The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-24

Even his Warmest admirers now recog- nize the hollow ring of his pathos. But is his humor of the stuff that will last? This question may now be put when the laughter which rightly greeted his early buoyancy has subsided, and we may now ask ourselves whether 1t will be inextinguishable, like the laughter of the Homeric gods, for our successors and remote descendants. The elastic spirits and vitality of the man have made his entire works something unique in English literature; but these qualities were almost exhausted even before his early death. ''The Analytl- cal Chemist" in Our Mutual Friend, and the "T'otherest Governor of the same tale, will illustrate this rather pathetic fact. It is just endurable that for once a butler supplying wine to the guests at a pavenu's table should be likened for the gravity of his demeanor to an analytical chemist; but that he should be so styled again and again whenever he is introduced is merely proof that Dickens thought he had his public so well in hand that he could foist on them very poor conceit as living humor and force them to laugh even mails alienis That the creator of Sam Weller Mrs. Camp Dick Swivel Ter, Captain Cuttle, Micawber, should think it funny to make Rogue Rider hood describe two persons as ''The Governor" and "T'other Governor" T nor" is thing to lead one into a train of sad thought about human intelli- gence and it's limitations. But let me take Dickens at his best. Let me put forward a few necessarily a very few) passages which to me seem most repre- sentative of Dickens. Others will have their own fayorite bits and will, per haps, have good reason to think them more really characteristic. The eX- tracts which I have made are not chos- en for the purpose of bearing out any theory, but because they are from the passages which have made me laugh most hugely and most unfailingly There are at the very least a score of | passages, perhaps, equally buoyant (even in Our Mutual Friend we have Silas Wegg), but there Is space for only two or three, and it will, I think, be admitted that those which l have selected are thoroughly characteristic First comes, naturally, quotation | from the trial scene in 'Pickwick, in which Sam Weller displays his readi- ness of repartee.
 Have you a pair of eyes, MT. Vel | ler?'
 Yes, I have a pair of eyes replied | sam and that's just it. If they wos a 1 pair O patent double million magnify l in gas microscopes of hextra power, l might be able to see through flight of stairs and deal door; but bein' eyes, yon see. my visions limited
 l I have always thought the low cum ming of Codlin intensely amusing, and the more for oleverness which he cer- tainly has, but which utterly fails him when he tries to put words into the mouth of Little Nell when inquired af- ter by the wealthylooking single gen. | tleman:
 You said, Short returned MT Cod lin; didn't I allays say loved her and dotted on her? Pretty creetur, l think I hear her now 'Codlin's my friend,
 says she, with a tear of gratitud' a. trickling down her little eye-"Codlin' s my friend" she says, mot Short Shorts very we'll" she says; "rve no quarrel with Short; he means kind, dare saW- But Codlin," she says "has the feelings for my money"
 I have room for only one more ex- tract, and the space is claimed by the | immortal Camp:
 "I knows a lady, which her name I'll not deceive you, MT. ChuzzleWit, is
 Harris, her husbands brother bein' six foot three, and marked with mad bull | in Wellington boots upon his left arm on account of his precious mother hay ing been worried by one into a shoe | makers shop when in a sitiWatior | which blessed is the man as has his | culver full of sech, as many times I've | said to Camp when words has rOge be- 1 twixt us on account of the expense and often have I said to Mrs. Harris i "Oh! Mrs. Harris, ma am, your counte' nance is a angels" Which but fol
 pfmples it would be-"
 In these and many like them there iE
 exuherant fun but no wisdom no in
 sight into human nature as such-Only
 farciCal oddity and cockney burlesque
 class characteristics of the novelist:
 age and local peculiarities. This kint
 of humor will not stand the test O.
 time. and mainly because it is not 0
 the Shakespearian type, The Dogber
 ry scenes and that in which Falstaf
 and the Prince alternately enact thu
 part of King Henry ". are surely ir
 irresistible now as when they were
 written; and so is the Gravedgger'
 rhetoric: An act hath three branch
 es; it is to act, to do, and to perform,
 But every year is draining the sources
 of laughter in Dickens, and I fear
 shall soon have to ask with Hamlet
 Where be your gibes now? You
 flashes of merriment that were wont [, i set the table on roar?"
 The true heir of Shakespeare's hui
 nor is to be found, ] am persuaded, il
 George Eliot. Her humor. like his, de
 bends on that which is permanent ant
 interchangeable in human nature. It :; | impossible to believe that a time vii 1 aoy,,a ,r tho t.,,