The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-03-03

The Dickens question" threatens to be-
come as endless a. the Byron mystery. The
English journals, which come to Us with full
reviews of the work of Mr.. Forster, maintain
the same reserve in dealing With the causes OF
the separation of Dickens from his wife az the
biographer does. The Louisville Courier-,Jour-
nat has mastery analysis of the subject taking
substantially the same views as the HERALD.
We had hoped that the London Times would
have given us some explanation. When Dickens
wrote his celebrated letter announcing to the
world his separation, the person whose judg-
ment decided him to publish it was Mr..
Delane, the editor of the Tines. Mr.. Delane
must have known the secret reason. if any ex-
listed, which induced the act of separation.
The fact that no new reason exists, other
than that assigned by Mr.. Forster, only goes
to strengthen the conclusions at which we
arrived, that in Diminishing his wife from his
home Dickens acted from selfshness and i'm
pulse. At what other conclusion can we
arrive? And what other judgment can we
pass than one of sorrowful condemnation,
remembering, as we must, the whole tone and
argument Of his works? He was the teacher
of domestic love and peace and duty If his
married life was burden he was the more
bound to accept it with the cheerfulness he
taught to those who had similar burdens.
missed his wife from his home in the
evening of her days, after twenty
five years of patient and affectionate devotion.
There must have been this devotion on her
part; for Dickens tells us of her ''amiable
and complying" nature, and laments his own
petulance and frequent infrmities of temper.
She had passed the freshness and bloom Of
her life; all that remained to her was the love
of husband and children. She had given her
own life for this, and, if there was any truth
in the vows of marriage, she was entitled to
the love and protection and companionship Of
her husband until the end.
As one of our correspondents intimated yes
terday, the trouble in the life Of Dickens came
FROM an early and thoughtless marriage. He
welded "plain, Simple unambitious
English maiden, with no hopes be-
yond a modest, struggling station in
life. To this she had been bred, in it
she expected to live and die. When mar
rage came Dickens and his bride were in the
same station of life, and he was glad enough
to carry his weekly salary as a newspaper
writer to his expectant young wife and their
two children. But the husband rose higher
and higher, until he became one Of the fore
most men of all the world. For he was en-
dowed with such genius as has rarely been
given to men. And as he arose to fame, and
society, and all the splendor and incense
and courtesy Of life, what could Madame do
but remain at home and nurse her children
over the fire and think of the softly
beautiful, sadly remembered days when,
hand in hand, they strolled along the
lanes content with humble, happy
dreams? For if she went with him into this
new and brilliant station every face and senti-
ment was a contrast and reproach to her and
misery to him, thinking what his wife was,
and seeing before him in the fairest and
cleverest women of England, what she might
have been. Of course there could only be one
end to such a story, although if Dickens had
been brave and self-denylng the END would
have been more worthy of his teachings and
the example of his books.
What lesson shall we deduce from this
That ga young man married is a young man
marred )" that people should never wed until
they are sure they will never be ashamed of
each other; that persons of genius should
never marry until they mate with companions
who have genius? Not at all We shall not
attempt to solve any of these questions except
to say that it becomes q true man and true
woman not to enter rashly into the state of
marriage, but once within that sacred bond
not to rashly tear it asunder. Is it not for
better and for worse2 And being so, why
should the oath be broken unless it is dis
honored by one or the other.