he came to speak OF the
mother of his children with the words OF diving,
man. His heart might be all charity and all love to
the whole human race but 1t was chilly enough to
one dspossessed lady, that lady his own wife-Who,
whether she has wrongs or sorrows, at least kept
them to herself. To Miss Ternan and Miss Hogarth
Mr.. Dickens very likely has duties and he
has cheerfully recognized them by word and
deed. Are We to believe that all his du-
ties to his wife were summed up by giving
her an annuity without single word OF recognition,
or II it were needed, OF forgiveness and reconcia-
ton? after saying this, which only sense of duty,
stimulated by the provocation offered by Mr.
Dickens worshippers, has extorted from us, we
shall not waste our time in exposing the bad taste
OF what the iustrious testator inserts in his will
about his funeral. The ostentation OF unostenta-
tousness is as offensive the display OF the most
exaggerated love OF pOsthumous honors and eXpen-
siye Obsequies; and among the social vices which
MIR. Dickens works have exposed, the pride which
apes humility Is rather curiously illustrated in his
death.