Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-01-03
Charles Dickens.


1t is stated and on the very best authorlty,
that within the twelve years that have passed
since Dickens death no less than 4,2S9. goo vol
umes of his works have been sold In England
alone. long way the first on this astonishing
list stands " Pckwick," while David Copper
held, the second, is almost equally far in front
OF Dombey and Son." Little Dorritt" has
found nearly as many readers as Martin Chuz-
zlewit, while. with the exception OF Edwin
Drood."" The Tale of Two Cities" and Great
Expectations" take the lowest place Nor has
his popularity been confined to England or to
English-speaking people French. German
and Italian, Russian and Swedish trans
lations of his works appeared during
his lifetime: when he was still but n
young man the pages of Boz" were deyoured
We have been told with enthusiasm i'm Silesian
villages; 'Pickwick." ii In said and on no less
circumstantial authority was found equal when
all else tailed. TO the task Of soothing the sleep
less nights Of Mehemet Ali. Mr. Forster has
published story Of a strange half-human re-
cluse who had built his cell amid the eternal
SHOWS OF the Sierra Nevada. and who found I'm
"Pickwick" and in nicholas Nickleby" the
only intercourse with humanity that he desired
Ii II were true, as has been said by one who hss
certainly managed to refute his own words: N n
were true that present popularity IL the only safe
presage of future glory. what al eternity Of glory
should await Charles Dickens. And vet present
popularity vague, how brilliant and Irresistible
soever IT may be, or what manner Of prologue
it may furnish to future glory, is quite another
matter from that glory itself, from the real
defnitiye glory. the one thing. as NJ Rsnan
tells us, which has the best chance of not being
altogether vanity. That pOsterity will regard
Dickens as he was regarded In his lifetime or
even as we now regard him, In. Of course, our
Of the question. ITO the public" said Prof
Ward, in lecture delivered In Manchester in
the year of Dickens death-'to the public his
faults were often inseparable from his merjta.
and when our critical consciences told us that
he was astray in one Of his favorfte dIrectiona
the seyerest censure we had for him was that
he was growing more like himself than ever"
That the critical conscience Of posterfty will
nave Tar seyerer censure for Dickens than this
one cannot doubt, nor indeed can any one
thoughtful for the fame of English literature
desire that ii should not mo man." IL he's
been well said, ''can trust himself to speak of
his own time and Of his own contemporaries
with the same sureness of Judgment and Tho
same proportion of times and men gone by."
Even Goethe could not critcise Byron as he crit.
clsed Shakespeare or Moliere. Not indeed that
Dickens rested from criticism during his life
time So sudden and universal popularity q
his. SO original. SO self contained and self reliant
q genius, could not but attract criticism. or
what often passes by the name of criticism
among contemporaries, both kindly and other.
wise. He found. indeed. plenty Of both. but an
VI dinoSt all TIE CTitlciSl he encountered In hlo
lifetime took bias of one kind or other the
bias OF enthusiasm or the bias of opposition, the
one perhaps an irresistible consequence Of the
Other-the enthusiasm seeing all things in him
because of his marvellous popularity. the opposi-
ton seeing nothing i'm him but that popularity,
which, according to its wont il made every effortto
explain away. Neither bias is of course so strong
now. and particularly the bias Of opposition.
which is In most cases the soonest counteracted
10y death. Nevertheless, to form a lust estimate
of his work. to weigh its merits and its defecta
and to strike a balance between them is still
perhaps impossible. must certainly even for N
OF a later generation, be very difficult Brought
up as most of us have been. i'm the faith of Dick
ems. whose earliest laughter has been stirred by
Sam Weller and Dick Swiyeller and Mr.. Micaw-
Der. whose earliest tears have flowed for tho
sordid wretchedness Of David Copperiield's for
lorn childhood. or for Florence Dombey toilinR
up the great wide vacant stairs" with her
brother in her arms aud singing as she goes
who have stolen trembling after Jonas Chuzzle-
wit through that awful wood. or stared with
face as pale as Pip himself at that grim midnight
visitor in the lonely Temple chambers; TO such
it must surely seem little short of profanity to
Consider too curiousiy the old familiar pages to
stand afar of. contemplating with cold Impair
tial scrutiny the old familiar figures. as though.
like Trabbs boy, We did not know them.