The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-02-17

|
DICKENs.-This lady was greeted by an audi
| ence of three or four hundred persons, who lis
tened with close attention and frequent marks
of appreciation to her impassioned eulogy on
Charles Dickens. Mrs. Britten is a lady rather
above the medium stature, with pleasant, mo-
bile face full voice, considerable animation and
decidedly tragic style of oratory. After
| reference to the universal sorrow caused by the
| announcement of the death of Charles Dick
ems, and the unfegned honor paid to his memo
| ry by all classes in England, she proceeded to
discuss the position which the novel now occu-
| pies among us as a recognized fact. Those who
have organized our religious system have chos-
en- parallels as an efficient mode of instruction
This word carries us back to Jerusalem the
synagogues the Mount of Olives and the pres
ence of the Great Teacher. Parallels are pic
lures of life or nature from which moral is
drawn Outside this sacred circle they were
called fables, and in the middle ages such forms
of teaching are called storytelling and all
these are akin. More has been taught by them
than by abstract theories and doctrines. 1t was
affirmed by Bishop Berkeley and re-affirmed by
Carlyle, that the man who writes a bad novel is
the wickedest man in the world. What then is
the reverse of the assertion, and what praise
can we bestow upon the man who wrote SO
many good novels as Charles Dickens? A knowl-
edge OF his personal history does not enter at
this time Should we enjoy the Messiah any
better if we knew the private life of Handel.
If theory is good for the writer it is good for
the world; and it is best to know how good it is
for the individual In Charles Dickens case
ty fbai ,c NIL; oh
the world to him. He was not snowy man,
but if there was any means by which he gained
hold on public opinion, it was by his stupen-
dOus ability to portray the real characters of
life and make them the instruments of his de-
sres. He was not photographer of society,
painting the surface of things, but the artist
that brings up the life of the object, digging
down into our hearts and finding some hidden
and almost forgotten traits of our character.
Mrs. Britten denied the assertion of the critics
that Dickens could describe all characters by
that of a gentleman. Perhaps his critics do
not themselves understand the true character
of gentleman. Dickens associated with
the literati of his day; the nobility, the wits
and scholars of London, and went down with (
police to the under strata to the English social
system and learned the cause of their misery and
crime. He knew all the phases of social life
from actual experience and dealt with them ALL
Proceeding to consider the novelist as moral
and social reformer, Mrs. Brtten remarked that
his literary labors were for one object, the cor
rection of evil. The Pckwick Papers, which
are regarded as the most genial, kindly and
sparkling of all his books, was failure until
he struck the chord of the lowest diapason of
life and introduced Sam Weller, the boot-black,
whom all the English aristocracy were familiar
with. His delineations are all true The Bar
dell-Pickwick trial is real picture of the Eng
lish courts, and caused judges and lawyers to
'move on" to a better system The imprison-
ment of Mr.. Pickwick and the cruelties he saw
shamed the Fleet and it gradually skunk out of
sight. Nicholas Nickleby overthrow the York
shire schools, where hundreds of waits were
sent, to be got rid Of If any survived them he
came on. society incipient villains; Ishmae-
lites. whose hands were raised against everybody
because, everybody hand had been against them.
Few ever outlived their term of tuition; they
were got rid nf-most effeetually. The great
speciality of Barn, by Rudge-now placed on
the ton of tho laddar distinction which Dick
oH' i~iSou lor HllnSelI-lS L..
don riots; and the speaker re- nenueu the
book to those who cling with tel 'Seaty " .le
Commune of France and would refo. "a WIN
riot and bloodshed. France is second Fra nix
ensteln, and has given birth to monster which
Will yet crush her. England has created the
monster of Pauperism; and within the near
future she will writhe in its embrace. Another
reform effected is found in Martin Chuzzlewit.
Sary Ann Camp and Betsey Prig representing
the heartess hospital nurses who robbed their
patients and fastened them off the earth The
morals contained in Great Expectations Bleak
House, Sc, and the revolutions which they
wrought in English systems were successfully
and rapidly presented Dickens, the lady con-
tlnued' never drew meaningless character or
sketched a portrait that did not teach moral.
Bulwer once wrote novel that inspired half
the young men in England, from Marquises to
school boys to turn housed breakers!
MIR. Dickens as religious reformer was the
next division of the lecture. 1t had been said
that he was professed Christian. The speaker
was not sure upon this point; but if Charles
Dickens rebuked those in high places, cherish
ed little children, raised the fallen, defended
the wronged, and represented the angelic purity
Of goodness he was a religious reformer; and
practiced that religion that opened to him the
iosr of Heaven. Mrs. Britten here turned aside
70 harshy criticise the churches, or 'eccleseast-
'al establishments, as she called them, whose
reeds are theological differences, and who neg
ect the little waits and the oppressed and sor-
'owful Returning to her subject she recited
number of instances of Mr. Dickens philan-
'hropy and liberal giving, which had come I'M
Ter her own observation in England; and re-
called Mr.. Dickens repentance for the unjust
and harsh things contained in his American
Notes. She closed with beautiful poetical
tribute to the great novelist 81 t'
The lecture was an hour and three-quarters in
delivery. Mrs. Britten is an enthusiastic adj
mirer of Dickens, evidently. In her Judgment
he had no blemishes, but was proper subject
for dedication.