The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1870-07-07
DICKENS.
ThaCkeray's Opinion OF the Great Nov.
pliSt.

The following generous and Just tri-
butte 10 Dickens Il extracted from the
hitherto uncoliected papers in the
fifth volume of the Household Edi-
tlOn of Ihackerayis Writings -
And now there is but one book left
III the bOX,-the smallest one, but
/ oh! how much the best of all Ii j.
/ the work of the master OF all English
humOrists now alive; the young man
who came out and took his place
calmly at the head of the whole tribe,
and kept it. Think of all We owe Mr..
{ Dickens since these half dozen years,
the store of happy hours that he has
made us pass, the kindly and pleas
/ ant companions whom he has intro
B duced tO Us the harmless laughter.
/ the generous wit, the frank, manly,
Z human love which he has taught us
To feel Every month of those years
/ has taught Us some kind token from
/ the delightful genius. His books may
have lost in art, perhaps, but could
we afford tO wait Since the DAYS
when 'Ihe Spectator was produced
10y man of kindred mind and tenn
per, what books have appeared that
have taken 50 atlectiOnate a hold up
on the public as these? They have
made millions of rich and poor hap
py; they might have been locked up
for nine years, doubtless, and prunei
here and there, and improved, (which
L doubt, but where would have been
the readers benefit all this time, while
the author was celebrating his per-
fOrmance ? Would the communion
I i..af flna aWeI ,,rrhls-
have been what it is nOw,-SOme-
thing continual, confidential, some
thing like personal affection ? | do
not know whether these stories are
written fur future ages; many sage
critics doubt on this head. There are
always such cOnjurers to tell literary
fortunes and To my certain knOwl-
edge, Boz, according to them, has
been sinking regularly these six years.
doubt that mysterious writing for
futurity, which certain big wigs de-
scribe. Snarl has n chance certainly.
His words which have not been read
in this age, may be read in the future;
but the receipt for that sort of writing
has never as yet been clearly ascer-
tanned. Shakespeare did not write for
futurity; he wrote his plays for the
same purpose which inspires the pen
of Alfred Bunn, ESQ, viz to fill his
Theatre Royal. Aud yet we read
Shakespeare now, lie Sage and Field
ing wrote for their public; and though
the great DIR. Johnson put his peevish
protest against the fame of the latter,
and voted him "a dull dog, sir,-a low
fellow" yet somehow Harry Fielding
ParsOn Adams is ut this moment as
real character, as much loved by Us,
as the old doctor himself. What a
noble, divine power this of genius is,
which, passing from the poet into his
readers soul, mingles with it, and
there engendeTs, as it We're, real crea-
lures, which is strong as history,
which creates beings that take their
place by natures own. All that we
know of Don Quixote or Louis XIV.
we got to know in the same way out
of a book. l declare l love Sir Roger
de COverely quite as much as Izaak
Walton, and have just as clear con-
sciOusness of the looks, voice, habit,
and manner of being, of the one as of
the other.
And so with regard to this question
of futurity; if any benevolent being
of the present age is imbued with
yearning desire to know what his
great-great grandchild will think of
this or that authOr-Of Mr.. Dickens
especially, whose claims to fame have
raised the questionable only way TO
settle it is by the ordinary historic
method. Did not your great-great
grandfather love and delight in Don
QuiXote and SanchO PaRza2 Have
they lost their vitality by their age
Don't they move laughter and waken
affection now as three hundred years
ago? And so with "DOn" Pickwick
and "Sancho" Weller, if their gentle
humOrs and kindly wit, and hearty
benevolent natures, touch us, and
convince lis as it were now, why
should they not exist for our children
as well as for us, and make the twenty
fifth century happy, as they have the
nineteenth? Let Snarl console hiM-
self, then, as to the future,