The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-01

classes Of the country between wind and
water. His humer and his pathos were pre-
cisely on the level of their capacities; and If
he scarcely appealed TO the deeper emotions
of human nature. he struck the notes to
which the feelings of a very numerous body
of mankind most naturally vlbrated. But we
do not worship q man because he has made us
laugh very heartily, or even because he has
sometimes caused us to she'd rather easy
tears. Relics, il would seem, p%resuppose a
saint; and the fancy in the minds of ardent
persons is apparently that there was a sort
of inherent virtue in Mr.. Dickens which
communicated itself even to his stuffed
ravens, and gave a certain sanctity
-expressible, of course, in terms of current
money-to the most trivial objects which he
had touched. He is to be reverenced not
merely as the great humorist or the graphic
describer of men and manners, but as a pow
erful moral teacher, who helped to spread
the spirit of true religion throughout the
world. We need not remark hat the homage
which showed itself in buying stuffed ravens
for extravagant sums would be inappropriate
enough to such q character; but, so far rs we
can understand, that was the idea ii "a pre-
sent TO the minds Of these en'l lasts, who
sought to find expression for it after their
own singular fashion.
Is il, then, right or healthy to regard Mr..
Dickens in this light? Various preachers of
reputation seem 10 nave IuOubuU IudG IDSy
might as we'll make O little capital out of q
national loss, and turn some of the tide of
emotion to the driving of their own wheels.
Various appropriate sermons were preached
with all desirable promptitude, and the asser-
ton was made in various forms that Mr..
Dickens was one of the chief teachers of the
day. So far as this is a fine way of saying
that he had provided the public with a great
quantity of thoroughly innocent literature,
nobody of course could dispute his claim to
the title. We may admit, too, that Mr..
Dickens showed a thoroughly kindly nature
in every line that he wrote, and that his
sentiment, if rather too obvious, was honest
and right as far as it went. Yet all this
scarcely entities q man to the sort of praise
which belongs to great moral reformers. 4
man who has sacrificed his life or health or
means to the elevation of his fellow-creatures
deserves some special gratitude. Mr.. Dick
ems, so far as the public is aware, was not
called upon to make any such sacrifices, and
most properly applied his talents to the work
for which they we're tittest, that of writing
exceedingly amusing novels, and received the
appropriate rewards of admiration and solid
profit. Did he preach any new truths or
throw any special light upon the difficult
problems of the time? That is what his
most Jealous admirers would scarcely claim.
He attacked certain abuses without always
understanding them very thoroughly; he
gave utterance to the good commonplace
middle class sentiment-to that kind of doc
trine which people have in their minds when
they propose to provide a sound Christianity
by cutting out every dogma to which any
particular sect objects, and which may be
defined as the cultivation of "geniality," and
the avoidance of all the deeper and more
melancholy emotions. 1t was his chief fault
that he played with sentimental situations in
~ 800, ALok ,aox,1 J., ,A.1x, ~, alNoo-a = -o.-
profound feeling. He fails to be truly
pathetic, because we do not see the agony
wrung out of q strong man by the inevitable
wrongs and sorrows of the world, but the
easy yielding of q nature that rather likes a
little gentle weeping. Mr.. Pickwick, with
his love Of mankind, stimulated by milk
punch, is not the most elevated type of phi
lanthropy, though it is one which is ~unfortu-
nately prevalent at the present day. In these
respects Mr.. Dickens influence tended
rather towards a softening of the moral fibre
than towards strengthening it. If religious
teaching is to contne itself to producing q
brotherly kindness which at times verges
upon the maudlin, and always shrinks from
strong measures, his teaching would be unim-
~peachable. No doubt the tendency to such
doctrine shows as very. amiable.disposition.
1t is pleasanter to treat social sores with O
nice soft poultice of good feeling than to use
TIC SuIRtOu 3 hu1lt, put Lu6 IbulDbG u nlllQ
indicated is only too common, without further
prompting; and we are only too apt to be
effeminate without being assured that the
whole duty OF man will be summed up in
yielding to our propensity. If, therefore,
Mr.. Dickens was to be taken as a preacher,
We should not hold that his preaching was of
the kind most wanted. But, at any rate, we
do not feel called upon to fall down and
worship him because he incidentally incul-
Gated q morality which was harmless and
benevolent; and the preachers who provoke
the comparison, and he relic hunters who
apparently accept the verdict, do a real injury
to his fame by advancing untenable claims
in its support.
An American preacher has with singularly
good taste discussed the question whether
Mr.. Dickens was a Christian. Upon that
topic, or upon the virtues of his personal
character, we do not feel inclined to speak:
we are squeamish enough to fancy that such
discussions are slightly indecorous. We can
only take the morality preached in his public
works, of which every man is at liberty to
form an opinion. And though we may admit
it to be perfectly harmless, and to provide a
pleasant stock of maxims for people who wish
to get through the world quietly and easily,
we cannot hold that it was of that stimu-
lating and invigorating character which is
most to be desired, or which would entitle its
organ to be considered, as on that account, a
great benefactor of mankind. We rather
feel that it is poor food for the soul of man.
and that the preachers who have identified il
with their own highest aspirations have not
raised our opinion of their insight into the
wants of the age. Thinking as we do that
MIR. Dickens deserves a high place in litera-
ture, we are not prepared to see him placed
on a pedestal appropriate to the great teachers
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