The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-06-20
Mr.. Dickens not an Educated Man.

There are no facts in Mr.. Forster's
narrative to prove that Mr.. Dickens ever
was an educated man, and all the testi-
mony of his works is against the suppo-
sition. No trait of his genius is more
salient than its entire seif-dependence
no defects of it are more marked than
his intolerance of subieets which he did
NOT understand, and his mgh-handed
dogmatic treatment of matters which
he regarded with the facile contempt of
ignorance This unfortunate tendency
was fostered by the atmosphere OF flat
terry in which he lived life which, IN
the truly educational sense, was singu-
larly narrow and, though he was not
entirely to blame for the extent, it af
fected his later works very much to
their disadvantages. As a novelist he is
distinguished, as humorist, he is un-
rivaled in this age; but when he deals
with the larger spheres of morals, with
politics, and with the mechanism of
state and official life, he IS absurd. He
announces trlisms and triteness with an
air of discovery impossible to we'll
read man, and he propOunds with an air
of conviction, hardly provoking, 1T is SO
simply foolish, fourishing solutions OF
problems, which have long perplexed
the gravest and ablest minds in the
higher ranges of thought. We hear of
his extensive and varied reading.
Where is the evidence that he ever read
anything BEYOND fiction, and some of
the essayists /? Certainly not in his
books, which might be the only books
in the world, for any indication of study
or book knowledge in them. Not a little
of their charm, not q little of their
widespread miscellaneous popularity,
is referable to that very thing. Every
one can understand them; they are not
for educated people only; they do not
suggest comparisons, or require explain
ations, or imply associations they
stand alone, self-existent, delightful
facts. A slight reference to Fielding
and Smollett, fine rendering of one
chapter in English history, the gordon
riots, very finely done, and a clever
adaptation of Mr. Carlyle's tsScarecows''
to his own stage, in "a Tale of Two
Cities, are positively the only traces
of books to be found in the long series
of his works. His pictures from
Italy is specially curious, as an Illus
tration of The possibility of mans liv-
ing so long in country with an old and
famous history, without discovering
that he might possibly understand the
country better if he knew something
about history. He always caught the
sentimental and humorous elements in
everything the traditional, spiritual,
philosophic, or @thetic, not at all. His
prejudices were the preiudices, not of
one-sided opinion and conviction, bat of
ignorance " all round His mind held
no clew to the character of the peoples
of foreign countries, and their tastes,
arts, and creed were ludicrous mysteries
to him. His yividness of mind, fresh
ness, and fun, constitute the chief
charm of his stories. and their entire
originality is the note which pleases
most but when he writes pictures"
of land of the great past of poetry,
art, and politics, with as much satisfied
f1ippancy as when he describes the COM
mon objects of the London streets (for
which he yearned in the midst of all the
medieval glories of ITALY, he makes it
evident that he had never been educa-
ted, and had not educated himself
Temple Bar, London.