The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-03-22
Charles Dickens.

| 1t is stated, and on the very best
authority, that within the twelve years
that have passed since Dickens death
no less than 4,239,OO volumes of his
works have been sold in England alone.
A long way tho first on this astonishing
list stands "Piokwick," while David
Coppertleld," the second, Is almost
equally far in front of s'Dombey and
Son." "Listle Dorrit" has found nearly
as many readers as ''Martin Ohuzzlewit..
while, with the exception OF "Eiwin
brood, "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 transla-
tions Of his works appeared during his
lifetime; when he was still but q young
man the pages of ''Boz" were devoured,
We have been told, with enthusiasm
i'll Silesian villages, "Plckwick," it
Is said, and on no less circum-
stantlaI authority was found equal.
when all else failed, to the task
of soothing the sleepless nights of
Mehomet Ali. Mr.. Foster has publish.
od story of strange half human
recluse who had built his coll amid the
eternal SHOWS of the Sierra Nevada, and
who found In "Pickwick" and in
Nicholas Nickleby," the only inter-
course with humanity that he desired.
If it wore true, rs has been said by one
who has certainly managed to refute
his own words; if it were true that pre-
sent popularity is the only safe presage
of future glory, what an eternity OF
glory should await Dickens. And yet
present popularity, how vague. how brill
lant 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 definite glory, the one thing, as
Nj. Renan tells us, which has the best
chance of not being altogether vanity.
That posterity will regard Dickens as
he was regarded in his life time, or even
as we now regard him, is, of course,
out of tho question. "To the public"
said Prof. Ward, in lecture delivered
in Manchester in the year Of Dickens
dAGsh ab i }rom Bis @ois and
when our critical conscience told US
that he was astray in one of his favorite
directions, the severest censure we had
for him was that he was growing more
like himself than ever" That tho
critical conscience of posterity will have
far soverer censure for Dlckens than
this one cannot doubt, nor indeed can
any one thoughtful for the fame
of English literature desire that it
should not. "No man." it hos been
we'll said, "oan trust himself to speak
of his own time and of his own contem-
times and mon gone by" Brought up,
rs most Of us have been, in the faith OF
Dickens, whose earliest laughter has
poraries with the same sureness of judy
mont and the same proportion as OF
been stirred by Sam Weller and Dick
Swiveller and Mr.. Micawber, whose
earliest tears have flowed for the sordid
wretchedness of David Copperheld's
forIorn childhood, or for Florence
Dombey toiling up the "great wide
vacant stairs" with her brother in her
arms and singing sa she goes-who
have stolen trembling after Jonas Chuz-
zlewit 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 profani.
ty to consider too curiously the old
familiar pages, to stand afar off, coa-
templating with cold. impartial scrutiny
the old familiar figures, as though, like
Trabb's boy, we did not know them.