The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-03-01
BY DR.. JOHN ERSKINE
Author and Educator

w script, I was looking in it
for a good deal of Charles Dick
ems. I expected to find the in
comparable story-teller, the pas
sionate student Of social problems,
the indignant and generous-heart-
ed reformer, even perhaps the
master Of the comic spirit. I was
looking for one of those transpo-
sitiOns which are in the mood of
modern art, and which Dickens
could have given us, had he so
chosen. The elders who try to
make the Bible ineligible to
young children usually do write
down the story, leave out a good
deal Of it. and change the tone.
If Dickens chose a different
course, it must have been for a
well considered reason. In 1849
he was at the height of his pow
ers, master of his literary tech
niques. He also was as disillu-
stoned with life as it was in his
nature to be. He had had his
fill Of success and Of criticism,
and the success, quite as much
as the hardships of his early years,
had brought to him all the So
phistication he was likely to &C
Quire.
By 1849 his admirers knew that
the church, or organized re-
ligion of any kind, would play but
a small part-a strangely small
part-in his stories. The Eng
lish landscape is studded with
churches, but in the pages of
Dickens no class Of men are rarer
than priests and ministers.
To remind ourselves further of
what Dickens meant to the read
ing world when he wrote this ac-
count of Jesus for his children,
we have but to recall that he had
already published the Sketches by
Boz, PickWick Papers, Oliver
Twist Nicholas Nickleby, Barnaby
Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dom
hey and Son. He had made his
lecture tour in America in 1912,
and had written the American
Notes.
In all these books the religious
spirit had shown itself if at all,
rather exclusively in philanthropic
attitude, the general brotherly love
and in the affectiOnate pictures
of Christmas celebrations in coun-
try and in city homes.
Washington Irving had discov-
cred the charm of the Christmas
ritual by English hearthsides, and
Dickens carried on and enriched
the theme, stressing the good hu-
NOR, the good cheer, the plum
pudding, and the ale. Like most
other readers I adore these scenes
in his novels, but would not con-
fuse them with the expression Of
more spiritual values, such as
must certainly be included in
even practical religion. Some
of those more spiritual values
Dickens had dramatized emo
tonally in The Christmas Carol,
1843
~
WITH these thoughts and eX-
w pectations I began to read
this manuscript. To my surprise
there seemed to be in it nothing
of Dickens. 1t was simply a COM
pilation from the four Gospels,
setting the events in the proper
order, and reducing them to sim
pie terms. That was my first i'm
preston, and for a moment, I
confess. it left me disappointed.
But 1 started to read again, and
realized suddenly that the manu-
script was a remarkable tour de
force, and that it illustrated the
intellectual powers Of Dickens
better, perhaps, than anything
I'd even seen.
In 1868, approximately twenty
years after the story was written,
the youngest child, Edward Bull
wer Lytton Dickens, went to
Australia and in a remarkable
letter Of farewell, quoted the
Forster's Life, the novelist refers
to this manuscript Il put New
Testament among your other
books for the very same reason,
and with the very same hopes,
that made me write an easy &C
count of it for you, when you
we're a little child AS your
brothers have gone away, one by
one, have written to each such
words as I am now writing to
you, and have entreated them all
to guide themselves by this Book,
putting aside the interpretations
and inventions of men,"
This last sentence, I think, in
dicates the spirit in which he
wished his children to hear the
story-the spirit which he feared
the public might misunderstood.
He wished the Gospels read for
themselves, free from the inter-
pretations and inventions of men.
Apparently he undertook to do for
his children what the newspapers
would call rewrite job. The
skill with which he did the re-
writing indicates, I think, what a
mastery journalist and editor he
was.
You will notice, for example,