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K. Chesterton</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Charles Dickens</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>A critical study</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: G. K. Chesterton</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 4, 2022 [eBook #68682]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Tim Lindell, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DICKENS ***</div> - -<h1><span class="smaller wspace">CHARLES DICKENS</span></h1> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter newpage p4 center wspace"> -<p class="xxlarge bold vspace red"> -CHARLES DICKENS<br /> - -<span class="smaller">A CRITICAL STUDY</span></p> - -<p class="p4">BY<br /> -<span class="larger">G. K. CHESTERTON</span><br /> - -<span class="smaller">Author of Varied Types, Heretics, Etc.</span></p> - -<p class="p4 large">NEW YORK<br /> -DODD MEAD & COMPANY<br /> -<span class="small">1911</span> -</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter newpage p4 center wspace"> -<p class="vspace"> -<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1906, by</span><br /> -DODD, MEAD & COMPANY<br /> - -❦<br /> - -<i>First Edition Published in September, 1906</i> -</p> -</div> - -<hr class="newpage x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter newpage p4 center wspace"> -<p class="vspace"> -<span class="bold">To</span><br /> -<span class="larger gesperrt">RHODA BASTABLE</span> -</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table id="toc"> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER I</td> -</tr> -<tr class="small"> - <td> </td> - <td class="tdr">PAGE</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">THE DICKENS PERIOD</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_1">1</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER II</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">THE BOYHOOD OF DICKENS</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_24">24</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER III</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">THE YOUTH OF DICKENS</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_43">43</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">“THE PICKWICK PAPERS”</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_71">71</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER V</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">THE GREAT POPULARITY</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_100">100</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">DICKENS AND AMERICA</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_127">127</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">DICKENS AND CHRISTMAS</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_155">155</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">THE TIME OF TRANSITION</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_181">181</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">LATER LIFE AND WORKS</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_211">211</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER X</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">THE GREAT DICKENS CHARACTERS</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_244">244</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">ON THE ALLEGED OPTIMISM OF DICKENS</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_266">266</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">A NOTE ON THE FUTURE OF DICKENS</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_291">291</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_1">CHAPTER I<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE DICKENS PERIOD</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Much</span> of our modern difficulty, in religion and -other things, arises merely from this, that we -confuse the word “indefinable” with the word -“vague.” If some one speaks of a spiritual fact -as “indefinable” we promptly picture something -misty, a cloud with indeterminate edges. But this -is an error even in common-place logic. The -thing that cannot be defined is the first thing; the -primary fact. It is our arms and legs, our pots -and pans, that are indefinable. The indefinable -is the indisputable. The man next door is indefinable, -because he is too actual to be defined. -And there are some to whom spiritual things have -the same fierce and practical proximity; some to -whom God is too actual to be defined.</p> - -<p>But there is a third class of primary terms. -There are popular expressions which every one -uses and no one can explain; which the wise man -will accept and reverence, as he reverences desire -or darkness or any elemental thing. The prigs -of the debating club will demand that he should<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span> -define his terms. And being a wise man he will -flatly refuse. This first inexplicable term is the -most important term of all. The word that has -no definition is the word that has no substitute. If -a man falls back again and again on some such -word as “vulgar” or “manly” do not suppose -that the word means nothing because he cannot -say what it means. If he could say what the word -means he would say what it means instead of -saying the word. When the Game Chicken (that -fine thinker) kept on saying to Mr. Toots, “It’s -mean. That’s what it is—it’s mean,” he was -using language in the wisest possible way. For -what else could he say? There is no word for -mean except mean. A man must be very mean -himself before he comes to defining meanness. -Precisely because the word is indefinable, the word -is indispensable.</p> - -<p>In everyday talk, or in any of our journals, we -may find the loose but important phrase, “Why -have we no great men to-day? Why have we -no great men like Thackeray, or Carlyle, or -Dickens?” Do not let us dismiss this expression, -because it appears loose or arbitrary. “Great” -does mean something, and the test of its actuality -is to be found by noting how instinctively and -decisively we do apply it to some men and not to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span> -others; above all how instinctively and decisively -we do apply it to four or five men in the Victorian -era, four or five men of whom Dickens was not -the least. The term is found to fit a definite thing. -Whatever the word “great” means, Dickens was -what it means. Even the fastidious and unhappy -who cannot read his books without a continuous -critical exasperation, would use the word of him -without stopping to think. They feel that Dickens -is a great writer even if he is not a good writer. -He is treated as a classic; that is, as a king who -may now be deserted, but who cannot now be -dethroned. The atmosphere of this word clings -to him; and the curious thing is that we cannot -get it to cling to any of the men of our own -generation. “Great” is the first adjective which -the most supercilious modern critic would apply -to Dickens. And “great” is the last adjective -that the most supercilious modern critic would -apply to himself. We dare not claim to be great -men, even when we claim to be superior to them.</p> - -<p>Is there, then, any vital meaning in this idea of -“greatness” or in our laments over its absence in -our own time? Some people say, indeed, that -this sense of mass is but a mirage of distance, and -that men always think dead men great and live -men small. They seem to think that the law of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> -perspective in the mental world is the precise opposite -to the law of perspective in the physical world. -They think that figures grow larger as they walk -away. But this theory cannot be made to correspond -with the facts. We do not lack great men -in our own day because we decline to look for -them in our own day; on the contrary, we are -looking for them all day long. We are not, as a -matter of fact, mere examples of those who stone -the prophets and leave it to their posterity to -build their sepulchres. If the world would only -produce our perfect prophet, solemn, searching, -universal, nothing would give us keener pleasure -than to build his sepulchre. In our eagerness we -might even bury him alive. Nor is it true that -the great men of the Victorian era were not called -great in their own time. By many they were -called great from the first. Charlotte Brontë -held this heroic language about Thackeray. Ruskin -held it about Carlyle. A definite school regarded -Dickens as a great man from the first days -of his fame: Dickens certainly belonged to this -school.</p> - -<p>In reply to this question, “Why have we no -great men to-day?” many modern explanations -are offered. Advertisement, cigarette-smoking, -the decay of religion, the decay of agriculture, too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span> -much humanitarianism, too little humanitarianism, -the fact that people are educated insufficiently, the -fact that they are educated at all, all these are -reasons given. If I give my own explanation, it -is not for its intrinsic value; it is because my answer -to the question, “Why have we no great -men?” is a short way of stating the deepest and -most catastrophic difference between the age in -which we live and the early nineteenth century; -the age under the shadow of the French Revolution, -the age in which Dickens was born.</p> - -<p>The soundest of the Dickens critics, a man of -genius, Mr. George Gissing, opens his criticism by -remarking that the world in which Dickens grew -up was a hard and cruel world. He notes its gross -feeding, its fierce sports, its fighting and foul -humour, and all this he summarizes in the words -hard and cruel. It is curious how different are the -impressions of men. To me this old English -world seems infinitely less hard and cruel than the -world described in Gissing’s own novels. Coarse -external customs are merely relative, and easily -assimilated. A man soon learnt to harden his -hands and harden his head. Faced with the world -of Gissing, he can do little but harden his heart. -But the fundamental difference between the beginning -of the nineteenth century and the end of it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> -is a difference simple but enormous. The first -period was full of evil things, but it was full of -hope. The second period, the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">fin de siècle</i>, was -even full (in some sense) of good things. But -it was occupied in asking what was the good of -good things. Joy itself became joyless; and the -fighting of Cobbett was happier than the feasting -of Walter Pater. The men of Cobbett’s day were -sturdy enough to endure and inflict brutality; but -they were also sturdy enough to alter it. This -“hard and cruel” age was, after all, the age of reform. -The gibbet stood up black above them; -but it was black against the dawn.</p> - -<p>This dawn, against which the gibbet and all the -old cruelties stood out so black and clear, was the -developing idea of liberalism, the French Revolution. -It was a clear and a happy philosophy. -And only against such philosophies do evils appear -evident at all. The optimist is a better reformer -than the pessimist; and the man who believes life -to be excellent is the man who alters it most. It -seems a paradox, yet the reason of it is very plain. -The pessimist can be enraged at evil. But only -the optimist can be surprised at it. From the -reformer is required a simplicity of surprise. He -must have the faculty of a violent and virgin -astonishment. It is not enough that he should<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span> -think injustice distressing; he must think injustice -<em>absurd</em>, an anomaly in existence, a matter less for -tears than for a shattering laughter. On the other -hand, the pessimists at the end of the century -could hardly curse even the blackest thing; for -they could hardly see it against its black and eternal -background. Nothing was bad, because everything -was bad. Life in prison was infamous—like -life anywhere else. The fires of persecution -were vile—like the stars. We perpetually find -this paradox of a contented discontent. Dr. Johnson -takes too sad a view of humanity, but he is -also too satisfied a Conservative. Rousseau takes -too rosy a view of humanity, but he causes a revolution. -Swift is angry, but a Tory. Shelley is -happy, and a rebel. Dickens, the optimist, satirizes -the Fleet, and the Fleet is gone. Gissing, -the pessimist, satirizes Suburbia, and Suburbia remains.</p> - -<p>Mr. Gissing’s error, then, about the early Dickens -period we may put thus: in calling it hard -and cruel he omits the wind of hope and humanity -that was blowing through it. It may have been -full of inhuman institutions, but it was full of -humanitarian people. And this humanitarianism -was very much the better (in my view) because it -was a rough and even rowdy humanitarianism.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span> -It was free from all the faults that cling to the -name. It was, if you will, a coarse humanitarianism. -It was a shouting, fighting, drinking philanthropy—a -noble thing. But, in any case, this -atmosphere was the atmosphere of the Revolution; -and its main idea was the idea of human equality. -I am not concerned here to defend the egalitarian -idea against the solemn and babyish attacks made -upon it by the rich and learned of to-day. I am -merely concerned to state one of its practical consequences. -One of the actual and certain consequences -of the idea that all men are equal is immediately -to produce very great men. I would say -superior men, only that the hero thinks of himself -as great, but not as superior. This has been -hidden from us of late by a foolish worship of -sinister and exceptional men, men without comradeship, -or any infectious virtue. This type of -Cæsar does exist. There is a great man who -makes every man feel small. But the real great -man is the man who makes every man feel great.</p> - -<p>The spirit of the early century produced great -men, because it believed that men were great. It -made strong men by encouraging weak men. Its -education, its public habits, its rhetoric, were all -addressed towards encouraging the greatness in -everybody. And by encouraging the greatness in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> -everybody, it naturally encouraged superlative -greatness in some. Superiority came out of the -high rapture of equality. It is precisely in this -sort of passionate unconsciousness and bewildering -community of thought that men do become more -than themselves. No man by taking thought can -add one cubit to his stature; but a man may add -many cubits to his stature by not taking thought. -The best men of the Revolution were simply common -men at their best. This is why our age can -never understand Napoleon. Because he was -something great and triumphant, we suppose that -he must have been something extraordinary, something -inhuman. Some say he was the Devil; some -say he was the Superhuman. Was he a very, very -bad man? Was he a good man with some greater -moral code? We strive in vain to invent the mysteries -behind that immortal mask of brass. The -modern world with all its subtleness will never -guess his strange secret; for his strange secret was -that he was very like other people.</p> - -<p>And almost without exception all the great men -have come out of this atmosphere of equality. -Great men may make despotisms; but democracies -make great men. The other main factory of heroes -besides a revolution is a religion. And a religion -again, is a thing which, by its nature, does not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span> -think of men as more or less valuable, but of men -as all intensely and painfully valuable, a democracy -of eternal danger. For religion all men are equal, -as all pennies are equal, because the only value -in any of them is that they bear the image of the -King. This fact has been quite insufficiently -observed in the study of religious heroes. Piety -produces intellectual greatness precisely because -piety in itself is quite indifferent to intellectual -greatness. The strength of Cromwell was that -he cared for religion. But the strength of religion -was that it did not care for Cromwell; did not care -for him, that is, any more than for anybody else. -He and his footman were equally welcomed to -warm places in the hospitality of hell. It has -often been said, very truly, that religion is the -thing that makes the ordinary man feel extraordinary; -it is an equally important truth that religion -is the thing that makes the extraordinary -man feel ordinary.</p> - -<p>Carlyle killed the heroes; there have been none -since his time. He killed the heroic (which he -sincerely loved) by forcing upon each man this -question: “Am I strong or weak?” To which -the answer from any honest man whatever (yes, -from Cæsar or Bismarck) would certainly be -“weak.” He asked for candidates for a definite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span> -aristocracy, for men who should hold themselves -consciously above their fellows. He advertised -for them, so to speak; he promised them glory; -he promised them omnipotence. They have not -appeared yet. They never will. For the real -heroes of whom he wrote had appeared out of an -ecstacy of the ordinary. I have already instanced -such a case as Cromwell. But there is no need to -go through all the great men of Carlyle. Carlyle -himself was as great as any of them; and if ever -there was a typical child of the French Revolution, -it was he. He began with the wildest hopes from -the Reform Bill, and although he soured afterwards, -he had been made and moulded by those -hopes. He was disappointed with Equality; but -Equality was not disappointed with him. Equality -is justified of all her children.</p> - -<p>But we, in the post-Carlylean period, have -become fastidious about great men. Every man -examines himself, every man examines his neighbours, -to see whether they or he quite come up -to the exact line of greatness. The answer is, -naturally, “No.” And many a man calls himself -contentedly “a minor poet” who would then have -been inspired to be a major prophet. We are hard -to please and of little faith. We can hardly believe -that there is such a thing as a great man.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span> -They could hardly believe there was such a thing -as a small one. But we are always praying that -our eyes may behold greatness, instead of praying -that our hearts may be filled with it. Thus, for -instance, the Liberal party (to which I belong) -was, in its period of exile, always saying, “O for -a Gladstone!” and such things. We were always -asking that it might be strengthened from above, -instead of ourselves strengthening it from below, -with our hope and our anger and our youth. -Every man was waiting for a leader. Every man -ought to be waiting for a chance to lead. If a -god does come upon the earth, he will descend at -the sight of the brave. Our protestations and litanies -are of no avail; our new moons and our sabbaths -are an abomination. The great man will -come when all of us are feeling great, not when -all of us are feeling small. He will ride in at some -splendid moment when we all feel that we could -do without him.</p> - -<p>We are then able to answer in some manner -the question, “Why have we no great men?” -We have no great men chiefly because we are always -looking for them. We are connoisseurs of -greatness, and connoisseurs can never be great; -we are fastidious, that is, we are small. When -Diogenes went about with a lantern looking for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span> -an honest man, I am afraid he had very little time -to be honest himself. And when anybody goes -about on his hands and knees looking for a great -man to worship, he is making sure that one man -at any rate shall not be great. Now, the error of -Diogenes is evident. The error of Diogenes lay -in the fact that he omitted to notice that every man -is both an honest man and a dishonest man. -Diogenes looked for his honest man inside every -crypt and cavern; but he never thought of looking -inside the thief. And that is where the Founder -of Christianity found the honest man; He found -him on a gibbet and promised him Paradise. Just -as Christianity looked for the honest man inside -the thief, democracy looked for the wise man -inside the fool. It encouraged the fool to be -wise. We can call this thing sometimes optimism, -sometimes equality; the nearest name for it is encouragement. -It had its exaggerations—failure to -understand original sin, notions that education -would make all men good, the childlike yet pedantic -philosophies of human perfectibility. But the -whole was full of a faith in the infinity of human -souls, which is in itself not only Christian but -orthodox; and this we have lost amid the limitations -of a pessimistic science. Christianity said -that any man could be a saint if he chose; democracy,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span> -that any man could be a citizen if he chose. -The note of the last few decades in art and ethics -has been that a man is stamped with an irrevocable -psychology, and is cramped for perpetuity in the -prison of his skull. It was a world that expected -everything of everybody. It was a world that encouraged -anybody to be anything. And in England -and literature its living expression was -Dickens.</p> - -<p>We shall consider Dickens in many other capacities, -but let us put this one first. He was the -voice in England of this humane intoxication and -expansion, this encouraging of anybody to be anything. -His best books are a carnival of liberty, -and there is more of the real spirit of the French -Revolution in “Nicholas Nickleby” than in “The -Tale of Two Cities.” His work has the great -glory of the Revolution, the bidding of every man -to be himself; it has also the revolutionary deficiency; -it seems to think that this mere emancipation -is enough. No man <em>encouraged</em> his characters -so much as Dickens. “I am an affectionate -father,” he says, “to every child of my fancy.” -He was not only an affectionate father, he was an -everindulgent father. The children of his fancy -are spoilt children. They shake the house like -heavy and shouting schoolboys; they smash the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span> -story to pieces like so much furniture. When we -moderns write stories our characters are better controlled. -But, alas! our characters are rather easier -to control. We are in no danger from the gigantic -gambols of creatures like Mantalini and Micawber. -We are in no danger of giving our readers -too much Weller or Wegg. We have not got it -to give. When we experience the ungovernable -sense of life which goes along with the old Dickens -sense of liberty, we experience the best of the -revolution. We are filled with the first of all -democratic doctrines, that all men are interesting; -Dickens tried to make some of his people appear -dull people, but he could not keep them dull. He -could not make a monotonous man. The bores in -his books are brighter than the wits in other books.</p> - -<p>I have put this position first for a defined reason. -It is useless for us to attempt to imagine -Dickens and his life unless we are able at least -to imagine this old atmosphere of a democratic -optimism—a confidence in common men. Dickens -depends upon such a comprehension in a rather -unusual manner, a manner worth explanation, or -at least remark.</p> - -<p>The disadvantage under which Dickens has -fallen, both as an artist and a moralist, is very -plain. His misfortune is that neither of the two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> -last movements in literary criticism has done him -any good. He has suffered alike from his enemies, -and from the enemies of his enemies. The facts -to which I refer are familiar. When the world -first awoke from the mere hypnotism of Dickens, -from the direct tyranny of his temperament, there -was, of course, a reaction. At the head of it came -the Realists, with their documents, like Miss Flite. -They declared that scenes and types in Dickens -were wholly impossible (in which they were perfectly -right), and on this rather paradoxical -ground objected to them as literature. They were -not “like life,” and there, they thought, was an -end of the matter. The Realist for a time prevailed. -But Realists did not enjoy their victory -(if they enjoyed anything) very long. A more -symbolic school of criticism soon arose. Men saw -that it was necessary to give a much deeper and -more delicate meaning to the expression “like -life.” Streets are not life, cities and civilizations -are not life, faces even and voices are not life -itself. Life is within, and no man hath seen it -at any time. As for our meals, and our manners, -and our daily dress, these are things exactly like -sonnets; they are random symbols of the soul. -One man tries to express himself in books, another -in boots; both probably fail. Our solid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span> -houses and square meals are in the strict sense -fiction. They are things made up to typify our -thoughts. The coat a man wears may be wholly -fictitious; the movement of his hands may be quite -unlike life.</p> - -<p>This much the intelligence of men soon perceived. -And by this much Dickens’s fame should -have greatly profited. For Dickens is “like life” -in the truer sense, in the sense that he is akin to -the living principle in us and in the universe; he is -like life, at least in this detail, that he is alive. -His art is like life, because, like life, it cares for -nothing outside itself, and goes on its way rejoicing. -Both produce monsters with a kind of carelessness, -like enormous by-products; life producing -the rhinoceros, and art Mr. Bunsby. Art indeed -copies life in not copying life, for life copies nothing. -Dickens’s art is like life because, like life, -it is irresponsible, because, like life, it is incredible.</p> - -<p>Yet the return of this realization has not greatly -profited Dickens, the return of romance has been -almost useless to this great romantic. He has -gained as little from the fall of the Realists as -from their triumph; there has been a revolution, -there has been a counter revolution, there has been -no restoration. And the reason of this brings us -back to that atmosphere of popular optimism of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> -which I spoke. And the shortest way of expressing -the more recent neglect of Dickens is to say -that for our time and taste he exaggerates the -wrong thing.</p> - -<p>Exaggeration is the definition of Art. That both -Dickens and the moderns understood Art is, in its -inmost nature, fantastic. Time brings queer revenges, -and while the Realists were yet living, the -art of Dickens was justified by Aubrey Beardsley. -But men like Aubrey Beardsley were allowed to -be fantastic, because the mood which they overstrained -and overstated was a mood which their -period understood. Dickens overstrains and overstates -a mood our period does not understand. -The truth he exaggerates is exactly this old Revolution -sense of infinite opportunity and boisterous -brotherhood. And we resent his undue sense of -it, because we ourselves have not even a due sense -of it. We feel troubled with too much where we -have too little; we wish he would keep it within -bounds. For we are all exact and scientific on the -subjects we do not care about. We all immediately -detect exaggeration in an exposition of Mormonism -or a patriotic speech from Paraguay. We all -require sobriety on the subject of the sea serpent. -But the moment we begin to believe a thing ourselves, -that moment we begin easily to overstate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> -it; and the moment our souls become serious, our -words become a little wild. And certain moderns -are thus placed towards exaggeration. They permit -any writer to emphasize doubts, for instance, -for doubts are their religion, but they permit no -man to emphasize dogmas. If a man be the mildest -Christian, they smell “cant”; but he can be a -raving windmill of pessimism, and they call it -“temperament.” If a moralist paints a wild picture -of immorality, they doubt its truth, they say -that devils are not so black as they are painted. -But if a pessimist paints a wild picture of melancholy, -they accept the whole horrible psychology, -and they never ask if devils are as blue as they are -painted.</p> - -<p>It is evident, in short, why even those who admire -exaggeration do not admire Dickens. He -is exaggerating the wrong thing. They know what -it is to feel a sadness so strange and deep that only -impossible characters can express it: they do not -know what it is to feel a joy so vital and violent -that only impossible characters can express -that. They know that the soul can be so -sad as to dream naturally of the blue faces -of the corpses of Baudelaire: they do not know -that the soul can be so cheerful as to dream -naturally of the blue face of Major Bagstock.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> -They know that there is a point of depression at -which one believes in Tintagiles: they do not know -that there is a point of exhilaration at which one -believes in Mr. Wegg. To them the impossibilities -of Dickens seem much more impossible than -they really are, because they are already attuned -to the opposite impossibilities of Maeterlinck. For -every mood there is an appropriate impossibility—a -decent and tactful impossibility—fitted to the -frame of mind. Every train of thought may end -in an ecstasy, and all roads lead to Elfland. But -few now walk far enough along the street of -Dickens to find the place where the cockney villas -grow so comic that they become poetical. People -do not know how far mere good spirits will go. -For instance, we never think (as the old folklore -did) of good spirits reaching to the spiritual -world. We see this in the complete absence from -modern, popular supernaturalism of the old popular -mirth. We hear plenty to-day of the wisdom -of the spiritual world; but we do not hear, as -our fathers did, of the folly of the spiritual -world, of the tricks of the gods, and the jokes of -the patron saints. Our popular tales tell us of a -man who is so wise that he touches the supernatural, -like Dr. Nikola; but they never tell us -(like the popular tales of the past) of a man who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span> -was so silly that he touched the supernatural, like -Bottom the Weaver. We do not understand the -dark and transcendental sympathy between fairies -and fools. We understand a devout occultism, an -evil occultism, a tragic occultism, but a farcical -occultism is beyond us. Yet a farcical occultism is -the very essence of “The Midsummer Night’s -Dream.” It is also the right and credible essence -of “The Christmas Carol.” Whether we understand -it depends upon whether we can understand -that exhilaration is not a physical accident, but a -mystical fact; that exhilaration can be infinite, like -sorrow; that a joke can be so big that it breaks -the roof of the stars. By simply going on being -absurd, a thing can become godlike; there is but -one step from the ridiculous to the sublime.</p> - -<p>Dickens was great because he was immoderately -possessed with all this; if we are to understand -him at all we must also be moderately possessed -with it. We must understand this old limitless -hilarity and human confidence, at least enough to -be able to endure it when it is pushed a great deal -too far. For Dickens did push it too far; he did -push the hilarity to the point of incredible character-drawing; -he did push the human confidence -to the point of an unconvincing sentimentalism. -You can trace, if you will, the revolutionary joy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span> -till it reaches the incredible Sapsea epitaph; you -can trace the revolutionary hope till it reaches the -repentance of Dombey. There is plenty to carp -at in this man if you are inclined to carp; you may -easily find him vulgar if you cannot see that he -is divine; and if you cannot laugh with Dickens, -undoubtedly you can laugh at him.</p> - -<p>I believe myself that this braver world of his -will certainly return; for I believe that it is bound -up with realities, like morning and the spring. -But for those who beyond remedy regard it as an -error, I put this appeal before any other observations -on Dickens. First let us sympathize, if only -for an instant, with the hopes of the Dickens -period, with that cheerful trouble of change. If -democracy has disappointed you, do not think of -it as a burst bubble, but at least as a broken heart, -an old love-affair. Do not sneer at the time when -the creed of humanity was on its honeymoon; treat -it with the dreadful reverence that is due to youth. -For you, perhaps, a drearier philosophy has covered -and eclipsed the earth. The fierce poet of -the Middle Ages wrote, “Abandon hope all ye -who enter here” over the gates of the lower world. -The emancipated poets of to-day have written it -over the gates of this world. But if we are to -understand the story which follows, we must erase<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span> -that apocalyptic writing, if only for an hour. We -must recreate the faith of our fathers, if only as -an artistic atmosphere. If, then, you are a pessimist, -in reading this story, forego for a little the -pleasures of pessimism. Dream for one mad moment -that the grass is green. Unlearn that sinister -learning that you think so clear; deny that deadly -knowledge that you think you know. Surrender -the very flower of your culture; give up the very -jewel of your pride; abandon hopelessness, all ye -who enter here.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_24">CHAPTER II<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE BOYHOOD OF DICKENS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Charles Dickens</span> was born at Landport, in -Portsea, on February 7, 1812. His father was -a clerk in the Navy Pay-office, and was temporarily -on duty in the neighbourhood. Very soon -after the birth of Charles Dickens, however, the -family moved for a short period to Norfolk Street, -Bloomsbury, and then for a long period to Chatham, -which thus became the real home, and for all -serious purposes, the native place of Dickens. The -whole story of his life moves like a Canterbury -pilgrimage along the great roads of Kent.</p> - -<p>John Dickens, his father, was, as stated, a clerk; -but such mere terms of trade tell us little of the -tone or status of a family. Browning’s father (to -take an instance at random) would also be described -as a clerk and a man of the middle class; -but the Browning family and the Dickens family -have the colour of two different civilizations. The -difference cannot be conveyed merely by saying -that Browning stood many strata above Dickens. -It must also be conveyed that Browning belonged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> -to that section of the middle class which tends (in -the small social sense) to rise; the Dickenses to -that section which tends in the same sense to fall. -If Browning had not been a poet, he would have -been a better clerk than his father, and his son -probably a better and richer clerk than he. But -if they had not been lifted in the air by the enormous -accident of a man of genius, the Dickenses, -I fancy would have appeared in poorer and poorer -places, as inventory clerks, as caretakers, as addressers -of envelopes, until they melted into the -masses of the poor.</p> - -<p>Yet at the time of Dickens’s birth and childhood -this weakness in their worldly destiny was in no -way apparent; especially it was not apparent to -the little Charles himself. He was born and grew -up in a paradise of small prosperity. He fell into -the family, so to speak, during one of its comfortable -periods, and he never in those early days -thought of himself as anything but as a comfortable -middle-class child, the son of a comfortable -middle-class man. The father whom he found -provided for him, was one from whom comfort -drew forth his most pleasant and reassuring qualities, -though not perhaps his most interesting and -peculiar. John Dickens seemed, most probably, -a hearty and kindly character, a little florid of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span> -speech, a little careless of duty in some details, -notably in the detail of education. His neglect -of his son’s mental training in later and more trying -times was a piece of unconscious selfishness -which remained a little acrimoniously in his son’s -mind through life. But even in this earlier and -easier period what records there are of John Dickens -give out the air of a somewhat idle and irresponsible -fatherhood. He exhibited towards his -son that contradiction in conduct which is always -shown by the too thoughtless parent to the too -thoughtful child. He contrived at once to neglect -his mind, and also to over-stimulate it.</p> - -<p>There are many recorded tales and traits of the -author’s infancy, but one small fact seems to me -more than any other to strike the note and give the -key to his whole strange character. His father -found it more amusing to be an audience than to -be an instructor; and instead of giving the child -intellectual pleasure, called upon him, almost before -he was out of petticoats, to provide it. Some -of the earliest glimpses we have of Charles Dickens -show him to us perched on some chair or table -singing comic songs in an atmosphere of perpetual -applause. So, almost as soon as he can toddle, he -steps into the glare of the footlights. He never -stepped out of it until he died. He was a good<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> -man, as men go in this bewildering world of ours, -brave, transparent, tender-hearted, scrupulously independent -and honourable; he was not a man -whose weaknesses should be spoken of without -some delicacy and doubt. But there did mingle -with his merits all his life this theatrical quality, -this atmosphere of being shown off—a sort of -hilarious self-consciousness. His literary life was -a triumphal procession; he died drunken with -glory. And behind all this nine years’ wonder that -filled the world, behind his gigantic tours and his -ten thousand editions, the crowded lectures and the -crashing brass, behind all the thing we really see -is the flushed face of a little boy singing music-hall -songs to a circle of aunts and uncles. And this -precocious pleasure explains much, too, in the -moral way. Dickens had all his life the faults of -the little boy who is kept up too late at night. -The boy in such a case exhibits a psychological -paradox; he is a little too irritable because he is a -little too happy. Dickens was always a little too -irritable because he was a little too happy. Like -the over-wrought child in society, he was splendidly -sociable, and yet suddenly quarrelsome. In -all the practical relations of his life he was what -the child is in the last hours of an evening party, -genuinely delighted, genuinely delightful, genuinely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span> -affectionate and happy, and yet in some -strange way fundamentally exasperated and dangerously -close to tears.</p> - -<p>There was another touch about the boy which -made his case more peculiar, and perhaps his intelligence -more fervid; the touch of ill-health. -It could not be called more than a touch, for he -suffered from no formidable malady and could -always through life endure a great degree of -exertion even if it was only the exertion of walking -violently all night. Still the streak of sickness -was sufficient to take him out of the common unconscious -life of the community of boys; and for -good or evil that withdrawal is always a matter of -deadly importance to the mind. He was thrown -back perpetually upon the pleasures of the intelligence, -and these began to burn in his head like -a pent and painful furnace. In his own unvaryingly -vivid way he has described how he crawled -up into an unconsidered garret, and there found, in -a dusty heap, the undying literature of England. -The books he mentions chiefly are “Humphrey -Clinker” and “Tom Jones.” When he opened -those two books in the garret he caught hold of the -only past with which he is at all connected, the -great comic writers of England of whom he was -destined to be the last.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span></p> - -<p>It must be remembered (as I have suggested -before) that there was something about the county -in which he lived, and the great roads along which -he travelled that sympathized with and stimulated -his pleasure in this old picaresque literature. The -groups that came along the road, that passed -through his town and out of it, were of the motley -laughable type that tumbled into ditches or beat -down the doors of taverns under the escort of -Smollett and Fielding. In our time the main roads -of Kent have upon them very often a perpetual -procession of tramps and tinkers unknown on the -quiet hills of Sussex; and it may have been so also -in Dickens’s boyhood. In his neighbourhood were -definite memorials of yet older and yet greater -English comedy. From the height of Gad’s-hill at -which he stared unceasingly there looked down -upon him the monstrous ghost of Falstaff, Falstaff -who might well have been the spiritual father of -all Dickens’s adorable knaves, Falstaff the great -mountain of English laughter and English sentimentalism, -the great, healthy, humane English -humbug, not to be matched among the nations.</p> - -<p>At this eminence of Gad’s-hill Dickens used to -stare even as a boy with the steady purpose of -some day making it his own. It is characteristic -of the consistency which underlies the superficially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span> -erratic career of Dickens that he actually did live -to make it his own. The truth is that he was a -precocious child, precocious not only on the more -poetical but on the more prosaic side of life. He -was ambitious as well as enthusiastic. No one can -ever know what visions they were that crowded -into the head of the clever little brat as he ran -about the streets of Chatham or stood glowering -at Gad’s-hill. But I think that quite mundane -visions had a very considerable share in the matter. -He longed to go to school (a strange wish), to go -to college, to make a name, nor did he merely -aspire to these things; the great number of them -he also expected. He regarded himself as a child -of good position just about to enter on a life of -good luck. He thought his home and family a -very good spring-board or jumping-off place from -which to fling himself to the positions which he -desired to reach. And almost as he was about -to spring the whole structure broke under him, -and he and all that belonged to him disappeared -into a darkness far below.</p> - -<p>Everything had been struck down as with the -finality of a thunder-bolt. His lordly father was -a bankrupt, and in the Marshalsea prison. His -mother was in a mean home in the north of London, -wildly proclaiming herself the principal of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span> -a girl’s school, a girl’s school to which nobody -would go. And he himself, the conqueror of the -world and the prospective purchaser of Gads-hill, -passed some distracted and bewildering days in -pawning the household necessities to Fagins in foul -shops, and then found himself somehow or other -one of a row of ragged boys in a great dreary -factory, pasting the same kinds of labels on to the -same kinds of blacking bottles from morning till -night.</p> - -<p>Although it seemed sudden enough to him, the -disintegration had, as a matter of fact, of course, -been going on for a long time. He had only heard -from his father dark and melodramatic allusions -to a “deed” which, from the way it was mentioned, -might have been a claim to the crown or -a compact with the devil, but which was in truth -an unsuccessful documentary attempt on the part -of John Dickens to come to a composition with -his creditors. And now, in the lurid light of his -sunset, the character of John Dickens began to -take on those purple colours which have made -him under another name absurd and immortal. It -required a tragedy to bring out this man’s comedy. -So long as John Dickens was in easy circumstances, -he seemed only an easy man, a little long -and luxuriant in his phrases, a little careless in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span> -his business routine. He seemed only a wordy -man, who lived on bread and beef like his neighbours; -but as bread and beef were successively -taken away from him, it was discovered that he -lived on words. For him to be involved in a -calamity only meant to be cast for the first part -in a tragedy. For him blank ruin was only a -subject for blank verse. Henceforth we feel -scarcely inclined to call him John Dickens at all; -we feel inclined to call him by the name through -which his son celebrated this preposterous and sublime -victory of the human spirit over circumstances. -Dickens, in “David Copperfield,” called -him Wilkins Micawber. In his personal correspondence -he called him the Prodigal Father.</p> - -<p>Young Charles had been hurriedly flung into the -factory by the more or less careless good-nature -of James Lamert, a relation of his mother’s; it -was a blacking factory, supposed to be run as a -rival to Warren’s by another and “original” -Warren, both practically conducted by another of -the Lamerts. It was situated near Hungerford -Market. Dickens worked there drearily, like one -stunned with disappointment. To a child excessively -intellectualized, and at this time, I fear, -excessively egotistical, the coarseness of the whole -thing—the work, the rooms, the boys, the language—was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span> -a sort of bestial nightmare. Not only -did he scarcely speak of it then, but he scarcely -spoke of it afterwards. Years later, in the fulness -of his fame, he heard from Forster that a man -had spoken of knowing him. On hearing the -name, he somewhat curtly acknowledged it, and -spoke of having seen the man once. Forster, in -his innocence, answered that the man said he had -seen Dickens many times in a factory by Hungerford -Market. Dickens was suddenly struck with -a long and extraordinary silence. Then he invited -Forster, as his best friend, to a particular interview, -and, with every appearance of difficulty and -distress, told him the whole story for the first and -the last time. A long while after that he told the -world some part of the matter in the account of -Murdstone and Grinby’s in “David Copperfield.” -He never spoke of the whole experience except -once or twice, and he never spoke of it otherwise -than as a man might speak of hell.</p> - -<p>It need not be suggested, I think, that this -agony in the child was exaggerated by the man. -It is true that he was not incapable of the vice of -exaggeration, if it be a vice. There was about -him much vanity and a certain virulence in his -version of many things. Upon the whole, indeed, -it would hardly be too much to say that he would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> -have exaggerated any sorrow he talked about. -But this was a sorrow with a very strange position -in Dickens’s life; it was a sorrow he did not talk -about. Upon this particular dark spot he kept a -sort of deadly silence for twenty years. An accident -revealed part of the truth to the dearest -of all his friends. He then told the whole truth -to the dearest of all his friends. He never told -anybody else. I do not think that this arose from -any social sense of disgrace; if he had it slightly -at the time, he was far too self-satisfied a man to -have taken it seriously in after life. I really think -that his pain at this time was so real and ugly that -the thought of it filled him with that sort of -impersonal but unbearable shame with which we -are filled, for instance, by the notion of physical -torture, of something that humiliates humanity. -He felt that such agony was something obscene. -Moreover there are two other good reasons for -thinking that his sense of hopelessness was very -genuine. First of all, this starless outlook is common -in the calamities of boyhood. The bitterness -of boyish distresses does not lie in the fact that -they are large; it lies in the fact that we do not -know that they are small. About any early disaster -there is a dreadful finality; a lost child can -suffer like a lost soul.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span></p> - -<p>It is currently said that hope goes with youth, -and lends to youth its wings of a butterfly; but -I fancy that hope is the last gift given to man, and -the only gift not given to youth. Youth is pre-eminently -the period in which a man can be lyric, -fanatical, poetic; but youth is the period in which -a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode -is the end of the world. But the power of hoping -through everything, the knowledge that the soul -survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes -to the middle-aged; God has kept that good wine -until now. It is from the backs of the elderly -gentlemen that the wings of the butterfly should -burst. There is nothing that so much mystifies -the young as the consistent frivolity of the old. -They have discovered their indestructibility. They -are in their second and clearer childhood, and -there is a meaning in the merriment of their eyes. -They have seen the end of the End of the World.</p> - -<p>First, then, the desolate finality of Dickens’s -childish mood makes me think it was a real one. -And there is another thing to be remembered. -Dickens was not a saintly child after the style -of Little Dorrit or Little Nell. He had not, -at this time at any rate, set his heart wholly upon -higher things, even upon things such as personal -tenderness or loyalty. He had been, and was,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span> -unless I am very much mistaken, sincerely, stubbornly, -bitterly ambitious. He had, I fancy, a -fairly clear idea previous to the downfall of all -his family’s hopes of what he wanted to do in -the world, and of the mark that he meant to make -there. In no dishonourable sense, but still in a -definite sense he might, in early life, be called -worldly; and the children of this world are in their -generation infinitely more sensitive than the children -of light. A saint after repentance will forgive -himself for a sin; a man about town will never -forgive himself for a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">faux pas</i>. There are ways -of getting absolved for murder; there are no ways -of getting absolved for upsetting the soup. This -thin-skinned quality in all very mundane people -is a thing too little remembered; and it must not -be wholly forgotten in connection with a clever, -restless lad who dreamed of a destiny. That part -of his distress which concerned himself and his -social standing was among the other parts of it -the least noble; but perhaps it was the most painful. -For pride is not only (as the modern world -fails to understand) a sin to be condemned; it is -also (as it understands even less) a weakness to -be very much commiserated. A very vitalizing -touch is given in one of his own reminiscences. -His most unendurable moment did not come in any<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span> -bullying in the factory or any famine in the streets. -It came when he went to see his sister Fanny -take a prize at the Royal Academy of Music. “I -could not bear to think of myself—beyond the -reach of all such honourable emulation and success. -The tears ran down my face. I felt as if my heart -were rent. I prayed when I went to bed that night -to be lifted out of the humiliation and neglect in -which I was. I never had suffered so much before. -There was no envy in this.” I do not think that -there was, though the poor little wretch could -hardly have been blamed if there had been. There -was only a furious sense of frustration; a spirit -like a wild beast in a cage. It was only a small -matter in the external and obvious sense; it was -only Dickens prevented from being Dickens.</p> - -<p>If we put these facts together, that the tragedy -seemed final, and that the tragedy was concerned -with the supersensitive matters of the ego and -the gentleman, I think we can imagine a pretty -genuine case of internal depression. And when -we add to the case of the internal depression the -case of the external oppression, the case of the -material circumstances by which he was surrounded, -we have reached a sort of midnight. All -day he worked on insufficient food at a factory. -It is sufficient to say that it afterwards appeared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span> -in his works as Murdstone and Grinby’s. At -night he returned disconsolately to a lodging-house -for such lads, kept by an old lady. It is sufficient -to say that she appeared afterwards as Mrs. Pipchin. -Once a week only he saw anybody for whom -he cared a straw; that was when he went to the -Marshalsea prison, and that gave his juvenile -pride, half manly and half snobbish, bitter annoyance -of another kind. Add to this, finally, that -physically he was always very weak and never -very well. Once he was struck down in the middle -of his work with sudden bodily pain. The boy -who worked next to him, a coarse and heavy lad -named Bob Fagin, who had often attacked Dickens -on the not unreasonable ground of his being -a “gentleman,” suddenly showed that enduring -sanity of compassion which Dickens was destined -to show so often in the characters of the common -and unclean. Fagin made a bed for his sick companion -out of the straw in the workroom, and -filled empty blacking bottles with hot water all -day. When the evening came, and Dickens was -somewhat recovered, Bob Fagin insisted on escorting -the boy home to his father. The situation -was as poignant as a sort of tragic farce. -Fagin in his wooden-headed chivalry would have -died in order to take Dickens to his family; Dickens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span> -in his bitter gentility would have died rather -than let Fagin know that his family were in the -Marshalsea. So these two young idiots tramped -the tedious streets, both stubborn, both suffering -for an idea. The advantage certainly was with -Fagin, who was suffering for a Christian compassion, -while Dickens was suffering for a pagan -pride. At last Dickens flung off his friend with -desperate farewell and thanks, and dashed up the -steps of a strange house on the Surrey side. He -knocked and rang as Bob Fagin, his benefactor -and his incubus, disappeared round the corner. -And when the servant came to open the door, he -asked, apparently with gravity, whether Mr. Robert -Fagin lived there. It is a strange touch. The -immortal Dickens woke in him for an instant in -that last wild joke of that weary evening. Next -morning, however, he was again well enough to -make himself ill again, and the wheels of the -great factory went on. They manufactured a -number of bottles of Warren’s Blacking, and in -the course of the process they manufactured also -the greatest optimist of the nineteenth century.</p> - -<p>This boy who dropped down groaning at his -work, who was hungry four or five times a week, -whose best feelings and worst feelings were alike -flayed alive, was the man on whom two generations<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> -of comfortable critics have visited the complaint -that his view of life was too rosy to be -anything but unreal. Afterwards, and in its -proper place, I shall speak of what is called the -optimism of Dickens, and of whether it was really -too cheerful or too smooth. But this boyhood -of his may be recorded now as a mere fact. If -he was too happy, this was where he learnt it. -If his school of thought was a vulgar optimism, -this is where he went to school. If he learnt to -whitewash the universe, it was in a blacking factory -that he learnt it.</p> - -<p>As a fact, there is no shred of evidence to show -that those who have had sad experiences tend to -have a sad philosophy. There are numberless -points upon which Dickens is spiritually at one -with the poor, that is, with the great mass of mankind. -But there is no point in which he is more -perfectly at one with them than in showing that -there is no kind of connection between a man being -unhappy and a man being pessimistic. Sorrow and -pessimism are indeed, in a sense, opposite things, -since sorrow is founded on the value of something, -and pessimism upon the value of nothing. And -in practice we find that those poets or political -leaders who come from the people, and whose experiences -have really been searching and cruel, are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span> -the most sanguine people in the world. These -men out of the old agony are always optimists; -they are sometimes offensive optimists. A man -like Robert Burns, whose father (like Dickens’s -father) goes bankrupt, whose whole life is a struggle -against miserable external powers and internal -weaknesses yet more miserable—a man whose life -begins grey and ends black—Burns does not -merely sing about the goodness of life, he positively -rants and cants about it. Rousseau, whom -all his friends and acquaintances treated almost -as badly as he treated them—Rousseau does not -grow merely eloquent, he grows gushing and sentimental, -about the inherent goodness of human -nature. Charles Dickens, who was most miserable -at the receptive age when most people are -most happy, is afterwards happy when all men -weep. Circumstances break men’s bones; it has -never been shown that they break men’s optimism. -These great popular leaders do all kinds of desperate -things under the immediate scourge of -tragedy. They become drunkards; they become -demagogues; they become morpho-maniacs. They -never become pessimists. Most unquestionably -there are ragged and unhappy men whom we could -easily understand being pessimists. But as a matter -of fact they are not pessimists. Most unquestionably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span> -there are whole dim hordes of humanity -whom we should promptly pardon if they cursed -God. But they don’t. The pessimists are aristocrats -like Byron; the men who curse God are -aristocrats like Swinburne. But when those who -starve and suffer speak for a moment, they do not -profess merely an optimism, they profess a cheap -optimism; they are too poor to afford a dear one. -They cannot indulge in any detailed or merely -logical defence of life; that would be to delay -the enjoyment of it. These higher optimists, of -whom Dickens was one, do not approve of the -universe; they do not even admire the universe; -they fall in love with it. They embrace life too -closely to criticize or even to see it. Existence to -such men has the wild beauty of a woman, and -those love her with most intensity who love her -with least cause.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_43">CHAPTER III<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE YOUTH OF DICKENS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">There</span> are popular phrases so picturesque that -even when they are intentionally funny they are -unintentionally poetical. I remember, to take one -instance out of many, hearing a heated Secularist -in Hyde Park apply to some parson or other the -exquisite expression, “a sky-pilot.” Subsequent -inquiry has taught me that the term is intended -to be comic and even contemptuous; but in that -first freshness of it I went home repeating it to -myself like a new poem. Few of the pious legends -have conceived so strange and yet celestial a picture -as this of the pilot in the sky, leaning on his -helm above the empty heavens, and carrying his -cargo of souls higher than the loneliest cloud. -The phrase is like a lyric of Shelley. Or, to take -another instance from another language, the -French have an incomparable idiom for a boy -playing truant: “Il fait l’école buissonnière”—he -goes to the bushy school, or the school among the -bushes. How admirably this accidental expression, -“the bushy school” (not to be lightly confounded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span> -with the Art School at Bushey)—how -admirably this “bushy school” expresses half the -modern notions of a more natural education! The -two words express the whole poetry of Wordsworth, -the whole philosophy of Thoreau, and are -quite as good literature as either.</p> - -<p>Now, among a million of such scraps of inspired -slang there is one which describes a certain -side of Dickens better than pages of explanation. -The phrase, appropriately enough, occurs at least -once in his works, and that on a fitting occasion. -When Job Trotter is sent by Sam on a wild chase -after Mr. Perker, the solicitor, Mr. Perker’s clerk -condoles with Job upon the lateness of the hour, -and the fact that all habitable places are shut up. -“My friend,” says Mr. Perker’s clerk, “you’ve -got the key of the street.” Mr. Perker’s clerk, -who was a flippant and scornful young man, may -perhaps be pardoned if he used this expression in -a flippant and scornful sense; but let us hope that -Dickens did not. Let us hope that Dickens saw -the strange, yet satisfying, imaginative justice of -the words; for Dickens himself had, in the most -sacred and serious sense of the term, the key of the -street. When we shut out anything, we are shut -out of that thing. When we shut out the street, -we are shut out of the street. Few of us understand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span> -the street. Even when we step into it, we -step into it doubtfully, as into a house or room of -strangers. Few of us see through the shining -riddle of the street, the strange folk that belong -to the street only—the street-walker or the street -arab, the nomads who, generation after generation, -have kept their ancient secrets in the full -blaze of the sun. Of the street at night many of -us know even less. The street at night is a great -house locked up. But Dickens had, if ever man -had, the key of the street. His earth was the -stones of the street; his stars were the lamps of -the street; his hero was the man in the street. He -could open the inmost door of his house—the door -that leads into that secret passage which is lined -with houses and roofed with stars.</p> - -<p>This silent transformation into a citizen of the -street took place during those dark days of boyhood, -when Dickens was drudging at the factory. -Whenever he had done drudging, he had no other -resource but drifting, and he drifted over half -London. He was a dreamy child, thinking mostly -of his own dreary prospects. Yet he saw and -remembered much of the streets and squares he -passed. Indeed, as a matter of fact, he went the -right way to work unconsciously to do so. He -did not go in for “observation,” a priggish habit;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span> -he did not look at Charing Cross to improve his -mind or count the lamp-posts in Holborn to practise -his arithmetic. But unconsciously he made -all these places the scenes of the monstrous drama -in his miserable little soul. He walked in darkness -under the lamps of Holborn, and was crucified -at Charing Cross. So for him ever afterwards -these places had the beauty that only belongs -to battlefields. For our memory never fixes -the facts which we have merely observed. The -only way to remember a place for ever is to live -in the place for an hour; and the only way to live -in the place for an hour is to forget the place for -an hour. The undying scenes we can all see if -we shut our eyes are not the scenes that we have -stared at under the direction of guide-books; the -scenes we see are the scenes at which we did not -look at all—the scenes in which we walked when -we were thinking about something else—about a -sin, or a love affair, or some childish sorrow. We -can see the background now because we did not -see it then. So Dickens did not stamp these places -on his mind; he stamped his mind on these places. -For him ever afterwards these streets were mortally -romantic; they were dipped in the purple -dyes of youth and its tragedy, and rich with irrevocable -sunsets.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span></p> - -<p>Herein is the whole secret of that eerie realism -with which Dickens could always vitalize some -dark or dull corner of London. There are details -in the Dickens descriptions—a window, or a railing, -or the keyhole of a door—which he endows -with demoniac life. The things seem more actual -than things really are. Indeed, that degree of -realism does not exist in reality: it is the unbearable -realism of a dream. And this kind of realism -can only be gained by walking dreamily in a -place; it cannot be gained by walking observantly. -Dickens himself has given a perfect instance of -how these nightmare minutiæ grew upon him in -his trance of abstraction. He mentions among the -coffee-shops into which he crept in those wretched -days “one in St. Martin’s Lane, of which I only -recollect that it stood near the church, and that -in the door there was an oval glass plate with -‘COFFEE ROOM’ painted on it, addressed -towards the street. If I ever find myself in a very -different kind of coffee-room now, but where there -is such an inscription on glass, and read it backwards -on the wrong side, MOOR EEFFOC (as -I often used to do then in a dismal reverie), a -shock goes through my blood.” That wild word, -“Moor Eeffoc,” is the motto of all effective realism! -it is the masterpiece of the good realistic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span> -principle—the principle that the most fantastic -thing of all is often the precise fact. And that -elvish kind of realism Dickens adopted everywhere. -His world was alive with inanimate objects. -The date on the door danced over Mr. -Grewgius, the knocker grinned at Mr. Scrooge, -the Roman on the ceiling pointed down at Mr. -Tulkinghorn, the elderly armchair leered at Tom -Smart—these are all <em>moor eeffocish</em> things. A -man sees them because he does not look at them.</p> - -<p>And so the little Dickens Dickensized London. -He prepared the way for all his personages. Into -whatever cranny of our city his characters might -crawl, Dickens had been there before them. However -wild were the events he narrated as outside -him, they could not be wilder than the things that -had gone on within. However queer a character -of Dickens might be, he could hardly be queerer -than Dickens was. The whole secret of his after-writings -is sealed up in those silent years of which -no written word remains. Those years did him -harm perhaps, as his biographer, Forster, has -thoughtfully suggested, by sharpening a certain -fierce individualism in him which once or twice -during his genial life flashed like a half-hidden -knife. He was always generous; but things had -gone too hardly with him for him to be always<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span> -easy-going. He was always kind-hearted; he was -not always good-humoured. Those years may -also, in their strange mixture of morbidity and -reality, have increased in him his tendency to exaggeration. -But we can scarcely lament this in -a literary sense; exaggeration is almost the definition -of art—and it is entirely the definition of -Dickens’s art. Those years may have given him -many moral and mental wounds, from which he -never recovered. But they gave him the key of -the street.</p> - -<p>There is a weird contradiction in the soul of -the born optimist. He can be happy and unhappy -at the same time. With Dickens the practical -depression of his life at this time did nothing to -prevent him from laying up those hilarious memories -of which all his books are made. No doubt -he was genuinely unhappy in the poor place where -his mother kept school. Nevertheless it was there -that he noticed the unfathomable quaintness of the -little servant whom he made into the Marchioness. -No doubt he was comfortless enough at the boarding-house -of Mrs. Roylance; but he perceived -with a dreadful joy that Mrs. Roylance’s name -was Pipchin. There seems to be no incompatibility -between taking in tragedy and giving out -comedy; they are able to run parallel in the same<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span> -personality. One incident which he described in -his unfinished “autobiography,” and which he -afterwards transferred almost verbatim to David -Copperfield, was peculiarly rich and impressive. -It was the inauguration of a petition to the King -for a bounty, drawn up by a committee of the -prisoners in the Marshalsea, a committee of which -Dickens’s father was the president, no doubt in -virtue of his oratory, and also the scribe, no doubt -in virtue of his genuine love of literary flights.</p> - -<p>“As many of the principal officers of this body -as could be got into a small room without filling -it up, supported him in front of the petition; and -my old friend, Captain Porter (who had washed -himself to do honour to so solemn an occasion), -stationed himself close to it, to read it to all who -were unacquainted with its contents. The door -was then thrown open, and they began to come in -in a long file; several waiting on the landing outside, -while one entered, affixed his signature, and -went out. To everybody in succession Captain -Porter said, ‘Would you like to hear it read’? -If he weakly showed the least disposition to hear -it, Captain Porter in a loud, sonorous voice gave -him every word of it. I remember a certain -luscious roll he gave to such words as ‘Majesty—Gracious -Majesty—Your Gracious Majesty’s unfortunate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span> -subjects—Your Majesty’s well-known -munificence,’ as if the words were something real -in his mouth and delicious to taste: my poor father -meanwhile listening with a little of an author’s -vanity and contemplating (not severely) the spike -on the opposite wall. Whatever was comical or -pathetic in this scene, I sincerely believe I perceived -in my corner, whether I demonstrated it -or not, quite as well as I should perceive it now. -I made out my own little character and story for -every man who put his name to the sheet of -paper.”</p> - -<p>Here we see very plainly that Dickens did not -merely look back in after days and see that these -humours had been delightful. He was delighted -at the same moment that he was desperate. The -two opposite things existed in him simultaneously, -and each in its full strength. His soul was not a -mixed colour like grey and purple, caused by no -component colour being quite itself. His soul was -like a shot silk of black and crimson, a shot silk of -misery and joy.</p> - -<p>Seen from the outside, his little pleasures and -extravagances seem more pathetic than his grief. -Once the solemn little figure went into a public-house -in Parliament Street, and addressed the man -behind the bar in the following terms—“What is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span> -your very best—the VERY <em>best</em> ale a glass?” -The man replied, “Twopence.” “Then,” said -the infant, “just draw me a glass of that, if you -please, with a good head to it.” “The landlord,” -says Dickens, in telling the story, “looked at me -in return over the bar from head to foot with a -strange smile on his face; instead of drawing the -beer looked round the screen and said something -to his wife, who came out from behind it with her -work in her hand and joined him in surveying me.... -They asked me a good many questions as to -what my name was, how old I was, where I lived, -how I was employed, etc., etc. To all of which, -that I might commit nobody, I invented appropriate -answers. They served me with the ale, though -I suspect it was not the strongest on the premises; -and the landlord’s wife, opening the little half-door, -and bending down, gave me a kiss.” Here -he touches that other side of common life which -he was chiefly to champion; he was to show that -there is no ale like the ale of a poor man’s festival, -and no pleasures like the pleasures of the poor. -At other places of refreshment he was yet more -majestic. “I remember,” he says, “tucking my -own bread (which I had brought from home in the -morning) under my arm, wrapt up in a piece of -paper like a book, and going into the best dining-room<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span> -in Johnson’s Alamode Beef House in Clare -Court, Drury Lane, and magnificently ordering a -small plate of <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">à-la-mode</i> beef to eat with it. What -the waiter thought of such a strange little apparition -coming in all alone I don’t know; but I can -see him now staring at me as I ate my dinner, and -bringing up the other waiter to look. I gave him -a halfpenny, and I wish, now, that he hadn’t -taken it.”</p> - -<p>For the boy individually the prospect seemed -to be growing drearier and drearier. This phrase -indeed hardly expresses the fact; for, as he felt it, -it was not so much a run of worsening luck as the -closing in of a certain and quiet calamity like the -coming on of twilight and dark. He felt that he -would die and be buried in blacking. Through -all this he does not seem to have said much to his -parents of his distress. They who were in prison -had certainly a much jollier time than he who was -free. But of all the strange ways in which the -human being proves that he is not a rational being, -whatever else he is, no case is so mysterious and -unaccountable as the secrecy of childhood. We -learn of the cruelty of some school or child-factory -from journalists; we learn it from inspectors, we -learn it from doctors, we learn it even from shame-stricken -schoolmasters and repentant sweaters; but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span> -we never learn it from the children; we never -learn it from the victims. It would seem as if a -living creature had to be taught, like an art of -culture, the art of crying out when it is hurt. It -would seem as if patience were the natural thing; -it would seem as if impatience were an accomplishment -like whist. However this may be, it is wholly -certain that Dickens might have drudged and died -drudging, and buried the unborn Pickwick, but -for an external accident.</p> - -<p>He was, as has been said, in the habit of visiting -his father at the Marshalsea every week. The -talks between the two must have been a comedy, -at once more cruel and more delicate than Dickens -ever described. Meredith might picture the comparison -between the child whose troubles were so -childish, but who felt them like a damned spirit, -and the middle-aged man whose trouble was final -ruin, and who felt it no more than a baby. Once, -it would appear, the boy broke down altogether—perhaps -under the unbearable buoyancy of his oratorical -papa—and implored to be freed from the -factory—implored it, I fear, with a precocious and -almost horrible eloquence. The old optimist was -astounded—too much astounded to do anything in -particular. Whether the incident had really anything -to do with what followed cannot be decided,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span> -but ostensibly it had not. Ostensibly the cause of -Charles’s ultimate liberation was a quarrel between -his father and Lamert, the head of the factory. -Dickens the elder (who had at last left the Marshalsea) -could no doubt conduct a quarrel with the -magnificence of Micawber; the result of this talent, -at any rate, was to leave Mr. Lamert in a towering -rage. He had a stormy interview with Charles, -in which he tried to be good-tempered to the boy, -but could hardly master his tongue about the boy’s -father. Finally he told him he must go, and with -every observance the little creature was solemnly -expelled from hell.</p> - -<p>His mother, with a touch of strange harshness, -was for patching up the quarrel and sending him -back. Perhaps, with the fierce feminine responsibility, -she felt that the first necessity was to keep -the family out of debt. But old John Dickens put -his foot down here—put his foot down with that -ringing but very rare decision with which (once in -ten years, and often on some trivial matter) the -weakest man will overwhelm the strongest woman. -The boy was miserable; the boy was clever; the -boy should go to school. The boy went to school; -he went to the Wellington House Academy, Mornington -Place. It was an odd experience for any -one to go from the world to a school, instead of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> -going from school to the world. Dickens, we -may say, had his boyhood after his youth. He -had seen life at its coarsest before he began his -training for it, and knew the worst words in the -English language probably before the best. This -odd chronology, it will be remembered, he retained -in his semi-autobiographical account of the adventures -of David Copperfield, who went into the -business of Murdstone and Grinby’s before he -went to the school kept by Dr. Strong. David -Copperfield, also, went to be carefully prepared -for a world that he had seen already. Outside -David Copperfield, the records of Dickens at this -time reduce themselves to a few glimpses provided -by accidental companions of his schooldays, -and little can be deduced from them about his -personality beyond a general impression of sharpness -and, perhaps, of bravado, of bright eyes and -bright speeches. Probably the young creature was -recuperating himself for his misfortunes, was making -the most of his liberty, was flapping the wings -of that wild spirit that had just not been broken. -We hear of things that sound suddenly juvenile -after his maturer troubles, of a secret language -sounding like mere gibberish, and of a small theatre, -with paint and red fire, such as that which -Stevenson loved. It was not an accident that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span> -Dickens and Stevenson loved it. It is a stage unsuited -for psychological realism; the cardboard -characters cannot analyze each other with any effect. -But it is a stage almost divinely suited for -making surroundings, for making that situation -and background which belong peculiarly to romance. -A toy theatre, in fact, is the opposite of -private theatricals. In the latter you can do anything -with the people if you do not ask much from -the scenery; in the former you can do anything in -scenery if you do not ask much from the people. -In a toy theatre you could hardly manage a modern -dialogue on marriage, but the Day of Judgment -would be quite easy.</p> - -<p>After leaving school, Dickens found employment -as a clerk to Mr. Blackmore, a solicitor, as -one of those inconspicuous under-clerks whom he -afterwards turned to many grotesque uses. Here, -no doubt, he met Lowten and Swiveller, Chuckster -and Wobbler, in so far as such sacred creatures -ever had embodiments on this lower earth. But -it is typical of him that he had no fancy at all to -remain a solicitor’s clerk. The resolution to rise -which had glowed in him even as a dawdling boy, -when he gazed at Gad’s-hill, which had been -darkened but not quite destroyed by his fall into -the factory routine, which had been released again<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span> -by his return to normal boyhood and the boundaries -of school, was not likely to content itself now -with the copying out of agreements. He set to -work, without any advice or help, to learn to be a -reporter. He worked all day at law, and then -all night at shorthand. It is an art which can only -be effected by time, and he had to effect it by overtime. -But learning the thing under every disadvantage, -without a teacher, without the possibility -of concentration or complete mental force, without -ordinary human sleep, he made himself one of the -most rapid reporters then alive. There is a curious -contrast between the casualness of the mental -training to which his parents and others subjected -him and the savage seriousness of the training to -which he subjected himself. Somebody once asked -old John Dickens where his son Charles was educated. -“Well, really,” said the great creature, in -his spacious way, “he may be said—ah—to have -educated himself.” He might indeed.</p> - -<p>This practical intensity of Dickens is worth our -dwelling on, because it illustrates an elementary -antithesis in his character, or what appears as an -antithesis in our modern popular psychology. We -are always talking about strong men against weak -men; but Dickens was not only both a weak man -and a strong man, he was a very weak man and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span> -also a very strong man. He was everything that -we currently call a weak man; he was a man hung -on wires; he was a man who might at any moment -cry like a child; he was so sensitive to criticism -that one may say that he lacked a skin; he was so -nervous that he allowed great tragedies in his life -to arise only out of nerves. But in the matter -where all ordinary strong men are miserably weak—in -the matter of concentrated toil and clear purpose -and unconquerable worldly courage—he was -like a straight sword. Mrs. Carlyle, who in her -human epithets often hit the right nail so that it -rang, said of him once, “He has a face made of -steel.” This was probably felt in a flash when she -saw, in some social crowd, the clear, eager face of -Dickens cutting through those near him like a -knife. Any people who had met him from year to -year would each year have found a man weakly -troubled about his worldly decline; and each year -they would have found him higher up in the world. -His was a character very hard for any man of -slow and placable temperament to understand; he -was the character whom anybody can hurt and nobody -can kill.</p> - -<p>When he began to report in the House of Commons -he was still only nineteen. His father, who -had been released from his prison a short time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span> -before Charles had been released from his, had -also become, among many other things, a reporter. -But old John Dickens could enjoy doing anything -without any particular aspiration after doing it -well. But Charles was of a very different temper. -He was, as I have said, consumed with an enduring -and almost angry thirst to excel. He learnt -shorthand with a dark self-devotion as if it were -a sacred hieroglyph. Of this self-instruction, as -of everything else, he has left humorous and illuminating -phrases. He describes how, after he had -learnt the whole exact alphabet, “there then appeared -a procession of new horrors, called arbitrary -characters—the most despotic characters I -have ever known; who insisted, for instance, that -a thing like the beginning of a cobweb meant -‘expectation,’ and that a pen-and-ink skyrocket -stood for ‘disadvantageous.’” He concludes, “It -was almost heartbreaking.” But it is significant -that somebody else, a colleague of his, concluded, -“There never <em>was</em> such a shorthand writer.”</p> - -<p>Dickens succeeded in becoming a shorthand -writer; succeeded in becoming a reporter; succeeded -ultimately in becoming a highly effective -journalist. He was appointed as a reporter of the -speeches in Parliament, first by <i>The True Sun</i>, then -by <i>The Mirror of Parliament</i>, and last by <i>The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span> -Morning Chronicle</i>. He reported the speeches -very well, and if we must analyze his internal -opinions, much better than they deserved. For it -must be remembered that this lad went into the -reporter’s gallery full of the triumphant Radicalism -which was then the rising tide of the world. -He was, it must be confessed, very little overpowered -by the dignity of the Mother of Parliaments: -he regarded the House of Commons much as he -regarded the House of Lords, as a sort of venerable -joke. It was, perhaps, while he watched, pale -with weariness from the reporter’s gallery, that -there sank into him a thing that never left him, -his unfathomable contempt for the British Constitution. -Then perhaps he heard from the Government -benches the immortal apologies of the -Circumlocution Office. “Then would the noble -lord or right honourable gentleman, in whose -department it was to defend the Circumlocution -Office, put an orange in his pocket, and make a -regular field-day of the occasion. Then would he -come down to that house with a slap upon the table -and meet the honourable gentleman foot to foot. -Then would he be there to tell that honourable -gentleman that the Circumlocution Office was not -only blameless in this matter, but was commendable -in this matter, was extollable to the skies in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span> -this matter. Then would he be there to tell that -honourable gentleman that although the Circumlocution -Office was invariably right, and wholly -right, it never was so right as in this matter. Then -would he be there to tell the honourable gentleman -that it would have been more to his honour, -more to his credit, more to his good taste, more -to his good sense, more to half the dictionary of -common-places if he had left the Circumlocution -Office alone and never approached this matter. -Then would he keep one eye upon a coach or -crammer from the Circumlocution Office below the -bar, and smash the honourable gentleman with the -Circumlocution Office account of this matter. And -although one of two things always happened; -namely, either that the Circumlocution Office had -nothing to say, and said it, or that it had something -to say of which the noble lord or right honourable -gentleman blundered one half and forgot -the other; the Circumlocution Office was always -voted immaculate by an accommodating majority.” -We are now generally told that Dickens has destroyed -these abuses, and that this is no longer a -true picture of public life. Such, at any rate, is -the Circumlocution Office account of this matter. -But Dickens as a good Radical would, I fancy, -much prefer that we should continue his battle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span> -than that we should celebrate his triumph; especially -when it has not come. England is still ruled -by the great Barnacle family. Parliament is still -ruled by the great Barnacle trinity—the solemn -old Barnacle, who knew that the Circumlocution -Office was a protection, the sprightly young Barnacle -who knew that it was a fraud, and the bewildered -young Barnacle who knew nothing about -it. From these three types our Cabinets are still -exclusively recruited. People talk of the tyrannies -and anomalies which Dickens denounced as things -of the past like the Star Chamber. They believe -that the days of the old stupid optimism and the -old brutal indifference are gone for ever. In truth, -this very belief is only the continuance of the old -stupid optimism and the old brutal indifference. -We believe in a free England and a pure England, -because we still believe in the Circumlocution -Office account of this matter. Undoubtedly our -serenity is wide-spread. We believe that England -is really reformed, we believe that England is -really democratic, we believe that English politics -are free from corruption. But this general satisfaction -of ours does not show that Dickens has -beaten the Barnacles. It only shows that the -Barnacles have beaten Dickens.</p> - -<p>It cannot be too often said, then, that we must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span> -read into young Dickens and his works this old -Radical tone towards institutions. That tone was -a sort of happy impatience. And when Dickens -had to listen for hours to the speech of the noble -lord in defence of the Circumlocution Office, when, -that is, he had to listen to what he regarded as the -last vaporings of a vanishing oligarchy, the impatience -rather predominated over the happiness. -His incurably restless nature found more pleasure -in the wandering side of journalism. He went -about wildly in post-chaises to report political -meetings for the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>. “And what -gentlemen they were to serve,” he exclaimed, “in -such things at the old <i>Morning Chronicle</i>. Great -or small it did not matter. I have had to charge -for half a dozen breakdowns in half a dozen times -as many miles. I have had to charge for the damage -of a great-coat from the drippings of a blazing -wax candle, in writing through the smallest -hours of the night in a swift flying carriage and -pair.” And again, “I have often transcribed for -the printer from my shorthand notes important -public speeches in which the strictest accuracy was -required, and a mistake in which would have been -to a young man severely compromising, writing -on the palm of my hand, by the light of a dark -lantern, in a post-chaise and four, galloping<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span> -through a wild country and through the dead of -the night, at the then surprising rate of fifteen -miles an hour.” The whole of Dickens’s life goes -with the throb of that nocturnal gallop. All its -real wildness shot through with an imaginative -wickedness he afterwards uttered in the drive of -Jonas Chuzzlewit through the storm.</p> - -<p>All this time, and indeed from a time of which -no measure can be taken, the creative part of his -mind had been in a stir or even a fever. While -still a small boy he had written for his own amusement -some sketches of queer people he had met; -notably, one of his uncle’s barber, whose principal -hobby was pointing out what Napoleon ought to -have done in the matter of military tactics. He -had a note-book full of such sketches. He had -sketches not only of persons, but of places which -were to him almost more personal than persons. -In the December of 1833 he published one of these -fragments in the <i>Old Monthly Magazine</i>. This -was followed by nine others in the same paper, and -when the paper (which was a romantically Radical -venture, run by a veteran soldier of Bolivar) itself -collapsed, Dickens continued the series in the -<i>Evening Chronicle</i>, an off-shoot of the morning -paper of the same name. These were the pieces -afterwards published and known as the “Sketches<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span> -by Boz”; and with them Dickens enters literature. -He also enters many other things about this time; -he enters manhood, and among other things marriage. -A friend of his on the <i>Chronicle</i>, George -Hogarth, had several daughters. With all of -them Dickens appears to have been on terms of -great affection. This sketch is wholly literary, -and I do not feel it necessary to do more than -touch upon such incidents as his marriage, just as -I shall do no more than touch upon the tragedy -that ultimately overtook it. But it may be suggested -here that the final misfortunes were in some -degree due to the circumstances attending the original -action. A very young man fighting his way, -and excessively poor, with no memories for years -past that were not monotonous and mean, and with -his strongest and most personal memories quite -ignominious and unendurable, was suddenly -thrown into the society of a whole family of girls. -I think it does not overstate his weakness, and I -think it partly constitutes his excuse, to say that -he fell in love with all of them. As sometimes -happens in the undeveloped youth, an abstract -femininity simply intoxicated him. And again, I -think we shall not be mistakenly accused of harshness -if we put the point in this way; that by a kind -of accident he got hold of the wrong sister. In<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> -what came afterwards he was enormously to blame. -But I do not think that his was a case of cold -division from a woman whom he had once seriously -and singly loved. He had been bewildered -in a burning haze, I will not say even of first love, -but of first flirtations. His wife’s sisters stimulated -him before he fell in love with his wife; and -they continued to stimulate him long after he had -quarrelled with her for ever. This view is strikingly -supported by all the details of his attitude -towards all the other members of the sacred house -of Hogarth. One of the sisters remained, of -course, his dearest friend till death. Another who -had died, he worshipped as a saint, and he always -asked to be buried in her grave. He was married -on April 2, 1836. Forster remarks that a few -days before the announcement of their marriage -in the <i>Times</i>, the same paper contained another -announcement that on the 31st would be published -the first number of a work called “The Posthumous -Papers of the Pickwick Club.” It is the -beginning of his career.</p> - -<p>The “Sketches,” apart from splendid splashes -of humour here and there, are not manifestations -of the man of genius. We might almost say that -this book is one of the few books by Dickens which -would not, standing alone, have made his fame.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> -And yet standing alone it did make his fame. His -contemporaries could see a new spirit in it, where -we, familiar with the larger fruits of that spirit, -can only see a continuation of the prosaic and almost -wooden wit of the comic books of that day. -But in any case we should hardly look in the man’s -first book for the fulness of his contribution to letters. -Youth is almost everything else, but it is -hardly ever original. We read of young men -bursting on the old world with a new message. -But youth in actual experience is the period of -imitation and even obedience. Subjectively its -emotions may be furious and headlong; but its only -external outcome is a furious imitation and a headlong -obedience. As we grow older we learn the -special thing we have to do. As a man goes on -towards the grave he discovers gradually a philosophy -he can really call fresh, a style he can really -call his own, and as he becomes an older man he -becomes a newer writer. Ibsen, in his youth, wrote -almost classic plays about vikings; it was in his -old age that he began to break windows and throw -fireworks. The only fault, it was said, of Browning’s -first poems was that they had “too much -beauty of imagery, and too little wealth of -thought.” The only fault, that is, of Browning’s -first poems, was that they were not Browning’s.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span></p> - -<p>In one way, however, the “Sketches by Boz” -do stand out very symbolically in the life of -Dickens. They constitute in a manner the dedication -of him to his especial task; the sympathetic -and yet exaggerated painting of the poorer middle-class. -He was to make men feel that this dull -middle-class was actually a kind of elf-land. But -here, again, the work is rude and undeveloped; -and this is shown in the fact that it is a great deal -more exaggerative than it is sympathetic. We -are not, of course, concerned with the kind of people -who say that they wish that Dickens was more -refined. If those people are ever refined it will -be by fire. But there is in this earliest work, an -element which almost vanished in the later ones, -an element which is typical of the middle-classes -in England, and which is in a more real sense to -be called vulgar. I mean that in these little farces -there is a trace, in the author as well as in the characters, -of that petty sense of social precedence, that -hub-hub of little unheard-of oligarchies, which -is the only serious sin of the bourgeoisie of Britain. -It may seem pragmatical, for example, to instance -such a rowdy farce as the story of Horatio Sparkins, -which tells how a tuft-hunting family entertained -a rhetorical youth thinking he was a lord, -and found he was a draper’s assistant. No doubt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span> -they were very snobbish in thinking that a lord -must be eloquent; but we cannot help feeling that -Dickens is almost equally snobbish in feeling it -so very funny that a draper’s assistant should be -eloquent. A free man, one would think, would -despise the family quite as much if Horatio had -been a peer. Here, and here only, there is just -a touch of the vulgarity, of the only vulgarity of -the world out of which Dickens came. For the -only element of lowness that there really is in our -populace is exactly that they are full of superiorities -and very conscious of class. Shades, imperceptible -to the eyes of others, but as hard and -haughty as a Brahmin caste, separate one kind of -charwoman from another kind of charwoman. -Dickens was destined to show with inspired symbolism -all the immense virtues of the democracy. -He was to show them as the most humorous part -of our civilization; which they certainly are. He -was to show them as the most promptly and practically -compassionate part of our civilization; -which they certainly are. The democracy has a -hundred exuberant good qualities; the democracy -has only one outstanding sin—it is not democratic.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_71">CHAPTER IV<br /> - -<span class="subhead">“THE PICKWICK PAPERS”</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Round</span> the birth of “Pickwick” broke one of -those literary quarrels that were too common in -the life of Dickens. Such quarrels indeed generally -arose from some definite mistake or misdemeanour -on the part of somebody else; but they -were also made possible by an indefinite touchiness -and susceptibility in Dickens himself. He was so -sensitive on points of personal authorship and responsibility -that even his sacred sense of humour -deserted him. He turned people into mortal enemies -whom he might have turned very easily into -immortal jokes. It was not that he was lawless: -in a sense it was that he was too legal; but he did -not understand the principle of <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">de minimis non -curat lex</i>. Anybody could draw him; any fool -could make a fool of him. Any obscure madman -who chose to say that he had written the whole of -“Martin Chuzzlewit”; any penny-a-liner who -chose to say that Dickens wore no shirt collar could -call forth the most passionate and public denials -as of a man pleading “not guilty” to witchcraft<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> -or high treason. Hence the letters of Dickens are -filled with a certain singular type of quarrels and -complaints, quarrels and complaints in which one -cannot say that he was on the wrong side, but -merely that even in being on the right side he was -in the wrong place. He was not only a generous -man, he was even a just man; to have made against -anybody a charge or claim which was unfair would -have been insupportable to him. His weakness -was that he found the unfair claim or charge, however -small, equally insupportable when brought -against himself. No one can say of him that he -was often wrong; we can only say of him as of -many pugnacious people, that he was too often -right.</p> - -<p>The incidents attending the inauguration of the -“Pickwick Papers” are not, perhaps, a perfect -example of this trait, because Dickens was here -a hand-to-mouth journalist, and the blow might -possibly have been more disabling than those struck -at him in his days of triumph. But all through -those days of triumph, and to the day of his -death, Dickens took this old tea-cup tempest -with the most terrible gravity, drew up declarations, -called witnesses, preserved pulverizing documents, -and handed on to his children the forgotten -folly as if it had been a Highland feud. Yet the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span> -unjust claim made on him was so much more ridiculous -even than it was unjust, that it seems strange -that he should have remembered it for a month -except for his amusement. The facts are simple -and familiar to most people. The publishers—Chapman -& Hall—wished to produce some kind -of serial with comic illustrations by a popular caricaturist -named Seymour. This artist was chiefly -famous for his rendering of the farcical side of -sport, and to suit this specialty it was very vaguely -suggested to Dickens by the publishers that he -should write about a Nimrod Club, or some such -thing, a club of amateur sportsmen, foredoomed -to perpetual ignominies. Dickens objected in substance -upon two very sensible grounds—first, that -sporting sketches were stale; and second, that he -knew nothing about sport. He changed the idea -to that of a general club for travel and investigation, -the Pickwick Club, and only retained one -fated sportsman, Mr. Winkle, the melancholy remnant -of the Nimrod Club that never was. The -first seven pictures appeared with the signature of -Seymour and the letterpress of Dickens, and in -them Winkle and his woes were fairly, but not -extraordinarily prominent. Before the eighth picture -appeared Seymour had blown his brains out. -After a brief interval of the employment of a man<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span> -named Buss, Dickens obtained the assistance of -Hoblot K. Brown whom we all call “Phiz,” and -may almost, in a certain sense, be said to have gone -into partnership with him. They were as suited -to each other and to the common creation of a -unique thing as Gilbert and Sullivan. No other -illustrator ever created the true Dickens characters -with the precise and correct quantum of exaggeration. -No other illustrator ever breathed the true -Dickens atmosphere, in which clerks are clerks and -yet at the same time elves.</p> - -<p>To the tame mind the above affair does not -seem to offer anything very promising in the way -of a row. But Seymour’s widow managed to -evolve out of it the proposition that somehow or -other her husband had written “Pickwick,” or, at -least, had been responsible for the genius and success -of it. It does not appear that she had anything -at all resembling a reason for this opinion except -the unquestionable fact that the publishers had -started with the idea of employing Seymour. This -was quite true, and Dickens (who over and above -his honesty was far too quarrelsome a man not to -try to keep in the right, and who showed a sort -of fierce carefulness in telling the truth in such -cases) never denied it or attempted to conceal it. -It was quite true, that at the beginning, instead<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span> -of Seymour being employed to illustrate Dickens, -Dickens may be said to have been employed to -illustrate Seymour. But that Seymour invented -anything in the letter-press large or small, that he -invented either the outline of Mr. Pickwick’s character -or the number of Mr. Pickwick’s cabman, -that he invented either the story, or so much as a -semi-colon in the story was not only never proved, -but was never very lucidly alleged. Dickens fills -his letters with all that there is to be said against -Mrs. Seymour’s idea; it is not very clear whether -there was ever anything definitely said for it.</p> - -<p>Upon the mere superficial fact and law of the -affair, Dickens ought to have been superior to this -silly business. But in a much deeper and a much -more real sense he ought to have been superior to -it. It did not really touch him or his greatness at -all, even as an abstract allegation. If Seymour had -started the story, had provided Dickens with his -puppets, Tupman or Jingle, Dickens would have -still have been Dickens and Seymour only Seymour. -As a matter of fact, it happened to be a -contemptible lie, but it would have been an equally -contemptible truth. For the fact is that the greatness -of Dickens and especially the greatness of -Pickwick is not of a kind that could be affected by -somebody else suggesting the first idea. It could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span> -not be affected by somebody else writing the first -chapter. If it could be shown that another man -had suggested to Hawthorne (let us say) the -primary conception of the “Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne -who worked it out would still be an exquisite -workman; but he would be by so much less -a creator. But in a case like Pickwick there is a -simple test. If Seymour gave Dickens the main -idea of Pickwick, what was it? There is no primary -conception of Pickwick for any one to suggest. -Dickens not only did not get the general -plan from Seymour, he did not get it at all. In -Pickwick, and, indeed, in Dickens, generally it is -in the details that the author is creative, it is in -the details that he is vast. The power of the book -lies in the perpetual torrent of ingenious and inventive -treatment; the theme (at least at the beginning) -simply does not exist. The idea of Tupman, -the fat lady-killer, is in itself quite dreary and vulgar; -it is the detailed Tupman, as he is developed, -who is unexpectedly amusing. The idea of Winkle, -the clumsy sportsman, is in itself quite stale; -it is as he goes on repeating himself that he becomes -original. We hear of men whose imagination -can touch with magic the dull facts of our -life, but Dickens’s yet more indomitable fancy -could touch with magic even our dull fiction. Before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> -we are halfway through the book the stock -characters of dead and damned farces astonish us -like splendid strangers.</p> - -<p>Seymour’s claim, then, viewed symbolically was -even a compliment. It was true in spirit that -Dickens obtained (or might have obtained) the -start of Pickwick from somebody else, from anybody -else. For he had a more gigantic energy -than the energy of the intense artist, the energy -which is prepared to write something. He had -the energy which is prepared to write anything. -He could have finished any man’s tale. He could -have breathed a mad life into any man’s characters. -If it had been true that Seymour had planned out -Pickwick, if Seymour had fixed the chapters and -named and numbered the characters, his slave -would have shown even in these shackles such a -freedom as would have shaken the world. If -Dickens had been forced to make his incidents out -of a chapter in a child’s reading-book, or the names -in a scrap of newspaper, he would have turned -them in ten pages into creatures of his own. Seymour, -as I say, was in a manner right in spirit. -Dickens would at this time get his materials from -anywhere, in the sense that he cared little what -materials they were. He would not have stolen; -but if he had stolen he would never have imitated.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span> -The power which he proceeded at once to exhibit -was the one power in letters which literally cannot -be imitated, the primary inexhaustible creative -energy, the enormous prodigality of genius which -no one but another genius could parody. To claim -to have originated an idea of Dickens is like claiming -to have contributed a glass of water to Niagara. -Wherever this stream or that stream started the colossal -cataract of absurdity went roaring night and -day. The volume of his invention overwhelmed all -doubt of his inventiveness; Dickens was evidently -a great man; unless he was a thousand men.</p> - -<p>The actual circumstances of the writing and publishing -of “Pickwick” show that while Seymour’s -specific claim was absurd, Dickens’s indignant exactitude -about every jot and tittle of authorship -was also inappropriate and misleading. “The -Pickwick Papers,” when all is said and done, did -emerge out of a haze of suggestions and proposals -in which more than one person was involved. The -publishers failed to base the story on a Nimrod -Club, but they succeeded in basing it on a club. -Seymour, by virtue of his idiosyncrasy, if he did -not create, brought about the creation of Mr. -Winkle. Seymour sketched Mr. Pickwick as a -tall, thin man. Mr. Chapman (apparently without -any word from Dickens) boldly turned him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span> -into a short, fat man. Chapman took the type -from a corpulent old dandy named Foster, who -wore tights and gaiters and lived at Richmond. -In this sense were we affected by this idle aspect of -the thing we might call Chapman the real originator -of “Pickwick.” But as I have suggested, -originating “Pickwick” is not the point. It was -quite easy to originate “Pickwick.” The difficulty -was to write it.</p> - -<p>However such things may be, there can be no -question of the result of this chaos. In “The -Pickwick Papers” Dickens sprang suddenly from -a comparatively low level to a very high one. To -the level of “Sketches by Boz” he never afterwards -descended. To the level of “The Pickwick -Papers” it is doubtful if he ever afterwards rose. -“Pickwick,” indeed, is not a good novel; but it is -not a bad novel, for it is not a novel at all. In one -sense, indeed, it is something nobler than a novel, -for no novel with a plot and a proper termination -could emit that sense of everlasting youth—a sense -as of the gods gone wandering in England. This -is not a novel, for all novels have an end; and -“Pickwick,” properly speaking, has no end—he is -equal unto the angels. The point at which, as a -fact, we find the printed matter terminates is not -an end in any artistic sense of the word. Even as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span> -a boy I believed there were some more pages that -were torn out of my copy, and I am looking for -them still. The book might have been cut short -anywhere else. It might have been cut short after -Mr. Pickwick was released by Mr. Nupkins, or -after Mr. Pickwick was fished out of the water, or -at a hundred other places. And we should still -have known that this was not really the story’s -end. We should have known that Mr. Pickwick -was still having the same high adventures on the -same high roads. As it happens, the book ends -after Mr. Pickwick has taken a house in the neighbourhood -of Dulwich. But we know he did not -stop there. We know he broke out, that he took -again the road of the high adventures; we know -that if we take it ourselves in any acre of England, -we may come suddenly upon him in a lane.</p> - -<p>But this relation of “Pickwick” to the strict -form of fiction demands a further word, which -should indeed be said in any case before the consideration -of any or all of the Dickens tales. -Dickens’s work is not to be reckoned in novels at -all. Dickens’s work is to be reckoned always by -characters, sometimes by groups, oftener by episodes, -but never by novels. You cannot discuss -whether “Nicholas Nickleby” is a good novel, or -whether “Our Mutual Friend” is a bad novel.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span> -Strictly, there is no such novel as “Nicholas -Nickleby.” There is no such novel as “Our -Mutual Friend.” They are simply lengths cut -from the flowing and mixed substance called -Dickens—a substance of which any given length -will be certain to contain a given proportion of -brilliant and of bad stuff. You can say, according -to your opinions, “the Crummles part is perfect,” -or “the Boffins are a mistake,” just as a -man watching a river go by him could count here -a floating flower, and there a streak of scum. But -you cannot artistically divide the output into books. -The best of his work can be found in the worst -of his works. “The Tale of Two Cities” is a -good novel; “Little Dorrit” is not a good novel. -But the description of “The Circumlocution -Office” in “Little Dorrit” is quite as good as the -description of “Tellson’s Bank” in “The Tale -of Two Cities.” “The Old Curiosity Shop” is -not so good as “David Copperfield,” but Swiveller -is quite as good as Micawber. Nor is there any -reason why these superb creatures, as a general -rule, should be in one novel any more than another. -There is no reason why Sam Weller, in the -course of his wanderings, should not wander into -“Nicholas Nickleby.” There is no reason why -Major Bagstock, in his brisk way, should not walk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> -straight out of “Dombey and Son” and straight -into “Martin Chuzzlewit.” To this generalization -some modification should be added. “Pickwick” -stands by itself, and has even a sort of -unity in not pretending to unity. “David Copperfield,” -in a less degree, stands by itself, as being -the only book in which Dickens wrote of himself; -and “The Tale of Two Cities” stands by itself -as being the only book in which Dickens slightly -altered himself. But as a whole, this should be -firmly grasped, that the units of Dickens, the primary -elements, are not the stories, but the characters -who affect the stories—or, more often still, -the characters who do not affect the stories.</p> - -<p>This is a plain matter; but, unless it be stated -and felt, Dickens may be greatly misunderstood -and greatly underrated. For not only is his whole -machinery directed to facilitating the self-display -of certain characters, but something more deep and -more unmodern still is also true of him. It is also -true that all the <em>moving</em> machinery exists only to -display entirely <em>static</em> character. Things in the -Dickens story shift and change only in order to -give us glimpses of great characters that do not -change at all. If we had a sequel of Pickwick ten -years afterwards, Pickwick would be exactly the -same age. We know he would not have fallen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> -into that strange and beautiful second childhood -which soothed and simplified the end of Colonel -Newcome. Newcome, throughout the book, is in -an atmosphere of time: Pickwick, throughout the -book, is not. This will probably be taken by most -modern people as praise of Thackeray and dispraise -of Dickens. But this only shows how few -modern people understand Dickens. It also shows -how few understand the faiths and the fables of -mankind. The matter can only be roughly stated -in one way. Dickens did not strictly make a literature; -he made a mythology.</p> - -<p>For a few years our corner of Western Europe -has had a fancy for this thing we call fiction; that -is, for writing down our own lives or similar lives -in order to look at them. But though we call it -fiction, it differs from older literatures chiefly in -being less fictitious. It imitates not only life, but -the limitations of life; it not only reproduces life, -it reproduces death. But outside us, in every other -country, in every other age, there has been going -on from the beginning a more fictitious kind of -fiction. I mean the kind now called folklore, the -literature of the people. Our modern novels, -which deal with men as they are, are chiefly produced -by a small and educated section of the society. -But this other literature deals with men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span> -greater than they are—with demi-gods and heroes; -and that is far too important a matter to be trusted -to the educated classes. The fashioning of these -portents is a popular trade, like ploughing or bricklaying; -the men who made hedges, the men who -made ditches, were the men who made deities. -Men could not elect their kings, but they could -elect their gods. So we find ourselves faced with -a fundamental contrast between what is called fiction -and what is called folklore. The one exhibits -an abnormal degree of dexterity operating within -our daily limitations; the other exhibits quite normal -desires extended beyond those limitations. -Fiction means the common things as seen by the -uncommon people. Fairy tales mean the uncommon -things as seen by the common people.</p> - -<p>As our world advances through history towards -its present epoch, it becomes more specialist, less -democratic, and folklore turns gradually into fiction. -But it is only slowly that the old elfin fire -fades into the light of common realism. For ages -after our characters have dressed up in the clothes -of mortals they betray the blood of the gods. -Even our phraseology is full of relics of this. -When a modern novel is devoted to the bewilderments -of a weak young clerk who cannot decide -which woman he wants to marry, or which new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> -religion he believes in, we still give this knock-kneed -cad the name of “the hero”—the name -which is the crown of Achilles. The popular preference -for a story with “a happy ending” is not, -or at least was not, a mere sweet-stuff optimism; -it is the remains of the old idea of the triumph of -the dragon-slayer, the ultimate apotheosis of the -man beloved of heaven.</p> - -<p>But there is another and more intangible trace -of this fading supernaturalism—a trace very vivid -to the reader, but very elusive to the critic. It is -a certain air of endlessness in the episodes, even in -the shortest episodes—a sense that, although we -leave them, they still go on. Our modern attraction -to short stories is not an accident of form; it -is the sign of a real sense of fleetingness and fragility; -it means that existence is only an impression, -and, perhaps, only an illusion. A short story of -to-day has the air of a dream; it has the irrevocable -beauty of a falsehood; we get a glimpse of grey -streets of London or red plains of India, as in an -opium vision; we see people,—arresting people, -with fiery and appealing faces. But when the -story is ended, the people are ended. We have no -instinct of anything ultimate and enduring behind -the episodes. The moderns, in a word, describe -life in short stories because they are possessed with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> -the sentiment that life itself is an uncommonly -short story, and perhaps not a true one. But in -this elder literature, even in the comic literature -(indeed, especially in the comic literature), the -reverse is true. The characters are felt to be fixed -things of which we have fleeting glimpses; that is, -they are felt to be divine. Uncle Toby is talking -for ever, as the elves are dancing for ever. We -feel that whenever we hammer on the house of -Falstaff, Falstaff will be at home. We feel it as a -Pagan would feel that, if a cry broke the silence -after ages of unbelief, Apollo would still be listening -in his temple. These writers may tell short -stories, but we feel they are only parts of a long -story. And herein lies the peculiar significance, -the peculiar sacredness even, of penny dreadfuls -and the common printed matter made for our -errand-boys. Here in dim and desperate forms, -under the ban of our base culture, stormed at by -silly magistrates, sneered at by silly schoolmasters,—here -is the old popular literature still popular; -here is the unmistakable voluminousness, the thousand -and one tales of Dick Deadshot, like the -thousand and one tales of Robin Hood. Here -is the splendid and static boy, the boy who remains -a boy through a thousand volumes and a thousand -years. Here in mean alleys and dim shops, shadowed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span> -and shamed by the police, mankind is still -driving its dark trade in heroes. And elsewhere, -and in all other ages, in braver fashion, under -cleaner skies the same eternal tale-telling goes on, -and the whole mortal world is a factory of immortals.</p> - -<p>Dickens was a mythologist rather than a novelist; -he was the last of the mythologists, and perhaps -the greatest. He did not always manage to -make his characters men, but he always managed, -at the least, to make them gods. They are creatures -like Punch or Father Christmas. They live -statically, in a perpetual summer of being themselves. -It was not the aim of Dickens to show the -effect of time and circumstance upon a character; -it was not even his aim to show the effect of a -character on time and circumstance. It is worth -remark, in passing, that whenever he tried to describe -change in a character, he made a mess of it, -as in the repentance of Dombey or the apparent -deterioration of Boffin. It was his aim to show -character hung in a kind of happy void, in a world -apart from time—yes, and essentially apart from -circumstance, though the phrase may seem odd in -connection with the godlike horse-play of “Pickwick.” -But all the Pickwickian events, wild as -they often are, were only designed to display the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span> -greater wildness of souls, or sometimes merely to -bring the reader within touch, so to speak, of that -wildness. The author would have fired Mr. Pickwick -out of a cannon to get him to Wardle’s by -Christmas; he would have taken the roof off to -drop him into Bob Sawyer’s party. But once put -Pickwick at Wardle’s, with his punch and a group -of gorgeous personalities, and nothing will move -him from his chair. Once he is at Sawyer’s party, -he forgets how he got there; he forgets Mrs. -Bardell and all his story. For the story was but -an incantation to call up a god, and the god (Mr. -Jack Hopkins) is present in divine power. Once -the great characters are face to face, the ladder by -which they climbed is forgotten and falls down, -the structure of the story drops to pieces, the plot -is abandoned, the other characters deserted at -every kind of crisis; the whole crowded thoroughfare -of the tale is blocked by two or three talkers, -who take their immortal ease as if they were already -in Paradise. For they do not exist for the -story; the story exists for them; and they know it.</p> - -<p>To every man alive, one must hope, it has in -some manner happened that he has talked with -his more fascinating friends round a table on some -night when all the numerous personalities unfolded -themselves like great tropical flowers. All fell into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span> -their parts as in some delightful impromptu play. -Every man was more himself than he had ever -been in this vale of tears. Every man was a beautiful -caricature of himself. The man who has -known such nights will understand the exaggerations -of “Pickwick.” The man who has not -known such nights will not enjoy “Pickwick” -nor (I imagine) heaven. For, as I have said, -Dickens is, in this matter, close to popular religion, -which is the ultimate and reliable religion. He -conceives an endless joy; he conceives creatures -as permanent as Puck or Pan—creatures whose -will to live æons upon æons cannot satisfy. He -is not come, as a writer, that his creatures may -copy life and copy its narrowness; he is come -that they may have life, and that they may -have it more abundantly. It is absurd indeed -that Christians should be called the enemies of -life because they wish life to last for ever; it is -more absurd still to call the old comic writers dull -because they wished their unchanging characters -to last for ever. Both popular religion, with its -endless joys, and the old comic story, with its endless -jokes, have in our time faded together. We -are too weak to desire that undying vigour. -We believe that you can have too much of a good -thing—a blasphemous belief, which at one blow<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span> -wrecks all the heavens that men have hoped for. -The grand old defiers of God were not afraid of -an eternity of torment. We have come to be afraid -of an eternity of joy. It is not my business here -to take sides in this division between those who -like life and long novels and those who like death -and short stories; my only business is to point out -that those who see in Dickens’s unchanging characters -and recurring catch-words a mere stiffness and -lack of living movement miss the point and nature -of his work. His tradition is another tradition -altogether; his aim is another aim altogether to -those of the modern novelists who trace the alchemy -of experience and the autumn tints of character. -He is there, like the common people of all -ages, to make deities; he is there, as I have said, to -exaggerate life in the direction of life. The spirit -he at bottom celebrates is that of two friends drinking -wine together and talking through the night. -But for him they are two deathless friends talking -through an endless night and pouring wine from -an inexhaustible bottle.</p> - -<p>This, then, is the first firm fact to grasp about -“Pickwick”—about “Pickwick” more than -about any of the other stories. It is, first and foremost, -a supernatural story. Mr. Pickwick was a -fairy. So was old Mr. Weller. This does not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span> -imply that they were suited to swing in a trapeze -of gossamer; it merely implies that if they had -fallen out of it on their heads they would not have -died. But, to speak more strictly, Mr. Samuel -Pickwick is not the fairy; he is the fairy prince; -that is to say, he is the abstract wanderer and wonderer, -the Ulysses of Comedy—the half-human -and half-elfin creature—human enough to wander, -human enough to wonder, but still sustained with -that merry fatalism that is natural to immortal -beings—sustained by that hint of divinity which -tells him in the darkest hour that he is doomed to -live happily ever afterwards. He has set out walking -to the end of the world, but he knows he will -find an inn there.</p> - -<p>And this brings us to the best and boldest -element of originality in “Pickwick.” It has not, -I think, been observed, and it may be that Dickens -did not observe it. Certainly he did not plan it; -it grew gradually, perhaps out of the unconscious -part of his soul, and warmed the whole story like -a slow fire. Of course it transformed the whole -story also; transformed it out of all likeness to -itself. About this latter point was waged one of -the numberless little wars of Dickens. It was a -part of his pugnacious vanity that he refused to -admit the truth of the mildest criticism. Moreover,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span> -he used his inexhaustible ingenuity to find an -apologia that was generally an afterthought. Instead -of laughingly admitting, in answer to criticism, -the glorious improbability of Pecksniff, he -retorted with a sneer, clever and very unjust, that -he was not surprised that the Pecksniffs should -deny the portrait of Pecksniff. When it was objected -that the pride of old Paul Dombey breaks -as abruptly as a stick, he tried to make out that -there had been an absorbing psychological struggle -going on in that gentleman all the time, which -the reader was too stupid to perceive. Which is, -I am afraid, rubbish. And so, in a similar vein, he -answered those who pointed out to him the obvious -and not very shocking fact that our sentiments -about Pickwick are very different in the second part -of the book from our sentiments in the first; that -we find ourselves at the beginning setting out in -the company of a farcical old fool, if not a farcical -old humbug, and that we find ourselves at the end -saying farewell to a fine old English merchant, a -monument of genial sanity. Dickens answered -with the same ingenious self-justification as in the -other cases—that surely it often happened that a -man met us first arrayed in his more grotesque -qualities, and that fuller acquaintance unfolded his -more serious merits. This, of course, is quite true;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span> -but I think any honest admirer of “Pickwick” -will feel that it is not an answer. For the fault -in “Pickwick” (if it be a fault) is a change, not -in the hero but in the whole atmosphere. The -point is not that Pickwick turns into a different -kind of man; it is that “The Pickwick Papers” -turns into a different kind of book. And however -artistic both parts may be, this combination must, -in strict art, be called inartistic. A man is quite -artistically justified in writing a tale in which a -man as cowardly as Bob Acres becomes a man as -brave as Hector. But a man is not artistically -justified in writing a tale which begins in the style -of “The Rivals” and ends in the style of the -“Iliad.” In other words, we do not mind the -hero changing in the course of a book; but we are -not prepared for the author changing in the course -of the book. And the author did change in the -course of this book. He made, in the midst of this -book a great discovery, which was the discovery -of his destiny, or, what is more important, of his -duty. That discovery turned him from the author -of “Sketches by Boz” to the author of “David -Copperfield.” And that discovery constituted the -thing of which I have spoken—the outstanding -and arresting original feature in “The Pickwick -Papers.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span></p> - -<p>“Pickwick,” I have said, is a romance of adventure, -and Samuel Pickwick is the romantic adventurer. -So much is indeed obvious. But the -strange and stirring discovery which Dickens made -was this—that having chosen a fat old man of the -middle classes as a good thing of which to make -a butt, he found that a fat old man of the middle -classes is the very best thing of which to make a -romantic adventurer. “Pickwick” is supremely -original in that it is the adventures of an old man. -It is a fairy tale in which the victor is not the -youngest of the three brothers, but one of the -oldest of their uncles. The result is both noble -and new and true. There is nothing which so -much needs simplicity as adventure. And there -is no one who so much possesses simplicity as an -honest and elderly man of business. For romance -he is better than a troop of young troubadours; -for the swaggering young fellow anticipates his -adventures, just as he anticipates his income. -Hence, both the adventures and the income, -when he comes up to them, are not there. But -a man in late middle-age has grown used to the -plain necessities, and his first holiday is a second -youth. A good man, as Thackeray said with such -thorough and searching truth, grows simpler as he -grows older. Samuel Pickwick in his youth was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span> -probably an insufferable young coxcomb. He -knew then, or thought he knew, all about the -confidence tricks of swindlers like Jingle. He -knew then, or thought he knew, all about the -amatory designs of sly ladies like Mrs. Bardell. -But years and real life have relieved him of this -idle and evil knowledge. He has had the high -good luck in losing the follies of youth, to lose -the wisdom of youth also. Dickens has caught, -in a manner at once wild and convincing, this -queer innocence of the afternoon of life. The -round, moon-like face, the round, moon-like spectacles -of Samuel Pickwick move through the tale -as emblems of a certain spherical simplicity. They -are fixed in that grave surprise that may be seen -in babies; that grave surprise which is the only real -happiness that is possible to man. Pickwick’s -round face is like a round and honourable mirror, -in which are reflected all the fantasies of earthly -existence; for surprise is, strictly speaking, the only -kind of reflection. All this grew gradually on -Dickens. It is odd to recall to our minds the -original plan, the plan of the Nimrod Club, and -the author who was to be wholly occupied in playing -practical jokes on his characters. He had -chosen (or somebody else had chosen) that corpulent -old simpleton as a person peculiarly fitted to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span> -fall down trap-doors, to shoot over butter slides, -to struggle with apple-pie beds, to be tipped out -of carts and dipped into horse-ponds. But Dickens, -and Dickens only, discovered as he went on -how fitted the fat old man was to rescue ladies, -to defy tyrants, to dance, to leap, to experiment -with life, to be a <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">deus ex machinâ</i>, and even a -knight-errant. Dickens made this discovery. -Dickens went into the Pickwick Club to scoff, and -Dickens remained to pray.</p> - -<p>Molière and his marquises are very much -amused when M. Jourdain, the fat old middle-class -fellow, discovers with delight that he has been -talking prose all his life. I have often wondered -whether Molière saw how in this fact M. Jourdain -towers above them all and touches the stars. -He has the freshness to enjoy a fresh fact, the -freshness to enjoy an old one. He can feel that -the common thing prose is an accomplishment like -verse; and it is an accomplishment like verse; it -is the miracle of language. He can feel the -subtle taste of water, and roll it on his tongue like -wine. His simple vanity and voracity, his innocent -love of living, his ignorant love of learning, -are things far fuller of romance than the weariness -and foppishness of the sniggering cavaliers. -When he consciously speaks prose, he unconsciously<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span> -thinks poetry. It would be better for -us all if we were as conscious that supper is supper -or that life is life, as this true romantic was that -prose is actually prose. M. Jourdain is here the -type, Mr. Pickwick is elsewhere the type, of this -true and neglected thing, the romance of the middle -classes. It is the custom in our little epoch to -sneer at the middle classes. Cockney artists profess -to find the bourgeoisie dull; as if artists had -any business to find anything dull. Decadents -talk contemptuously of its conventions and its set -tasks; it never occurs to them that conventions -and set tasks are the very way to keep that greenness -in the grass and that redness in the roses—which -they had lost for ever. Stevenson, in his -incomparable “Lantern Bearers,” describes the -ecstasy of a schoolboy in the mere fact of buttoning -a dark lantern under a dark great-coat. If -you wish for that ecstasy of the schoolboy, you -must have the boy; but you must also have the -school. Strict opportunities and defined hours are -the very outline of that enjoyment. A man like -Mr. Pickwick has been at school all his life, and -when he comes out he astonishes the youngsters. -His heart, as that acute psychologist, Mr. Weller, -points out, had been born later than his body. It -will be remembered that Mr. Pickwick also, when<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span> -on the escapade of Winkle and Miss Allen, took -immoderate pleasure in the performances of a -dark lantern which was not dark enough, and was -nothing but a nuisance to everybody. His soul -also was with Stevenson’s boys on the grey sands -of Haddington, talking in the dark by the sea. -He also was of the league of the “Lantern Bearers.” -Stevenson, I remember, says that in the -shops of that town they could purchase “penny -Pickwicks (that remarkable cigar).” Let us hope -they smoked them, and that the rotund ghost of -Pickwick hovered over the rings of smoke.</p> - -<p>Pickwick goes through life with that godlike -gullibility which is the key to all adventures. The -greenhorn is the ultimate victor in everything; it -is he that gets the most out of life. Because Pickwick -is led away by Jingle, he will be led to the -White Hart Inn, and see the only Weller cleaning -boots in the courtyard. Because he is bamboozled -by Dodson and Fogg, he will enter the -prison house like a paladin, and rescue the man -and the woman who have wronged him most. -His soul will never starve for exploits or excitements -who is wise enough to be made a fool of. -He will make himself happy in the traps that have -been laid for him; he will roll in their nets and -sleep. All doors will fly open to him who has a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span> -mildness more defiant than mere courage. The -whole is unerringly expressed in one fortunate -phrase—he will be always “taken in.” To be -taken in everywhere is to see the inside of everything. -It is the hospitality of circumstance. With -torches and trumpets, like a guest, the greenhorn -is taken in by Life. And the sceptic is cast out -by it.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_100">CHAPTER V<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE GREAT POPULARITY</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">There</span> is one aspect of Charles Dickens which -must be of interest even to that subterranean race -which does not admire his books. Even if we are -not interested in Dickens as a great event in English -literature, we must still be interested in him -as a great event in English history. If he had -not his place with Fielding and Thackeray, he -would still have his place with Wat Tyler and -Wilkes; for the man led a mob. He did what no -English statesman, perhaps, has really done; he -called out the people. He was popular in a sense -of which we moderns have not even a notion. In -that sense there is no popularity now. There are -no popular authors to-day. We call such authors -as Mr. Guy Boothby or Mr. William Le Queux -popular authors. But this is popularity altogether -in a weaker sense; not only in quantity, but in -quality. The old popularity was positive; the new -is negative. There is a great deal of difference -between the eager man who wants to read a book, -and the tired man who wants a book to read. A<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span> -man reading a Le Queux mystery wants to get to -the end of it. A man reading the Dickens novel -wished that it might never end. Men read a -Dickens story six times because they knew it so -well. If a man can read a Le Queux story six -times it is only because he can forget it six times. -In short, the Dickens novel was popular, not because -it was an unreal world, but because it was -a real world; a world in which the soul could live. -The modern “shocker” at its very best is an interlude -in life. But in the days when Dickens’s work -was coming out in serial, people talked as if real -life were itself the interlude between one issue of -“Pickwick” and another.</p> - -<p>In reaching the period of the publication of -“Pickwick,” we reach this sudden apotheosis of -Dickens. Henceforward he filled the literary -world in a way hard to imagine. Fragments of -that huge fashion remain in our daily language; in -the talk of every trade or public question are -embedded the wrecks of that enormous religion. -Men give out the airs of Dickens without even -opening his books; just as Catholics can live in a -tradition of Christianity without having looked at -the New Testament. The man in the street has -more memories of Dickens, whom he has not read, -than of Marie Corelli, whom he has. There is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> -nothing in any way parallel to this omnipresence -and vitality in the great comic characters of Boz. -There are no modern Bumbles and Pecksniffs, no -modern Gamps and Micawbers. Mr. Rudyard -Kipling (to take an author of a higher type than -those before mentioned) is called, and called justly, -a popular author; that is to say, he is widely read, -greatly enjoyed, and highly remunerated; he has -achieved the paradox of at once making poetry and -making money. But let any one who wishes to -see the difference try the experiment of assuming -the Kipling characters to be common property like -the Dickens characters. Let any one go into an -average parlour and allude to Strickland as he -would allude to Mr. Bumble, the Beadle. Let -any one say that somebody is “a perfect Learoyd,” -as he would say “a perfect Pecksniff.” Let any -one write a comic paragraph for a halfpenny paper, -and allude to Mrs. Hawksbee instead of to Mrs. -Gamp. He will soon discover that the modern -world has forgotten its own fiercest booms more -completely than it has forgotten this formless tradition -from its fathers. The mere dregs of it -come to more than any contemporary excitement; -the gleaning of the grapes of “Pickwick” is more -than the whole vintage of “Soldiers Three.” -There is one instance, and I think only one, of an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> -exception to this generalization; there is one figure -in our popular literature which would really be -recognized by the populace. Ordinary men would -understand you if you referred currently to Sherlock -Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would no -doubt be justified in rearing his head to the stars, -remembering that Sherlock Holmes is the only -really familiar figure in modern fiction. But let -him droop that head again with a gentle sadness, -remembering that if Sherlock Holmes is the only -familiar figure in modern fiction, Sherlock Holmes -is also the only familiar figure in the Sherlock -Holmes tales. Not many people could say offhand -what was the name of the owner of Silver Blaze, -or whether Mrs. Watson was dark or fair. But -if Dickens had written the Sherlock Holmes -stories, every character in them would have been -equally arresting and memorable. A Sherlock -Holmes would have cooked the dinner for Sherlock -Holmes; a Sherlock Holmes would have -driven his cab. If Dickens brought in a man -merely to carry a letter, he had time for a touch -or two, and made him a giant. Dickens not only -conquered the world, he conquered it with minor -characters. Mr. John Smauker, the servant of -Mr. Cyrus Bantam, though he merely passes -across the stage, is almost as vivid to us as Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span> -Samuel Weller, the servant of Mr. Samuel Pickwick. -The young man with the lumpy forehead, -who only says “Esker” to Mr. Podsnap’s foreign -gentleman, is as good as Mr. Podsnap himself. -They appear only for a fragment of time, but -they belong to eternity. We have them only for -an instant, but they have us for ever.</p> - -<p>In dealing with Dickens, then, we are dealing -with a man whose public success was a marvel and -almost a monstrosity. And here I perceive that -my friend, the purely artistic critic, primed with -Flaubert and Turgenev, can contain himself no -longer. He leaps to his feet, upsetting his cup of -cocoa, and asks contemptuously what all this has to -do with criticism. “Why begin your study of an -author,” he says, “with trash about popularity? -Boothby is popular, and Le Queux is popular, and -Mother Siegel is popular. If Dickens was even -more popular, it may only mean that Dickens was -even worse. The people like bad literature. If -your object is to show that Dickens was good -literature, you should rather apologize for his -popularity, and try to explain it away. You should -seek to show that Dickens’s work was good literature, -although it was popular. Yes, that is your -task, to prove that Dickens was admirable, although -he was admired!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span></p> - -<p>I ask the artistic critic to be patient for a little -and to believe that I have a serious reason for -registering this historic popularity. To that we -shall come presently. But as a manner of approach -I may perhaps ask leave to examine this actual and -fashionable statement, to which I have supposed -him to have recourse—the statement that the people -like bad literature, and even like literature -because it is bad. This way of stating the thing -is an error, and in that error lies matter of much -import to Dickens and his destiny in letters. The -public does not like bad literature. The public -likes a certain kind of literature and likes that kind -of literature even when it is bad better than another -kind of literature even when it is good. Nor -is this unreasonable; for the line between different -types of literature is as real as the line between -tears and laughter; and to tell people who can only -get bad comedy that you have some first-class -tragedy is as irrational as to offer a man who is -shivering over weak warm coffee a really superior -sort of ice.</p> - -<p>Ordinary people dislike the delicate modern -work, not because it is good or because it is bad, -but because it is not the thing that they asked for. -If, for instance, you find them pent in sterile streets -and hungering for adventure and a violent secrecy,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span> -and if you then give them their choice between -“A Study in Scarlet,” a good detective -story, and “The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford,” -a good psychological monologue, no -doubt they will prefer “A Study in Scarlet.” But -they will not do so because “The Autobiography -of Mark Rutherford” is a very good monologue, -but because it is evidently a very poor detective -story. They will be indifferent to “Les Aveugles,” -not because it is good drama, but because it is bad -melodrama. They do not like good introspective -sonnets; but neither do they like bad introspective -sonnets, of which there are many. When they -walk behind the brass of the Salvation Army band -instead of listening to harmonies at Queen’s Hall, -it is always assumed that they prefer bad music. -But it may be merely that they prefer military -music, music marching down the open street, and -that if Dan Godfrey’s band could be smitten with -salvation and lead them, they would like that even -better. And while they might easily get more -satisfaction out of a screaming article in <i>The War -Cry</i> than out of a page of Emerson about the Over-soul, -this would not be because the page of Emerson -is another and superior kind of literature. It -would be because the page of Emerson is another -(and inferior) kind of religion.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span></p> - -<p>Dickens stands first as a defiant monument of -what happens when a great literary genius has a -literary taste akin to that of the community. For -this kinship was deep and spiritual. Dickens was -not like our ordinary demagogues and journalists. -Dickens did not write what the people wanted. -Dickens wanted what the people wanted. And -with this was connected that other fact which -must never be forgotten, and which I have more -than once insisted on, that Dickens and his school -had a hilarious faith in democracy and thought -of the service of it as a sacred priesthood. Hence -there was this vital point in his popularism, that -there was no condescension in it. The belief that -the rabble will only read rubbish can be read between -the lines of all our contemporary writers, -even of those writers whose rubbish the rabble -reads. Mr. Fergus Hume has no more respect -for the populace than Mr. George Moore. The -only difference lies between those writers who will -consent to talk down to the people, and those -writers who will not consent to talk down to the -people. But Dickens never talked down to the -people. He talked up to the people. He approached -the people like a deity and poured out -his riches and his blood. This is what makes the -immortal bond between him and the masses of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span> -men. He had not merely produced something -they could understand, but he took it seriously, -and toiled and agonized to produce it. They were -not only enjoying one of the best writers, they -were enjoying the best he could do. His raging -and sleepless nights, his wild walks in the darkness, -his note-books crowded, his nerves in rags, -all this extraordinary output was but a fit sacrifice -to the ordinary man. He climbed towards the -lower classes. He panted upwards on weary wings -to reach the heaven of the poor.</p> - -<p>His power, then, lay in the fact that he expressed -with an energy and brilliancy quite uncommon -the things close to the common mind. But -with this mere phrase, the common mind, we -collide with a current error. Commonness and the -common mind are now generally spoken of as -meaning in some manner inferiority and the inferior -mind; the mind of the mere mob. But the -common mind means the mind of all the artists -and heroes; or else it would not be common. -Plato had the common mind; Dante had the -common mind; or that mind was not common. -Commonness means the quality common to the -saint and the sinner, to the philosopher and the -fool; and it was this that Dickens grasped and -developed. In everybody there is a certain thing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span> -that loves babies, that fears death, that likes sunlight: -that thing enjoys Dickens. And everybody -does not mean uneducated crowds; everybody -means everybody: everybody means Mrs. Meynell. -This lady, a cloistered and fastidious writer, has -written one of the best eulogies of Dickens that -exist, an essay in praise of his pungent perfection -of epithet. And when I say that everybody understands -Dickens I do not mean that he is suited to -the untaught intelligence. I mean that he is so -plain that even scholars can understand him.</p> - -<p>The best expression of the fact, however, is to -be found in noting the two things in which he is -most triumphant. In order of artistic value, next -after his humour, comes his horror. And both -his humour and his horror are of a kind strictly -to be called human; that is, they belong to the -basic part of us, below the lowest roots of our -variety. His horror for instance is a healthy -churchyard horror, a fear of the grotesque defamation -called death; and this every man has, even -if he also has the more delicate and depraved fears -that come of an evil spiritual outlook. We may -be afraid of a fine shade with Henry James; that -is, we may be afraid of the world. We may be -afraid of a taut silence with Maeterlinck; that is, -we may be afraid of our own souls. But every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span> -one will certainly be afraid of a Cock Lane Ghost, -including Henry James and Maeterlinck. This -latter is literally a mortal fear, a fear of death; -it is not the immortal fear, or fear of damnation, -which belongs to all the more refined intellects of -our day. In a word, Dickens does, in the exact -sense, make the flesh creep; he does not, like the -decadents, make the soul crawl. And the creeping -of the flesh on being reminded of its fleshly -failure is a strictly universal thing which we can -all feel, while some of us are as yet uninstructed -in the art of spiritual crawling. In the same way -the Dickens mirth is a part of man and universal. -All men can laugh at broad humour, even the -subtle humourists. Even the modern <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">flâneur</i>, who -can smile at a particular combination of green and -yellow, would laugh at Mr. Lammle’s request for -Mr. Fledgeby’s nose. In a word—the common -things are common—even to the uncommon -people.</p> - -<p>These two primary dispositions of Dickens, to -make the flesh creep and to make the sides ache, -were a sort of twins of his spirit; they were never -far apart and the fact of their affinity is interestingly -exhibited in the first two novels.</p> - -<p>Generally he mixed the two up in a book and -mixed a great many other things with them. As<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span> -a rule he cared little if he kept six stories of quite -different colours running in the same book. The -effect was sometimes similar to that of playing six -tunes at once. He does not mind the coarse tragic -figure of Jonas Chuzzlewit crossing the mental -stage which is full of the allegorical pantomime of -Eden, Mr. Chollop and <i>The Watertoast Gazette</i>, a -scene which is as much of a satire as “Gulliver,” -and nearly as much of a fairy tale. He does not -mind binding up a rather pompous sketch of prostitution -in the same book with an adorable impossibility -like Bunsby. But “Pickwick” is so far -a coherent thing that it is coherently comic and -consistently rambling. And as a consequence his -next book was, upon the whole, coherently and -consistently horrible. As his natural turn for terrors -was kept down in “Pickwick,” so his natural -turn for joy and laughter is kept down in “Oliver -Twist.” In “Oliver Twist” the smoke of the -thieves’ kitchen hangs over the whole tale, and the -shadow of Fagin falls everywhere. The little -lamp-lit rooms of Mr. Brownlow and Rose Maylie -are to all appearance purposely kept subordinate, -a mere foil to the foul darkness without. It was -a strange and appropriate accident that Cruikshank -and not “Phiz” should have illustrated -this book. There was about Cruikshank’s art a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span> -kind of cramped energy which is almost the definition -of the criminal mind. His drawings have -a dark strength: yet he does not only draw morbidly, -he draws meanly. In the doubled-up figure -and frightful eyes of Fagin in the condemned cell -there is not only a baseness of subject; there is a -kind of baseness in the very technique of it. It is -not drawn with the free lines of a free man; it has -the half-witted secrecies of a hunted thief. It does -not look merely like a picture of Fagin; it looks -like a picture by Fagin. Among these dark and -detestable plates there is one which has with a -kind of black directness, the dreadful poetry that -does inhere in the story, stumbling as it often is. -It represents Oliver asleep at an open window in -the house of one of his humaner patrons. And -outside the window, but as big and close as if -they were in the room stand Fagin and the foul-faced -Monk, staring at him with dark monstrous -visages and great, white wicked eyes, in the style -of the simple deviltry of the draughtsman. The -very <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">naïveté</i> of the horror is horrifying: the very -woodenness of the two wicked men seems to make -them worse than mere men who are wicked. But -this picture of big devils at the window-sill does -express, as has been suggested above, the thread -of poetry in the whole thing; the sense, that is, of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span> -the thieves as a kind of army of devils compassing -earth and sky, crying for Oliver’s soul and besieging -the house in which he is barred for safety. In -this matter there is, I think, a difference between -the author and the illustrator. In Cruikshank -there was surely something morbid; but, sensitive -and sentimental as Dickens was, there was nothing -morbid in him. He had, as Stevenson had, more -of the mere boy’s love of suffocating stories of -blood and darkness; of skulls, of gibbets, of all the -things, in a word, that are sombre without being -sad. There is a ghastly joy in remembering our -boyish reading about Sikes and his flight; especially -about the voice of that unbearable pedlar -which went on in a monotonous and maddening -sing-song, “will wash out grease-stains, mud-stains, -blood-stains,” until Sikes fled almost screaming. -For this boyish mixture of appetite and -repugnance there is a good popular phrase, “supping -on horrors.” Dickens supped on horrors as -he supped on Christmas pudding. He supped on -horrors because he was an optimist and could sup -on anything. There was no saner or simpler -schoolboy than Traddles, who covered all his -books with skeletons.</p> - -<p>“Oliver Twist” had begun in Bentley’s <i>Miscellany</i>, -which Dickens edited in 1837. It was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span> -interrupted by a blow that for the moment broke -the author’s spirit and seemed to have broken his -heart. His wife’s sister, Mary Hogarth, died suddenly. -To Dickens his wife’s family seems to -have been like his own; his affections were heavily -committed to the sisters, and of this one he was -peculiarly fond. All his life, through much conceit -and sometimes something bordering on selfishness, -we can feel the redeeming note of an almost tragic -tenderness; he was a man who could really have -died of love or sorrow. He took up the work of -“Oliver Twist” again later in the year, and finished -it at the end of 1838. His work was incessant -and almost bewildering. In 1838 he had -already brought out the first number of “Nicholas -Nickleby.” But the great popularity went booming -on; the whole world was roaring for books by -Dickens, and more books by Dickens, and Dickens -was labouring night and day like a factory. -Among other things he edited the “Memoirs of -Grimaldi.” The incident is only worth mentioning -for the sake of one more example of the silly -ease with which Dickens was drawn by criticism -and the clever ease with which he managed, in -these small squabbles, to defend himself. Somebody -mildly suggested that, after all, Dickens had -never known Grimaldi. Dickens was down on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span> -him like a thunderbolt, sardonically asking how -close an intimacy Lord Braybrooke had with Mr. -Samuel Pepys.</p> - -<p>“Nicholas Nickleby” is the most typical perhaps -of the tone of his earlier works. It is in -form a very rambling, old-fashioned romance, the -kind of romance in which the hero is only a convenience -for the frustration of the villain. Nicholas -is what is called in theatricals a stick. But any -stick is good enough to beat a Squeers with. That -strong thwack, that simplified energy is the whole -object of such a story; and the whole of this tale -is full of a kind of highly picturesque platitude. -The wicked aristocrats, Sir Mulberry Hawk, Lord -Frederick Verisopht and the rest are inadequate -versions of the fashionable profligate. But this -is not (as some suppose) because Dickens in his -vulgarity could not comprehend the refinement of -patrician vice. There is no idea more vulgar or -more ignorant than the notion that a gentleman -is generally what is called refined. The error of -the Hawk conception is that, if anything, he is -too refined. Real aristocratic blackguards do not -swagger and rant so well. A real fast baronet -would not have defied Nicholas in the tavern with -so much oratorical dignity. A real fast baronet -would probably have been choked with apoplectic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span> -embarrassment and said nothing at all. But Dickens -read into this aristocracy a grandiloquence and -a natural poetry which, like all melodrama, is -really the precious jewel of the poor.</p> - -<p>But the book contains something which is much -more Dickensian. It is exquisitely characteristic -of Dickens that the truly great achievement of the -story is the person who delays the story. Mrs. -Nickleby with her beautiful mazes of memory does -her best to prevent the story of Nicholas Nickleby -from being told. And she does well. There is -no particular necessity that we should know what -happens to Madeline Bray. There is a desperate -and crying necessity that we should know that -Mrs. Nickleby once had a foot-boy who had a -wart on his nose and a driver who had a green -shade over his left eye. If Mrs. Nickleby is a -fool, she is one of those fools who are wiser than -the world. She stands for a great truth which we -must not forget; the truth that experience is not -in real life a saddening thing at all. The people -who have had misfortunes are generally the people -who love to talk about them. Experience is really -one of the gaieties of old age, one of its dissipations. -Mere memory becomes a kind of debauch. -Experience may be disheartening to those who are -foolish enough to try to co-ordinate it and to draw<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span> -deductions from it. But to those happy souls, -like Mrs. Nickleby, to whom relevancy is nothing, -the whole of their past life is like an inexhaustible -fairyland. Just as we take a rambling walk because -we know that a whole district is beautiful, -so they indulge a rambling mind because they know -that a whole existence is interesting. A boy does -not plunge into his future more romantically and -at random, than they plunge into their past.</p> - -<p>Another gleam in the book is Mr. Mantalini. -Of him, as of all the really great comic characters -of Dickens, it is impossible to speak with any -critical adequacy. Perfect absurdity is a direct -thing, like physical pain, or a strong smell. A -joke is a fact. However indefensible it is it -cannot be attacked. However defensible it is it -cannot be defended. That Mr. Mantalini should -say in praising the “outline” of his wife, “The -two Countesses had no outlines, and the Dowager’s -was a demd outline,” this can only be called -an unanswerable absurdity. You may try to analyse -it, as Charles Lamb did the indefensible joke -about the hare; you may dwell for a moment on -the dark distinctions between the negative disqualification -of the Countesses and the positive disqualification -of the Dowager, but you will not -capture the violent beauty of it in any way. “She<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span> -will be a lovely widow; I shall be a body. Some -handsome women will cry; she will laugh -demnedly.” This vision of demoniac heartlessness -has the same defiant finality. I mention the -matter here, but it has to be remembered in connection -with all the comic masterpieces of Dickens. -Dickens has greatly suffered with the critics -precisely through this stunning simplicity in his -best work. The critic is called upon to describe -his sensations while enjoying Mantalini and -Micawber, and he can no more describe them than -he can describe a blow in the face. Thus Dickens, -in this self-conscious, analytical and descriptive -age, loses both ways. He is doubly unfitted for -the best modern criticism. His bad work is below -that criticism. His good work is above it.</p> - -<p>But gigantic as were Dickens’s labours, gigantic -as were the exactions from him, his own plans -were more gigantic still. He had the type of mind -that wishes to do every kind of work at once; to -do everybody’s work as well as its own. There -floated before him a vision of a monstrous magazine, -entirely written by himself. It is true that -when this scheme came to be discussed, he suggested -that other pens might be occasionally employed; -but, reading between the lines, it is sufficiently -evident that he thought of the thing as a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span> -kind of vast multiplication of himself, with Dickens -as editor, opening letters, Dickens as leader-writer -writing leaders, Dickens as reporter reporting -meetings, Dickens as reviewer reviewing books, -Dickens, for all I know, as office-boy, opening and -shutting doors. This serial, of which he spoke to -Messrs. Chapman and Hall, began and broke off -and remains as a colossal fragment bound together -under the title of “Master Humphrey’s Clock.” -One characteristic thing he wished to have in the -periodical. He suggested an Arabian Nights of -London, in which Gog and Magog, the giants of -the city, should give forth chronicles as enormous -as themselves. He had a taste for these schemes -or frameworks for many tales. He made and -abandoned many; many he half-fulfilled. I -strongly suspect that he meant Major Jackman, in -“Mrs. Lirriper’s Lodgings” and “Mrs. Lirriper’s -Legacy,” to start a series of studies of that -lady’s lodgers, a kind of history of No. 81 Norfolk -Street, Strand. “The Seven Poor Travellers” -was planned for seven stories; we will not -say seven poor stories. Dickens had meant, probably, -to write a tale for each article of “Somebody’s -Luggage”: he only got as far as the hat -and the boots. This gigantesque scale of literary -architecture, huge and yet curiously cosy, is characteristic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span> -of his spirit, fond of size and yet fond -of comfort. He liked to have story within story, -like room within room of some labyrinthine but -comfortable castle. In this spirit he wished -“Master Humphrey’s Clock” to begin, and to -be a big frame or bookcase for numberless novels. -The clock started; but the clock stopped.</p> - -<p>In the prologue by Master Humphrey reappears -Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller, and of that resurrection -many things have been said, chiefly expressions -of a reasonable regret. Doubtless they do -not add much to their author’s reputation, but they -add a great deal to their author’s pleasure. It was -ingrained in him to wish to meet old friends. All -his characters are, so to speak, designed to be old -friends; in a sense every Dickens character is an -old friend, even when he first appears. He comes -to us mellow out of many implied interviews, and -carries the firelight on his face. Dickens was simply -pleased to meet Pickwick again, and being -pleased, he made the old man too comfortable to -be amusing.</p> - -<p>But “Master Humphrey’s Clock” is now -scarcely known except as the shell of one of the -well-known novels. “The Old Curiosity Shop” -was published in accordance with the original -“Clock” scheme. Perhaps the most typical thing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span> -about it is the title. There seems no reason in particular, -at the first and most literal glance, why the -story should be called after the Old Curiosity Shop. -Only two of the characters have anything to do -with such a shop, and they leave us for ever in the -first few pages. It is as if Thackeray had called -the whole novel of “Vanity Fair” “Miss Pinkerton’s -Academy.” It is as if Scott had given the -whole story of “The Antiquary” the title of -“The Hawes Inn.” But when we feel the situation -with more fidelity we realize that this title -is something in the nature of a key to the whole -Dickens romance. His tales always started from -some splendid hint in the streets. And shops, perhaps -the most poetical of all things, often set off -his fancy galloping. Every shop, in fact, was to -him the door of romance. Among all the huge -serial schemes of which we have spoken, it is a -matter of wonder that he never started an endless -periodical called “The Street,” and divided it -into shops. He could have written an exquisite -romance called “The Baker’s Shop”; another -called “The Chemist’s Shop”; another called -“The Oil Shop,” to keep company with “The Old -Curiosity Shop.” Some incomparable baker he -invented and forgot. Some gorgeous chemist -might have been. Some more than mortal oilman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span> -is lost to us for ever. This Old Curiosity -Shop he did happen to linger by: its tale he did -happen to tell.</p> - -<p>Around “Little Nell,” of course, a controversy -raged and rages; some implored Dickens not to -kill her at the end of the story: some regret that -he did not kill her at the beginning. To me the -chief interest in this young person lies in the fact -that she is an example, and the most celebrated -example of what must have been, I think, a personal -peculiarity, perhaps a personal experience of -Dickens. There is, of course, no paradox at all -in saying that if we find in a good book a wildly -impossible character it is very probable indeed that -it was copied from a real person. This is one of -the commonplaces of good art criticism. For although -people talk of the restraints of fact and the -freedom of fiction, the case for most artistic purposes -is quite the other way. Nature is as free as -air: art is forced to look probable. There may be -a million things that do happen, and yet only one -thing that convinces us as likely to happen. Out -of a million possible things there may be only one -appropriate thing. I fancy, therefore, that many -stiff, unconvincing characters are copied from the -wild freak-show of real life. And in many parts -of Dickens’s work there is evidence of some peculiar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span> -affection on his part for a strange sort of little -girl; a little girl with a premature sense of responsibility -and duty; a sort of saintly precocity. -Did he know some little girl of this kind? Did she -die, perhaps, and remain in his memory in colours -too ethereal and pale? In any case there are a -great number of them in his works. Little Dorrit -was one of them, and Florence Dombey with her -brother, and even Agnes in infancy; and, of course, -Little Nell. And, in any case, one thing is evident; -whatever charm these children may have -they have not the charm of childhood. They are -not little children: they are “little mothers.” The -beauty and divinity in a child lie in his not being -worried, not being conscientious, not being like -Little Nell. Little Nell has never any of the -sacred bewilderment of a baby. She never wears -that face, beautiful but almost half-witted, with -which a real child half understands that there is -evil in the universe.</p> - -<p>As usual, however, little as the story has to do -with the title, the splendid and satisfying pages -have even less to do with the story. Dick Swiveller -is perhaps the noblest of all the noble creations -of Dickens. He has all the overwhelming absurdity -of Mantalini, with the addition of being -human and credible, for he knows he is absurd.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span> -His high-falutin is not done because he seriously -thinks it right and proper, like that of Mr. Snodgrass, -nor is it done because he thinks it will serve -his turn, like that of Mr. Pecksniff, for both these -beliefs are improbable; it is done because he really -loves high-falutin, because he has a lonely literary -pleasure in exaggerative language. Great draughts -of words are to him like great draughts of wine—pungent -and yet refreshing, light and yet leaving -him in a glow. In unerring instinct for the -perfect folly of a phrase he has no equal, even -among the giants of Dickens. “I am sure,” says -Miss Wackles, when she had been flirting with -Cheggs, the market-gardener, and reduced Mr. -Swiveller to Byronic renunciation, “I am sure I’m -very sorry if—” “Sorry,” said Mr. Swiveller, -“sorry in the possession of a Cheggs!” The -abyss of bitterness is unfathomable. Scarcely less -precious is the pose of Mr. Swiveller when he -imitates the stage brigand. After crying, “Some -wine here! Ho!” he hands the flagon to himself -with profound humility, and receives it haughtily. -Perhaps the very best scene in the book is that -between Mr. Swiveller and the single gentleman -with whom he endeavours to remonstrate for having -remained in bed all day: “We cannot have -single gentlemen coming into the place and sleeping<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span> -like double gentlemen without paying extra.... -An equal amount of slumber was never -got out of one bed, and if you want to sleep like -that you must pay for a double-bedded room.” -His relations with the Marchioness are at once -purely romantic and purely genuine; there is nothing -even of Dickens’s legitimate exaggerations -about them. A shabby, larky, good-natured clerk -would, as a matter of fact, spend hours in the -society of a little servant girl if he found her about -the house. It would arise partly from a dim kindliness, -and partly from that mysterious instinct -which is sometimes called, mistakenly, a love -of low company—that mysterious instinct which -makes so many men of pleasure find something -soothing in the society of uneducated people, particularly -uneducated women. It is the instinct -which accounts for the otherwise unaccountable -popularity of barmaids.</p> - -<p>And still the pot of that huge popularity boiled. -In 1841 another novel was demanded, and “Barnaby -Rudge” supplied. It is chiefly of interest as -an embodiment of that other element in Dickens, -the picturesque or even the pictorial. Barnaby -Rudge, the idiot with his rags and his feathers and -his raven, the bestial hangman, the blind mob—all -make a picture, though they hardly make a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span> -novel. One touch there is in it of the richer and -more humorous Dickens, the boy-conspirator, Mr. -Sim Tappertit. But he might have been treated -with more sympathy—with as much sympathy, for -instance, as Mr. Dick Swiveller; for he is only -the romantic guttersnipe, the bright boy at the -particular age when it is most fascinating to found -a secret society and most difficult to keep a secret. -And if ever there was a romantic guttersnipe on -earth it was Charles Dickens. “Barnaby Rudge” -is no more an historical novel than Sim’s secret -league was a political movement; but they are both -beautiful creations. When all is said, however, the -main reason for mentioning the work here is that -it is the next bubble in the pot, the next thing that -burst out of that whirling, seething head. The -tide of it rose and smoked and sang till it boiled -over the pot of Britain and poured over all America. -In the January of 1842 he set out for the -United States.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_127">CHAPTER VI<br /> - -<span class="subhead">DICKENS AND AMERICA</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> essential of Dickens’s character was the conjunction -of common sense with uncommon sensibility. -The two things are not, indeed, in such -an antithesis as is commonly imagined. Great -English literary authorities, such as Jane Austen -and Mr. Chamberlain, have put the word “sense” -and the word “sensibility” in a kind of opposition -to each other. But not only are they not -opposite words: they are actually the same word. -They both mean receptiveness or approachability -by the facts outside us. To have a sense of colour -is the same as to have a sensibility to colour. A -person who realizes that beef-steaks are appetizing -shows his sensibility. A person who realizes -that moonrise is romantic shows his sense. But it -is not difficult to see the meaning and need of the -popular distinction between sensibility and sense, -particularly in the form called common sense. -Common sense is a sensibility duly distributed in -all normal directions; sensibility has come to mean -a specialized sensibility in one. This is unfortunate,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span> -for it is not the sensibility that is bad, but -the specializing; that is, the lack of sensibility to -everything else. A young lady who stays out all -night to look at the stars should not be blamed -for her sensibility to starlight, but for her insensibility -to other people. A poet who recites his -own verses from ten to five with the tears rolling -down his face should decidedly be rebuked for his -lack of sensibility—his lack of sensibility to those -grand rhythms of the social harmony, crudely -called manners. For all politeness is a long poem, -since it is full of recurrences. This balance of all -the sensibilities we call sense; and it is in this -capacity that it becomes of great importance as an -attribute of the character of Dickens.</p> - -<p>Dickens, I repeat, had common sense and uncommon -sensibility. That is to say, the proportion -of interests in him was about the same as that of -an ordinary man, but he felt all of them more -excitedly. This is a distinction not easy for us to -keep in mind, because we hear to-day chiefly of -two types, the dull man who likes ordinary things -mildly, and the extraordinary man who likes extraordinary -things wildly. But Dickens liked -quite ordinary things; he merely made an extraordinary -fuss about them. His excitement was sometimes -like an epileptic fit; but it must not be confused<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span> -with the fury of the man of one idea or one -line of ideas. He had the excess of the eccentric, -but not the defects, the narrowness. Even when -he raved like a maniac he did not rave like a -monomaniac. He had no particular spot of sensibility -or spot of insensibility: he was merely a -normal man minus a normal self-command. He -had no special point of mental pain or repugnance, -like Ruskin’s horror of steam and iron, or Mr. -Bernard Shaw’s permanent irritation against romantic -love. He was annoyed at the ordinary -annoyances: only he was more annoyed than was -necessary. He did not desire strange delights, -blue wine or black women with Baudelaire, or -cruel sights east of Suez with Mr. Kipling. He -wanted what a healthy man wants, only he was -ill with wanting it. To understand him, in a word, -we must keep well in mind the medical distinction -between delicacy and disease. Perhaps we shall -comprehend it and him more clearly if we think -of a woman rather than a man. There was much -that was feminine about Dickens, and nothing -more so than this abnormal normality. A woman -is often, in comparison with a man, at once more -sensitive and more sane.</p> - -<p>This distinction must be especially remembered -in all his quarrels. And it must be most especially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span> -remembered in what may be called his great quarrel -with America, which we have now to approach. -The whole matter is so typical of Dickens’s attitude -to everything and anything, and especially of -Dickens’s attitude to anything political, that I may -ask permission to approach the matter by another, -a somewhat long and curving avenue.</p> - -<p>Common sense is a fairy thread, thin and faint, -and as easily lost as gossamer. Dickens (in large -matters) never lost it. Take, as an example, his -political tone or drift throughout his life. His -views, of course, may have been right or wrong; -the reforms he supported may have been successful -or otherwise: that is not a matter for this book. -But if we compare him with the other men that -wanted the same things (or the other men that -wanted the other things) we feel a startling absence -of cant, a startling sense of humanity as it -is, and of the eternal weakness. He was a fierce -democrat, but in his best vein he laughed at the -cocksure Radical of common life, the red-faced -man who said, “Prove it!” when anybody said -anything. He fought for the right to elect; but -he would not whitewash elections. He believed in -parliamentary government; but he did not, like -our contemporary newspapers, pretend that parliament -is something much more heroic and imposing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span> -than it is. He fought for the rights of the -grossly oppressed Nonconformists; but he spat out -of his mouth the unction of that too easy seriousness -with which they oiled everything, and held up -to them like a horrible mirror the foul fat face of -Chadband. He saw that Mr. Podsnap thought -too little of places outside England. But he saw -that Mrs. Jellaby thought too much of them. In -the last book he wrote he gives us, in Mr. Honeythunder, -a hateful and wholesome picture of all -the Liberal catchwords pouring out of one illiberal -man. But perhaps the best evidence of this -steadiness and sanity is the fact that, dogmatic -as he was, he never tied himself to any passing -dogma: he never got into any <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">cul de sac</i> of civic -or economic fanaticism: he went down the broad -road of the Revolution. He never admitted that -economically, we must make hells of workhouses, -any more than Rousseau would have admitted it. -He never said the State had no right to teach -children or save their bones, any more than Danton -would have said it. He was a fierce Radical; -but he was never a Manchester Radical. He used -the test of Utility, but he was never a Utilitarian. -While economists were writing soft words he -wrote “Hard Times,” which Macaulay called -“sullen Socialism,” because it was not complacent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span> -Whiggism. But Dickens was never a Socialist any -more than he was an Individualist; and, whatever -else he was, he certainly was not sullen. He was -not even a politician of any kind. He was -simply a man of very clear, airy judgment on -things that did not inflame his private temper, and -he perceived that any theory that tried to run the -living State entirely on one force and motive was -probably nonsense. Whenever the Liberal philosophy -had embedded in it something hard and -heavy and lifeless, by an instinct he dropped it out. -He was too romantic, perhaps, but he would have -to do only with real things. He may have cared -too much about Liberty. But he cared nothing -about “Laissez faire.”</p> - -<p>Now, among many interests of his contact with -America this interest emerges as infinitely the -largest and most striking, that it gave a final example -of this queer, unexpected coolness and candour -of his, this abrupt and sensational rationality. -Apart altogether from any question of the accuracy -of his picture of America, the American indignation -was particularly natural and inevitable. -For the large circumstances of the age must be -taken into account. At the end of the previous -epoch the whole of our Christian civilization had -been startled from its sleep by trumpets to take<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span> -sides in a bewildering Armageddon, often with -eyes still misty. Germany and Austria found -themselves on the side of the old order, France -and America on the side of the new. England, as -at the Reformation, took up eventually a dark -middle position, maddeningly difficult to define. -She created a democracy, but she kept an aristocracy: -she reformed the House of Commons, but -left the magistracy (as it is still) a mere league -of gentlemen against the world. But underneath -all this doubt and compromise there was in England -a great and perhaps growing mass of dogmatic -democracy; certainly thousands, probably -millions expected a Republic in fifty years. And -for these the first instinct was obvious. The first -instinct was to look across the Atlantic to where -lay a part of ourselves already Republican, the van -of the advancing English on the road to liberty. -Nearly all the great Liberals of the nineteenth -century enormously idealized America. On the -other hand to the Americans, fresh from their -first epic of arms, the defeated mother country, -with its coronets and county magistrates, was -only a broken feudal keep.</p> - -<p>So much is self-evident. But nearly halfway -through the nineteenth century there came out of -England the voice of a violent satirist. In its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span> -political quality it seemed like the half-choked cry -of the frustrated republic. It had no patience with -the pretence that England was already free, that -we had gained all that was valuable from the Revolution. -It poured a cataract of contempt on the -so-called working compromises of England, on -the oligarchic cabinets, on the two artificial parties, -on the government offices, on the J.P.’s, on the -vestries, on the voluntary charities. This satirist -was Dickens, and it must be remembered that he -was not only fierce, but uproariously readable. He -really damaged the things he struck at, a very -rare thing. He stepped up to the grave official -of the vestry, really trusted by the rulers, really -feared like a god by the poor, and he tied round -his neck a name that choked him; never again -now can he be anything but Bumble. He confronted -the fine old English gentleman who gives -his patriotic services for nothing as a local magistrate, -and he nailed him up as Nupkins, an owl in -open day. For to this satire there is literally no -answer; it cannot be denied that a man like Nupkins -can be and is a magistrate, so long as we -adopt the amazing method of letting the rich man -of a district actually be the judge in it. We can -only avoid the vision of the fact by shutting our -eyes, and imagining the nicest rich man we can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span> -think of; and that, of course, is what we do. But -Dickens, in this matter, was merely realistic; he -merely asked us to look on Nupkins, on the wild, -strange thing that we had made. Thus Dickens -seemed to see England not at all as the country -where freedom slowly broadened down from precedent -to precedent, but as a rubbish heap of seventeenth -century bad habits abandoned by everybody -else. That is, he looked at England almost -with the eyes of an American democrat.</p> - -<p>And so, when the voice, swelling in volume, -reached America and the Americans, the Americans -said, “Here is a man who will hurry the old -country along, and tip her kings and beadles into -the sea. Let him come here, and we will show him -a race of free men such as he dreams of, alive upon -the ancient earth. Let him come here and tell -the English of the divine democracy towards which -he drives them. There he has a monarchy and an -oligarchy to make game of. Here is a republic -for him to praise.” It seemed, indeed, a very -natural sequel, that having denounced undemocratic -England as the wilderness, he should announce -democratic America as the promised land. -Any ordinary person would have prophesied that -as he had pushed his rage at the old order almost -to the edge of rant, he would push his encomium<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span> -of the new order almost to the edge of cant. Amid -a roar of republican idealism, compliments, hope, -and anticipatory gratitude, the great democrat entered -the great democracy. He looked about him; -he saw a complete America, unquestionably progressive, -unquestionably self-governing. Then, -with a more than American coolness, and a more -than American impudence, he sat down and wrote -“Martin Chuzzlewit.” That tricky and perverse -sanity of his had mutinied again. Common sense -is a wild thing, savage, and beyond rules; and it -had turned on them and rent them.</p> - -<p>The main course of action was as follows; and -it is right to record it before we speak of the justice -of it. When I speak of his sitting down and -writing “Martin Chuzzlewit,” I use, of course, an -elliptical expression. He wrote the notes of the -American part of “Martin Chuzzlewit” while -he was still in America; but it was a later decision -presumably that such impressions should go into -a book, and it was little better than an afterthought -that they should go into “Martin Chuzzlewit.” -Dickens had an uncommonly bad habit (artistically -speaking) of altering a story in the middle as -he did in the case of “Our Mutual Friend.” And -it is on record that he only sent young Martin -to America because he did not know what else<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span> -to do with him, and because (to say truth) the -sales were falling off. But the first action, which -Americans regarded as an equally hostile one, was -the publication of “American Notes,” the history -of which should first be given. His notion of visiting -America had come to him as a very vague -notion, even before the appearance of “The Old -Curiosity Shop.” But it had grown in him through -the whole ensuing period in the plaguing and persistent -way that ideas did grow in him and live -with him. He contended against the idea in a -certain manner. He had much to induce him to -contend against it. Dickens was by this time not -only a husband, but a father, the father of several -children, and their existence made a difficulty in -itself. His wife, he said, cried whenever the project -was mentioned. But it was a point in him -that he could never, with any satisfaction, part -with a project. He had that restless optimism, -that kind of nervous optimism, which would always -tend to say “Yes”; which is stricken with an -immortal repentance, if ever it says “No.” The -idea of seeing America might be doubtful, but the -idea of not seeing America was dreadful. “To -miss this opportunity would be a sad thing,” he -says. “... God willing, I think it <em>must</em> be managed -somehow!” It was managed somehow.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span> -First of all he wanted to take his children as well -as his wife. Final obstacles to this fell upon him, -but they did not frustrate him. A serious illness -fell on him; but that did not frustrate him. He -sailed for America in 1842.</p> - -<p>He landed in America, and he liked it. As -John Forster very truly says, it is due to him, as -well as to the great country that welcomed him, -that his first good impression should be recorded, -and that it should be “considered independently -of any modification it afterwards underwent.” -But the modification it afterwards underwent was, -as I have said above, simply a sudden kicking -against cant, that is, against repetition. He was -quite ready to believe that all Americans were -free men. He would have believed it if they had -not all told him so. He was quite prepared to be -pleased with America. He would have been pleased -with it if it had not been so much pleased with -itself. The “modification” his view underwent did -not arise from any “modification” of America as -he first saw it. His admiration did not change because -America changed. It changed because -America did not change. The Yankees enraged -him at last, not by saying different things, but by -saying the same things. They were a republic; -they were a new and vigorous nation; it seemed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span> -natural that they should say so to a famous foreigner -first stepping on to their shore. But it -seemed maddening that they should say so to each -other in every car and drinking saloon from morning -till night. It was not that the Americans in -any way ceased from praising him. It was rather -that they went on praising him. It was not merely -that their praises of him sounded beautiful when -he first heard them. Their praises of themselves -sounded beautiful when he first heard them. That -democracy was grand, and that Charles Dickens -was a remarkable person, were two truths that -he certainly never doubted to his dying day. But, -as I say, it was a soulless repetition that stung his -sense of humour out of sleep; it woke like a wild -beast for hunting, the lion of his laughter. He -had heard the truth once too often. He had -heard the truth for the nine hundred and ninety-ninth -time, and he suddenly saw that it was falsehood.</p> - -<p>It is true that a particular circumstance sharpened -and defined his disappointment. He felt -very hotly, as he felt everything, whether selfish -or unselfish, the injustice of the American piracies -of English literature, resulting from the American -copyright laws. He did not go to America with -any idea of discussing this; when, some time afterwards,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span> -somebody said that he did, he violently -rejected the view as only describable “in one of -the shortest words in the English language.” But -his entry into America was almost triumphal; the -rostrum or pulpit was ready for him; he felt -strong enough to say anything. He had been most -warmly entertained by many American men of -letters, especially by Washington Irving, and in -his consequent glow of confidence he stepped up -to the dangerous question of American copyright. -He made many speeches attacking the American -law and theory of the matter as unjust to English -writers and to American readers. The effect appears -to have astounded him. “I believe there -is no country,” he writes, “on the face of the earth -where there is less freedom of opinion on any -subject in reference to which there is a broad difference -of opinion than in this. There! I write the -words with reluctance, disappointment, and sorrow; -but I believe it from the bottom of my soul.... -The notion that I, a man alone by myself -in America, should venture to suggest to the Americans -that there was one point on which they were -neither just to their own countrymen nor to us, -actually struck the boldest dumb! Washington -Irving, Prescott, Hoffman, Bryant, Halleck, Dana, -Washington Allston—every man who writes in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span> -this country is devoted to the question, and not one -of them <em>dares</em> to raise his voice and complain of -the atrocious state of the law.... The wonder -is that a breathing man can be found with temerity -enough to suggest to the Americans the possibility -of their having done wrong. I wish you could -have seen the faces that I saw down both sides -of the table at Hartford when I began to talk -about Scott. I wish you could have heard how -I gave it out. My blood so boiled when I thought -of the monstrous injustice that I felt as if I were -twelve feet high when I thrust it down their -throats.”</p> - -<p>That is almost a portrait of Dickens. We can -almost see the erect little figure, its face and hair -like a flame.</p> - -<p>For such reasons, among others, Dickens was -angry with America. But if America was angry -with Dickens, there were also reasons for it. I -do not think that the rage against his copyright -speeches was, as he supposed, merely national insolence -and self-satisfaction. America is a mystery -to any good Englishman; but I think Dickens -managed somehow to touch it on a queer nerve. -There is one thing, at any rate, that must strike -all Englishmen who have the good fortune to have -American friends; that is, that while there is no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span> -materialism so crude or so material as American -materialism, there is also no idealism so crude or -so ideal as American idealism. America will always -affect an Englishman as being soft in the -wrong place and hard in the wrong place; coarse -exactly where all civilized men are delicate, delicate -exactly where all grown-up men are coarse. -Some beautiful ideal runs through this people, but -it runs aslant. The only existing picture in which -the thing I mean has been embodied is in Stevenson’s -“Wrecker,” in the blundering delicacy of -Jim Pinkerton. America has a new delicacy, a -coarse, rank refinement. But there is another way -of embodying the idea, and that is to say this—that -nothing is more likely than that the Americans -thought it very shocking in Dickens, the divine -author, to talk about being done out of money. -Nothing would be more American than to expect -a genius to be too high-toned for trade. It is -certain that they deplored his selfishness in the -matter, it is probable that they deplored his indelicacy. -A beautiful young dreamer, with flowing -brown hair, ought not to be even conscious of his -copyrights. For it is quite unjust to say that the -Americans worship the dollar. They really do -worship intellect—another of the passing superstitions -of our time.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span></p> - -<p>If America had then this Pinkertonian propriety, -this new, raw sensibility, Dickens was the -man to rasp it. He was its precise opposite in -every way. The decencies he did respect were old-fashioned -and fundamental. On top of these he -had that lounging liberty and comfort which can -only be had on the basis of very old conventions, -like the carelessness of gentlemen and the deliberation -of rustics. He had no fancy for being strung -up to that taut and quivering ideality demanded -by American patriots and public speakers. And -there was something else also, connected especially -with the question of copyright and his own pecuniary -claims. Dickens was not in the least desirous -of being thought too “high-souled” to want his -wages, nor was he in the least ashamed of asking -for them. Deep in him (whether the modern -reader likes the quality or no) was a sense very -strong in the old Radicals—very strong especially -in the old English Radicals—a sense of personal -<em>rights</em>, one’s own rights included, as something not -merely useful but sacred. He did not think a claim -any less just and solemn because it happened to be -selfish; he did not divide claims into selfish and -unselfish, but into right and wrong. It is significant -that when he asked for his money, he never -asked for it with that shamefaced cynicism, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span> -sort of embarrassed brutality, with which the modern -man of the world mutters something about -business being business or looking after number -one. He asked for his money in a valiant and -ringing voice, like a man asking for his honour. -While his American critics were moaning and -sneering at his interested motives as a disqualification, -he brandished his interested motives like -a banner. “It is nothing to them,” he cries in -astonishment, “that, of all men living, I am the -greatest loser by it” (the Copyright Law). “It -is nothing that I have a claim to speak and be -heard.” The thing they set up as a barrier he -actually presents as a passport. They think that -he, of all men, ought not to speak because he is -interested. He thinks that he, of all men, ought to -speak because he is wronged.</p> - -<p>But this particular disappointment with America -in the matter of the tyranny of its public opinion -was not merely the expression of the fact that -Dickens was a typical Englishman; that is, a man -with a very sharp insistence upon individual freedom. -It also worked back ultimately to that -larger and vaguer disgust of which I have spoken—the -disgust at the perpetual posturing of the -people before a mirror. The tyranny was irritating, -not so much because of the suffering it inflicted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span> -on the minority, but because of the awful glimpses -that it gave of the huge and imbecile happiness of -the majority. The very vastness of the vain race -enraged him, its immensity, its unity, its peace. -He was annoyed more with its contentment than -with any of its discontents. The thought of that -unthinkable mass of millions, every one of them -saying that Washington was the greatest man on -earth, and that the Queen lived in the Tower of -London, rode his riotous fancy like a nightmare. -But to the end he retained the outlines of his -original republican ideal and lamented over America -not as being too Liberal, but as not being Liberal -enough. Among others, he used these somewhat -remarkable words: “I tremble for a Radical -coming here, unless he is a Radical on principle, -by reason and reflection, and from the sense of -right. I fear that if he were anything else he -would return home a Tory.... I say no more -on that head for two months from this time, save -that I do fear that the heaviest blow ever dealt at -liberty will be dealt by this country, in the failure -of its example on the earth.”</p> - -<p>We are still waiting to see if that prediction has -been fulfilled; but nobody can say that it has been -falsified.</p> - -<p>He went west on the great canals; he went south<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span> -and touched the region of slavery; he saw America -superficially indeed, but as a whole. And the great -mass of his experience was certainly pleasant, -though he vibrated with anticipatory passion -against slave-holders, though he swore he would -accept no public tribute in the slave country (a -resolve which he broke under the pressure of the -politeness of the south), yet his actual collisions -with slavery and its upholders were few and brief. -In these he bore himself with his accustomed vivacity -and fire, but it would be a great mistake to convey -the impression that his mental reaction against -America was chiefly, or even largely, due to his -horror at the negro problem. Over and above the -cant of which we have spoken, the weary rush of -words, the chief complaint he made was a complaint -against bad manners; and on a large view -his anti-Americanism would seem to be more -founded on spitting than on slavery. When, however, -it did happen that the primary morality of -man-owning came up for discussion, Dickens displayed -an honourable impatience. One man, full -of anti-abolitionist ardour, buttonholed him and -bombarded him with the well-known argument in -defence of slavery, that it was not to the financial -interest of a slave-owner to damage or weaken his -own slaves. Dickens, in telling the story of this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span> -interview, writes as follows: “I told him quietly -that it was not a man’s interest to get drunk, or -to steal, or to game, or to indulge in any other -vice; but he <em>did</em> indulge in it for all that. That -cruelty and the abuse of irresponsible power were -two of the bad passions of human nature, with the -gratification of which considerations of interest or -of ruin had nothing whatever to do....” It -is hardly possible to doubt that Dickens, in telling -the man this, told him something sane and logical -and unanswerable. But it is perhaps permissible -to doubt whether he told it to him quietly.</p> - -<p>He returned home in the spring of 1842, and -in the later part of the year his “American Notes” -appeared, and the cry against him that had begun -over copyright swelled into a roar in his rear. Yet -when we read the “Notes” we can find little -offence in them, and, to say truth, less interest than -usual. They are no true picture of America, or -even of his vision of America, and this for two -reasons. First, that he deliberately excluded from -them all mention of that copyright question which -had really given him his glimpse of how tyrannical -a democracy can be. Second, that here he chiefly -criticizes America for faults which are not, after -all, especially American. For example, he is indignant -with the inadequate character of the prisons,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span> -and compares them unfavourably with those in -England, controlled by Lieutenant Tracey, and -by Chesterton at Coldbath Fields, two reformers -of prison discipline for whom he had a high regard. -But it was a mere accident that American -gaols were inferior to English. There was and is -nothing in the American spirit to prevent their -effecting all the reforms of Tracey and Chesterton, -nothing to prevent their doing anything that -money and energy and organization can do. -America might have (for all I know, does have) a -prison system cleaner and more humane and more -efficient than any other in the world. And the -evil genius of America might still remain—everything -might remain that makes Pogram or Chollop -irritating or absurd. And against the evil -genius of America Dickens was now to strike a -second and a very different blow.</p> - -<p>In January, 1843, appeared the first number of -the novel called “Martin Chuzzlewit.” The -earlier part of the book and the end, which have -no connection with America or the American problem, -in any case require a passing word. But except -for the two gigantic grotesques on each side -of the gateway of the tale, Pecksniff and Mrs. -Gamp, “Martin Chuzzlewit” will be chiefly admired -for its American excursion. It is a good<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span> -satire embedded in an indifferent novel. Mrs. -Gamp is, indeed, a sumptuous study, laid on in -those rich, oily, almost greasy colours that go to -make the English comic characters, that make the -very diction of Falstaff fat, and quaking with jolly -degradation. Pecksniff also is almost perfect, and -much too good to be true. The only other thing -to be noticed about him is that here, as almost -everywhere else in the novels, the best figures are -at their best when they have least to do. Dickens’s -characters are perfect as long as he can keep them -out of his stories. Bumble is divine until a dark -and practical secret is entrusted to him—as if anybody -but a lunatic would entrust a secret to Bumble. -Micawber is noble when he is doing nothing; -but he is quite unconvincing when he is spying on -Uriah Heep, for obviously neither Micawber nor -any one else would employ Micawber as a private -detective. Similarly, while Pecksniff is the best -thing in the story, the story is the worst thing in -Pecksniff. His plot against old Martin can only -be described by saying that it is as silly as old -Martin’s plot against him. His fall at the end -is one of the rare falls of Dickens. Surely it was -not necessary to take Pecksniff so seriously. Pecksniff -is a merely laughable character; he is so laughable -that he is lovable. Why take such trouble<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span> -to unmask a man whose mask you have made -transparent? Why collect all the characters to -witness the exposure of a man in whom none of the -characters believe? Why toil and triumph to -have the laugh of a man who was only made to be -laughed at?</p> - -<p>But it is the American part of “Martin Chuzzlewit” -which is our concern, and which is memorable. -It has the air of a great satire; but if it -is only a great slander, it is still great. His serious -book on America was merely a squib, perhaps a -damp squib. In any case, we all know that America -will survive such serious books. But his fantastic -book may survive America. It may survive -America as “The Knights” has survived Athens. -“Martin Chuzzlewit” has this quality of great -satire that the critic forgets to ask whether the -portrait is true to the original, because the portrait -is so much more important than the original. -Who cares whether Aristophanes correctly describes -Kleon, who is dead, when he so perfectly -describes the demagogue, who cannot die? Just -as little, it may be, will some future age care -whether the ancient civilization of the west, the -lost cities of New York and St. Louis, were fairly -depicted in the colossal monument of Elijah -Pogram. For there is much more in the American<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span> -episodes than their intoxicating absurdity; there is -more than humour in the young man who made -the speech about the British Lion, and said, “I -taunt that lion. Alone I dare him;” or in the -other man who told Martin that when he said that -Queen Victoria did not live in the Tower of London -he “fell into an error not uncommon among -his countrymen.” He has his finger on the nerve -of an evil which was not only in his enemies, but -in himself. The great democrat has hold of one -of the dangers of democracy. The great optimist -confronts a horrible nightmare of optimism. -Above all, the genuine Englishman attacks a sin -that is not merely American, but English also. -The eternal, complacent iteration of patriotic half-truths; -the perpetual buttering of one’s self all -over with the same stale butter; above all, the big -defiances of small enemies, or the very urgent challenges -to very distant enemies; the cowardice so -habitual and unconscious that it wears the plumes -of courage—all this is an English temptation as -well as an American one. “Martin Chuzzlewit” -may be a caricature of America. America may be -a caricature of England. But in the gravest college, -in the quietest country house of England, -there is the seed of the same essential madness that -fills Dickens’s book, like an asylum, with brawling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span> -Chollops and raving Jefferson Bricks. That essential -madness is the idea that the good patriot -is the man who feels at ease about his country. -This notion of patriotism was unknown in the little -pagan republics where our European patriotism -began. It was unknown in the Middle Ages. In -the eighteenth century, in the making of modern -politics, a “patriot” meant a discontented man. -It was opposed to the word “courtier,” which -meant an upholder of the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">status quo</i>. In all other -modern countries, especially in countries like -France and Ireland, where real difficulties have -been faced, the word “patriot” means something -like a political pessimist. This view and these -countries have exaggerations and dangers of their -own; but the exaggeration and danger of England -is the same as the exaggeration and danger of -<i>The Watertoast Gazette</i>. The thing which is -rather foolishly called the Anglo-Saxon civilization -is at present soaked through with a weak pride. -It uses great masses of men not to procure discussion -but to procure the pleasure of unanimity; it -uses masses like bolsters. It uses its organs of -public opinion not to warn the public, but to soothe -it. It really succeeds not only in ignoring the rest -of the world, but actually in forgetting it. And -when a civilization really forgets the rest of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span> -world—lets it fall as something obviously dim -and barbaric—then there is only one adjective for -the ultimate fate of that civilization, and that -adjective is “Chinese.”</p> - -<p>Martin Chuzzlewit’s America is a mad-house: -but it is a mad-house we are all on the road to. -For completeness and even comfort are almost the -definitions of insanity. The lunatic is the man who -lives in a small world but thinks it is a large one: -he is the man who lives in a tenth of the truth, -and thinks it is the whole. The madman cannot -conceive any cosmos outside a certain tale or conspiracy -or vision. Hence the more clearly we see -the world divided into Saxons and non-Saxons, into -our splendid selves and the rest, the more certain -we may be that we are slowly and quietly going -mad. The more plain and satisfying our state -appears, the more we may know that we are living -in an unreal world. For the real world is not -satisfying. The more clear become the colours -and facts of Anglo-Saxon superiority, the more -surely we may know we are in a dream. For the -real world is not clear or plain. The real world -is full of bracing bewilderments and brutal surprises. -Comfort is the blessing and the curse of -the English, and of Americans of the Pogram type -also. With them it is a loud comfort, a wild comfort,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span> -a screaming and capering comfort; but comfort -at bottom still. For there is but an inch of -difference between the cushioned chamber and the -padded cell.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_155">CHAPTER VII<br /> - -<span class="subhead">DICKENS AND CHRISTMAS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">In</span> the July of 1844 Dickens went on an Italian -tour, which he afterwards summarized in the book -called “Pictures from Italy.” They are, of -course, very vivacious, but there is no great need -to insist on them, considered as Italian sketches; -there is no need whatever to worry about them as -a phase of the mind of Dickens when he travelled -out of England. He never travelled out of England. -There is no trace in all these amusing pages -that he really felt the great foreign things which -lie in wait for us in the south of Europe, the Latin -civilization, the Catholic Church, the art of the -centre, the endless end of Rome. His travels are -not travels in Italy, but travels in Dickensland. -He sees amusing things; he describes them amusingly. -But he would have seen things just as good -in a street in Pimlico, and described them just as -well. Few things were racier even in his raciest -novel, than his description of the marionette play -of the death of Napoleon. Nothing could be more -perfect than the figure of the doctor, which had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span> -something wrong with its wires, and hence “hovered -about the couch and delivered medical opinions -in the air.” Nothing could be better as a -catching of the spirit of all popular drama than -the colossal depravity of the wooden image of -“Sir Udson Low.” But there is nothing Italian -about it. Dickens would have made just as good -fun, indeed just the same fun, of a Punch and -Judy show performing in Long Acre or Lincoln’s -Inn Fields.</p> - -<p>Dickens uttered just and sincere satire on Plornish -and Podsnap; but Dickens was as English as -any Podsnap or any Plornish. He had a hearty -humanitarianism, and a hearty sense of justice to -all nations, so far as he understood it. But that -very kind of humanitarianism, that very kind of -justice, were English. He was the Englishman of -the type that made Free Trade, the most English -of all things, since it was at once calculating and -optimistic. He respected catacombs and gondolas, -but that very respect was English. He wondered -at brigands and volcanoes, but that very wonder -was English. The very conception that Italy consists -of these things was an English conception. -The root things he never understood, the Roman -legend, the ancient life of the Mediterranean, the -world-old civilization of the vine and olive, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span> -mystery of the immutable Church. He never -understood these things, and I am glad he never -understood them: he could only have understood -them by ceasing to be the inspired cockney that he -was, the rousing English Radical of the great -Radical age in England. That spirit of his was -one of the things that we have had which were -truly national. All other forces we have borrowed, -especially those which flatter us most. Imperialism -is foreign, socialism is foreign, militarism is -foreign, education is foreign, strictly even Liberalism -is foreign. But Radicalism was our own; as -English as the hedge-rows.</p> - -<p>Dickens abroad, then, was for all serious purposes -simply the Englishman abroad; the Englishman -abroad is for all serious purposes, simply the -Englishman at home. Of this generalization one -modification must be made. Dickens did feel a -direct pleasure in the bright and busy exterior of -the French life, the clean caps, the coloured uniforms, -the skies like blue enamel, the little green -trees, the little white houses, the scene picked out -in primary colours, like a child’s picture-book. -This he felt, and this he put (by a stroke of -genius) into the mouth of Mrs. Lirriper, a London -landlady on a holiday: for Dickens always knew -that it is the simple and not the subtle who feel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span> -differences; and he saw all his colours through the -clear eyes of the poor. And in thus taking to his -heart the streets as it were, rather than the spires -of the Continent, he showed beyond question that -combination of which we have spoken—of common -sense with uncommon sensibility. For it is -for the sake of the streets and shops and the coats -and hats, that we should go abroad; they are far -better worth going to see than the castles and -cathedrals and Roman camps. For the wonders -of the world are the same all over the world, at -least all over the European world. Castles that -throw valleys in shadow, minsters that strike the -sky, roads so old that they seem to have been made -by the gods, these are in all Christian countries. -The marvels of man are at all our doors. A -labourer hoeing turnips in Sussex has no need to be -ignorant that the bones of Europe are the Roman -roads. A clerk living in Lambeth has no need not -to know that there was a Christian art exuberant -in the thirteenth century; for only across the river -he can see the live stones of the Middle Ages surging -together towards the stars. But exactly the -things that do strike the traveller as extraordinary -are the ordinary things, the food, the clothes, the -vehicles; the strange things are cosmopolitan, the -common things are national and peculiar. Cologne<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span> -spire is lifted on the same arches as Canterbury; -but the thing you cannot see out of Germany is -a German beer-garden. There is no need for a -Frenchman to go to look at Westminster Abbey -as a piece of English architecture; it is not, in the -special sense, a piece of English architecture. But -a hansom cab is a piece of English architecture; a -thing produced by the peculiar poetry of our cities, -a symbol of a certain reckless comfort which is -really English; a thing to draw a pilgrimage of -the nations. The imaginative Englishman will be -found all day in a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">café</i>; the imaginative Frenchman -in a hansom cab.</p> - -<p>This sort of pleasure Dickens took in the Latin -life; but no deeper kind. And the strongest of all -possible indications of his fundamental detachment -from it can be found in one fact. A great part of -the time that he was in Italy he was engaged in -writing “The Chimes,” and such Christmas tales, -tales of Christmas in the English towns, tales full -of fog and snow and hail and happiness.</p> - -<p>Dickens could find in any street divergences between -man and man deeper than the divisions of -nations. His fault was to exaggerate differences. -He could find types almost as distinct as separate -tribes of animals in his own brain and his own -city, those two homes of a magnificent chaos. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span> -only two southerners introduced prominently into -his novels, the two in “Little Dorrit,” are popular -English foreigners, I had almost said stage foreigners. -Villainy is, in English eyes, a southern -trait, therefore one of the foreigners is villainous. -Vivacity is, in English eyes, another southern trait, -therefore the other foreigner is vivacious. But we -can see from the outlines of both that Dickens -did not have to go to Italy to get them. While -poor panting millionaires, poor tired earls and -poor God-forsaken American men of culture are -plodding about Italy for literary inspiration, -Charles Dickens made up the whole of that Italian -romance (as I strongly suspect) from the faces -of two London organ-grinders.</p> - -<p>In the sunlight of the southern world, he was -still dreaming of the firelight of the north. Among -the palaces and the white campanile, he shut his -eyes to see Marylebone and dreamed a lovely -dream of chimney-pots. He was not happy he -said, without streets. The very foulness and smoke -of London were lovable in his eyes and fill his -Christmas tales with a vivid vapour. In the clear -skies of the south he saw afar off the fog of London -like a sunset cloud and longed to be in the -core of it.</p> - -<p>This Christmas tone of Dickens, in connection<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span> -with his travels is a matter that can only be expressed -by a parallel with one of his other works. -Much the same that has here been said of his -“Pictures from Italy” may be said about his -“Child’s History of England;” with the difference -that while the “Pictures from Italy,” do in -a sense add to his fame, the “History of England” -in almost every sense detracts from it. But the -nature of the limitation is the same. What Dickens -was travelling in distant lands, that he was -travelling in distant ages; a sturdy, sentimental -English Radical with a large heart and a narrow -mind. He could not help falling into that besetting -sin or weakness of the modern progressive, -the habit of regarding the contemporary questions -as the eternal questions and the latest word as the -last. He could not get out of his head the instinctive -conception that the real problem before St. -Dunstan was whether he should support Lord John -Russell or Sir Robert Peel. He could not help -seeing the remotest peaks lit up by the raging bonfire -of his own passionate political crisis. He lived -for the instant and its urgency; that is, he did what -St. Dunstan did. He lived in an eternal present -like all simple men. It is indeed “A Child’s History -of England;” but the child is the writer and -not the reader.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span></p> - -<p>But Dickens in his cheapest cockney utilitarianism, -was not only English, but unconsciously historic. -Upon him descended the real tradition of -“Merry England,” and not upon the pallid -mediævalists who thought they were reviving it. -The Pre-Raphaelites, the Gothicists, the admirers -of the Middle Ages, had in their subtlety and sadness -the spirit of the present day. Dickens had in -his buffoonery and bravery the spirit of the Middle -Ages. He was much more mediæval in his attacks -on mediævalism than they were in their -defences of it. It was he who had the things of -Chaucer, the love of large jokes and long stories -and brown ale and all the white roads of England. -Like Chaucer he loved story within story, every -man telling a tale. Like Chaucer he saw something -openly comic in men’s motley trades. Sam -Weller would have been a great gain to the Canterbury -Pilgrimage and told an admirable story. -Rossetti’s Damozel would have been a great bore, -regarded as too fast by the Prioress and too priggish -by the Wife of Bath. It is said that in the -somewhat sickly Victorian revival of feudalism -which was called “Young England,” a nobleman -hired a hermit to live in his grounds. It is also -said that the hermit struck for more beer. -Whether this anecdote be true or not, it is always<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span> -told as showing a collapse from the ideal of the -Middle Ages to the level of the present day. But -in the mere act of striking for beer the holy man -was very much more “mediæval” than the fool -who employed him.</p> - -<p>It would be hard to find a better example of -this than Dickens’s great defence of Christmas. -In fighting for Christmas he was fighting for the -old European festival, Pagan and Christian, for -that trinity of eating, drinking and praying which -to moderns appears irreverent, for the holy day -which is really a holiday. He had himself the -most babyish ideas about the past. He supposed -the Middle Ages to have consisted of tournaments -and torture-chambers, he supposed himself to be a -brisk man of the manufacturing age, almost a Utilitarian. -But for all that he defended the mediæval -feast which was going out against the Utilitarianism -which was coming in. He could only see all -that was bad in mediævalism. But he fought for -all that was good in it. And he was all the more -really in sympathy with the old strength and simplicity -because he only knew that it was good and -did not know that it was old. He cared as little -for mediævalism as the mediævals did. He cared -as much as they did for lustiness and virile laughter -and sad tales of good lovers and pleasant tales of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span> -good livers. He would have been very much -bored by Ruskin and Walter Pater if they had -explained to him the strange sunset tints of Lippi -and Botticelli. He had no pleasure in looking on -the dying Middle Ages. But he looked on the -living Middle Ages, on a piece of the old uproarious -superstition still unbroken; and he hailed it -like a new religion. The Dickens character ate -pudding to an extent at which the modern mediævalists -turned pale. They would do every kind of -honour to an old observance, except observing it. -They would pay to a Church feast every sort of -compliment except feasting.</p> - -<p>And (as I have said) as were his unconscious -relations to our European past, so were his unconscious -relations to England. He imagined himself -to be, if anything, a sort of cosmopolitan; at any -rate to be a champion of the charms and merits of -continental lands against the arrogance of our -island. But he was in truth very much more a -champion of the old and genuine England against -that comparatively cosmopolitan England which -we have all lived to see. And here again the -supreme example is Christmas. Christmas is, as I -have said, one of numberless old European feasts -of which the essence is the combination of religion -with merry-making. But among those feasts it is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span> -also especially and distinctively English in the -style of its merry-making and even in the style of -its religion. For the character of Christmas (as -distinct, for instance, from the continental Easter) -lies chiefly in two things: first on the terrestrial -side the note of comfort rather than the note of -brightness; and on the spiritual side, Christian -charity rather than Christian ecstasy. And comfort -is, like charity, a very English instinct. Nay, -comfort is, like charity, an English merit; though -our comfort may and does degenerate into materialism, -just as our charity may (and does) degenerate -into laxity and make-believe.</p> - -<p>This ideal of comfort belongs peculiarly to England; -it belongs peculiarly to Christmas; above -all it belongs pre-eminently to Dickens. And it is -astonishingly misunderstood. It is misunderstood -by the continent of Europe, it is, if possible, still -more misunderstood by the English of to-day. On -the Continent the restaurateurs provide us with -raw beef, as if we were savages; yet old English -cooking takes as much care as French. And in -England has arisen a parvenu patriotism which -represents the English as everything but English; -as a blend of Chinese stoicism, Latin militarism, -Prussian rigidity, and American bad taste. And -so England, whose fault is gentility and whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span> -virtue is geniality, England with her tradition of -the great gay gentlemen of Elizabeth, is represented -to the four quarters of the world (as in -Mr. Kipling’s religious poems) in the enormous -image of a solemn cad. And because it is very -difficult to be comfortable in the suburbs, the -suburbs have voted that comfort is a gross and -material thing. Comfort, especially this vision of -Christmas comfort, is the reverse of a gross or -material thing. It is far more poetical, properly -speaking, than the Garden of Epicurus. It is far -more artistic than the Palace of Art. It is more -artistic because it is based upon a contrast, a contrast -between the fire and wine within the house -and the winter and the roaring rains without. It -is far more poetical, because there is in it a note -of defence, almost of war; a note of being besieged -by the snow and hail; of making merry -in the belly of a fort. The man who said that -an Englishman’s house is his castle said much more -than he meant. The Englishman thinks of his -house as something fortified, and provisioned, and -his very surliness is at root romantic. And this -sense would naturally be strongest in wild winter -nights, when the lowered portcullis and the lifted -drawbridge do not merely bar people out, but bar -people in. The Englishman’s house is most sacred,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span> -not merely when the King cannot enter it, but -when the Englishman cannot get out of it.</p> - -<p>This comfort, then, is an abstract thing, a principle. -The English poor shut all their doors and -windows till their rooms reek like the Black Hole. -They are suffering for an idea. Mere animal -hedonism would not dream, as we English do, of -winter feasts and little rooms, but of eating fruit -in large and idle gardens. Mere sensuality would -desire to please all its senses. But to our good -dreams this dark and dangerous background is -essential; the highest pleasure we can imagine is a -defiant pleasure, a happiness that stands at bay. -The word “comfort” is not indeed the right -word, it conveys too much of the slander of mere -sense; the true word is “cosiness,” a word not -translatable. One, at least, of the essentials of -it is smallness, smallness in preference to largeness, -smallness for smallness’s sake. The merry-maker -wants a pleasant parlour, he would not give -twopence for a pleasant continent. In our difficult -time, of course, a fight for mere space has become -necessary. Instead of being greedy for ale and -Christmas pudding we are greedy for mere air, -an equally sensual appetite. In abnormal conditions -this is wise; and the illimitable veldt is an -excellent thing for nervous people. But our fathers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span> -were large and healthy enough to make a thing -humane, and not worry about whether it was hygienic. -They were big enough to get into small -rooms.</p> - -<p>Of this quite deliberate and artistic quality in -the close Christmas chamber, the standing evidence -is Dickens in Italy. He created these dim -firelit tales like little dim red jewels, as an artistic -necessity, in the centre of an endless summer. -Amid the white cities of Tuscany he hungered for -something romantic, and wrote about a rainy -Christmas. Amid the pictures of the Uffizi he -starved for something beautiful, and fed his memory -on London fog. His feeling for the fog was -especially poignant and typical. In the first of his -Christmas tales, the popular “Christmas Carol,” -he suggested the very soul of it in one simile, when -he spoke of the dense air, suggesting that “Nature -was brewing on a large scale.” This sense of the -thick atmosphere as something to eat or drink, -something not only solid but satisfactory, may -seem almost insane, but it is no exaggeration of -Dickens’s emotion. We speak of a fog “that you -could cut with a knife.” Dickens would have liked -the phrase as suggesting that the fog was a colossal -cake. He liked even more his own phrase of -the Titanic brewery, and no dream would have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span> -given him a wilder pleasure than to grope his way -to some such tremendous vats and drink the ale -of the giants.</p> - -<p>There is a current prejudice against fogs, and -Dickens, perhaps, is their only poet. Considered -hygienically no doubt this may be more or less -excusable. But, considered poetically, fog is not -undeserving, it has a real significance. We have in -our great cities abolished the clean and sane darkness -of the country. We have outlawed night and -sent her wandering in wild meadows; we have lit -eternal watch-fires against her return. We have -made a new cosmos, and as a consequence our own -sun and stars. And, as a consequence also, and -most justly, we have made our own darkness. Just -as every lamp is a warm human moon, so every -fog is a rich human nightfall. If it were not for -this mystic accident we should never see darkness, -and he who has never seen darkness has never seen -the sun. Fog for us is the chief form of that -outward pressure which compresses mere luxury -into real comfort. It makes the world small, in -the same spirit as in that common and happy cry -that the world is small, meaning that it is full of -friends. The first man that emerges out of the -mist with a light, is for us Prometheus, a saviour -bringing fire to men. He is that greatest and best<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span> -of all men, greater than the heroes, better than -the saints, Man Friday. Every rumble of a cart, -every cry in the distance, marks the heart of humanity -beating undaunted in the darkness. It is -wholly human; man toiling in his own cloud. If -real darkness is like the embrace of God, this is -the dark embrace of man.</p> - -<p>In such a sacred cloud the tale called “The -Christmas Carol” begins, the first and most typical -of all his Christmas tales. It is not irrelevant -to dilate upon the geniality of this darkness, because -it is characteristic of Dickens that his atmospheres -are more important than his stories. -The Christmas atmosphere is more important than -Scrooge, or the ghosts either; in a sense, the background -is more important than the figures. The -same thing may be noticed in his dealings with -that other atmosphere (besides that of good humour) -which he excelled in creating, an atmosphere -of mystery and wrong, such as that which -gathers round Mrs. Clennam, rigid in her chair, -or old Miss Havisham, ironically robed as a bride. -Here again the atmosphere altogether eclipses the -story, which often seems disappointing in comparison. -The secrecy is sensational; the secret -is tame. The surface of the thing seems more -awful than the core of it. It seems almost as if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span> -these grisly figures, Mrs. Chadband and Mrs. -Clennam, Miss Havisham and Miss Flite, Nemo -and Sally Brass, were keeping something back -from the author as well as from the reader. When -the book closes we do not know their real secret. -They soothed the optimistic Dickens with something -less terrible than the truth. The dark house -of Arthur Clennam’s childhood really depresses -us; it is a true glimpse into that quiet street in -hell, where live the children of that unique dispensation -which theologians call Calvinism and -Christians devil-worship. But some stranger crime -had really been done there, some more monstrous -blasphemy or human sacrifice than the suppression -of some silly document advantageous to the silly -Dorrits. Something worse than a common tale -of jilting lay behind the masquerade and madness -of the awful Miss Havisham. Something worse -was whispered by the misshapen Quilp to the sinister -Sally in that wild, wet summer-house by the -river, something worse than the clumsy plot -against the clumsy Kit. These dark pictures seem -almost as if they were literally visions; things, -that is, that Dickens saw but did not understand.</p> - -<p>And as with his backgrounds of gloom, so with -his backgrounds of good-will, in such tales as -“The Christmas Carol.” The tone of the tale is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span> -kept throughout in a happy monotony, though the -tale is everywhere irregular and in some places -weak. It has the same kind of artistic unity that -belongs to a dream. A dream may begin with the -end of the world and end with a tea-party; but -either the end of the world will seem as trivial -as a tea-party or that tea-party will be as terrible -as the day of doom. The incidents change wildly; -the story scarcely changes at all. “The Christmas -Carol” is a kind of philanthropic dream, an enjoyable -nightmare, in which the scenes shift bewilderingly -and seem as miscellaneous as the pictures in -a scrap-book, but in which there is one constant -state of the soul, a state of rowdy benediction and -a hunger for human faces. The beginning is about -a winter day and a miser; yet the beginning is in -no way bleak. The author starts with a kind of -happy howl; he bangs on our door like a drunken -carol singer; his style is festive and popular; he -compares the snow and hail to philanthropists who -“come down handsomely”; he compares the fog -to unlimited beer. Scrooge is not really inhuman -at the beginning any more than he is at the end. -There is a heartiness in his inhospitable sentiments -that is akin to humour and therefore to humanity; -he is only a crusty old bachelor, and had (I -strongly suspect) given away turkeys secretly all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span> -his life. The beauty and the real blessing of the -story do not lie in the mechanical plot of it, the -repentance of Scrooge, probable or improbable; -they lie in the great furnace of real happiness that -glows through Scrooge and everything round him; -that great furnace, the heart of Dickens. Whether -the Christmas visions would or would not convert -Scrooge, they convert us. Whether or no the -visions were evoked by real Spirits of the Past, -Present, and Future, they were evoked by that -truly exalted order of angels who are correctly -called High Spirits. They are impelled and sustained -by a quality which our contemporary artists -ignore or almost deny, but which in a life decently -lived is as normal and attainable as sleep, positive, -passionate, conscious joy. The story sings from end -to end like a happy man going home; and, like a -happy and good man, when it cannot sing it yells. -It is lyric and exclamatory, from the first exclamatory -words of it. It is strictly a Christmas Carol.</p> - -<p>Dickens, as has been said, went to Italy with -this kindly cloud still about him, still meditating -on Yule mysteries. Among the olives and the -orange-trees he wrote his second great Christmas -tale, “The Chimes” (at Genoa in 1844), a -Christmas tale only differing from “The Christmas -Carol” in being fuller of the grey rains of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span> -winter and the north. “The Chimes” is, like the -“Carol,” an appeal for charity and mirth, but it -is a stern and fighting appeal: if the other is a -Christmas carol, this is a Christmas war-song. In -it Dickens hurled himself with even more than -his usual militant joy and scorn into an attack upon -a cant, which he said made his blood boil. This -cant was nothing more nor less than the whole -tone taken by three-quarters of the political and -economic world towards the poor. It was a vague -and vulgar Benthamism with a rollicking Tory -touch in it. It explained to the poor their duties -with a cold and coarse philanthropy unendurable -by any free man. It had also at its command a -kind of brutal banter, a loud good-humour which -Dickens sketches savagely in Alderman Cute. He -fell furiously on all their ideas: the cheap advice -to live cheaply, the base advice to live basely, -above all, the preposterous primary assumption -that the rich are to advise the poor and not the -poor the rich. There were and are hundreds of -these benevolent bullies. Some say that the poor -should give up having children, which means that -they should give up their great virtue of sexual -sanity. Some say that they should give up -“treating” each other, which means that they -should give up all that remains to them of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span> -virtue of hospitality. Against all of this Dickens -thundered very thoroughly in “The Chimes.” It -may be remarked in passing that this affords another -instance of a confusion already referred to, -the confusion whereby Dickens supposed himself -to be exalting the present over the past, whereas -he was really dealing deadly blows at things -strictly peculiar to the present. Embedded in this -very book is a somewhat useless interview between -Trotty Veck and the church bells, in which -the latter lectures the former for having supposed -(why I don’t know) that they were expressing -regret for the disappearance of the Middle Ages. -There is no reason why Trotty Veck or any one -else should idealize the Middle Ages, but certainly -he was the last man in the world to be asked to -idealize the nineteenth century, seeing that the -smug and stingy philosophy, which poisons his life -through the book, was an exclusive creation of that -century. But, as I have said before, the fieriest -mediævalist may forgive Dickens for disliking the -good things the Middle Ages took away, considering -how he loved whatever good things the Middle -Ages left behind. It matters very little that -he hated old feudal castles when they were already -old. It matters very much that he hated the New -Poor Law while it was still new.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span></p> - -<p>The moral of this matter in “The Chimes” is -essential. Dickens had sympathy with the poor -in the Greek and literal sense; he suffered with -them mentally; for the things that irritated them -were the things that irritated him. He did not -pity the people, or even champion the people, or -even merely love the people; in this matter he -was the people. He alone in our literature is the -voice not merely of the social substratum, but even -of the subconsciousness of the substratum. He -utters the secret anger of the humble. He says -what the uneducated only think, or even only feel, -about the educated. And in nothing is he so -genuinely such a voice as in this fact of his fiercest -mood being reserved for methods that are counted -scientific and progressive. Pure and exalted atheists -talk themselves into believing that the working-classes -are turning with indignant scorn from -the churches. The working-classes are not indignant -against the churches in the least. The things -the working-classes really are indignant against -are the hospitals. The people has no definite disbelief -in the temples of theology. The people has -a very fiery and practical disbelief in the temples -of physical science. The things the poor hate are -the modern things, the rationalistic things—doctors, -inspectors, poor law guardians, professional<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span> -philanthropy. They never showed any reluctance -to be helped by the old and corrupt monasteries. -They will often die rather than be helped by the -modern and efficient workhouse. Of all this anger, -good or bad, Dickens is the voice of an accusing -energy. When, in “The Christmas Carol,” -Scrooge refers to the surplus population, the Spirit -tells him, very justly, not to speak till he knows -what the surplus is and where it is. The implication -is severe but sound. When a group of superciliously -benevolent economists look down into -the abyss for the surplus population, assuredly -there is only one answer that should be given to -them; and that is to say, “If there is a surplus, -you are a surplus.” And if any one were ever -cut off, they would be. If the barricades went up -in our streets and the poor became masters, I think -the priests would escape, I fear the gentlemen -would; but I believe the gutters would be simply -running with the blood of philanthropists.</p> - -<p>Lastly, he was at one with the poor in this -chief matter of Christmas, in the matter, that is, -of special festivity. There is nothing on which -the poor are more criticized than on the point of -spending large sums on small feasts; and though -there are material difficulties, there is nothing in -which they are more right. It is said that a Boston<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span> -paradox-monger said, “Give us the luxuries of -life and we will dispense with the necessities.” -But it is the whole human race that says it, from -the first savage wearing feathers instead of clothes -to the last costermonger having a treat instead of -three meals.</p> - -<p>The third of his Christmas stories, “The -Cricket on the Hearth,” calls for no extensive comment, -though it is very characteristic. It has all -the qualities which we have called dominant qualities -in his Christmas sentiment. It has cosiness, -that is the comfort that depends upon a discomfort -surrounding it. It has a sympathy with the poor, -and especially with the extravagance of the poor; -with what may be called the temporary wealth of -the poor. It has the sentiment of the hearth, that -is, the sentiment of the open fire being the red -heart of the room. That open fire is the veritable -flame of England, still kept burning in the midst -of a mean civilization of stoves. But everything -that is valuable in “The Cricket on the Hearth” -is perhaps as well expressed in the title as it is in -the story. The tale itself, in spite of some of those -inimitable things that Dickens never failed to say, -is a little too comfortable to be quite convincing. -“The Christmas Carol” is the conversion of an -anti-Christmas character. “The Chimes” is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span> -slaughter of anti-Christmas characters. “The -Cricket,” perhaps, fails for lack of this crusading -note. For everything has its weak side, and when -full justice has been done to this neglected note of -poetic comfort, we must remember that it has its -very real weak side. The defect of it in the work -of Dickens was that he tended sometimes to pile -up the cushions until none of the characters could -move. He is so much interested in effecting his -state of static happiness that he forgets to make -a story at all. His princes at the start of the -story begin to live happily ever afterwards. We -feel this strongly in “Master Humphrey’s Clock,” -and we feel it sometimes in these Christmas stories. -He makes his characters so comfortable that his -characters begin to dream and drivel. And he -makes his reader so comfortable that his reader -goes to sleep.</p> - -<p>The actual tale of the carrier and his wife -sounds somewhat sleepily in our ears; we cannot -keep our attention fixed on it, though we are conscious -of a kind of warmth from it as from a great -wood fire. We know so well that everything will -soon be all right that we do not suspect when -the carrier suspects, and are not frightened when -the gruff Tackleton growls. The sound of the -Christmas festivities at the end comes fainter on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span> -our ears than did the shout of the Cratchits or the -bells of Trotty Veck. All the good figures that -followed Scrooge when he came growling out of -the fog fade into the fog again.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_181">CHAPTER VIII<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE TIME OF TRANSITION</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Dickens</span> was back in London by the June of -1845. About this time he became the first editor -of <i>The Daily News</i>, a paper which he had largely -planned and suggested, and which, I trust, remembers -its semi-divine origin. That his thoughts -had been running, as suggested in the last chapter, -somewhat monotonously on his Christmas domesticities, -is again suggested by the rather singular -fact that he originally wished <i>The Daily News</i> -to be called <i>The Cricket</i>. Probably he was -haunted again with his old vision of a homely, -tale-telling periodical such as had broken off in -“Master Humphrey’s Clock.” About this time, -however, he was peculiarly unsettled. Almost as -soon as he had taken the editorship he threw it -up; and having only recently come back to England, -he soon made up his mind to go back to the -Continent. In the May of 1846 he ran over to -Switzerland and tried to write “Dombey and -Son” at Lausanne. Tried to, I say, because his -letters are full of an angry impotence. He could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span> -not get on. He attributed this especially to his -love of London and his loss of it, “the absence of -streets and numbers of figures.... <em>My</em> figures -seem disposed to stagnate without crowds about -them.” But he also, with shrewdness, attributed -it more generally to the laxer and more wandering -life he had led for the last two years, the American -tour, the Italian tour, diversified, generally speaking, -only with slight literary productions. His -ways were never punctual or healthy, but they -were also never unconscientious as far as work -was concerned. If he walked all night he could -write all day. But in this strange exile or inter-regnum -he did not seem able to fall into any habits, -even bad habits. A restlessness beyond all his -experience had fallen for a season upon the most -restless of the children of men.</p> - -<p>It may be a mere coincidence: but this break in -his life very nearly coincided with the important -break in his art. “Dombey and Son,” planned in -all probability some time before, was destined to -be the last of a quite definite series, the early novels -of Dickens. The difference between the books -from the beginning up to “Dombey,” and the -books from “David Copperfield” to the end may -be hard to state dogmatically, but is evident to -every one with any literary sense. Very coarsely,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span> -the case may be put by saying that he diminished, -in the story as a whole, the practice of pure caricature. -Still more coarsely it may be put in the -phrase that he began to practise realism. If we -take Mr. Stiggins, say, as a clergyman depicted at -the beginning of his literary career, and Mr. -Crisparkle, say, as a clergyman depicted at the -end of it, it is evident that the difference does not -merely consist in the fact that the first is a less -desirable clergyman than the second. It consists -in the nature of our desire for either of them. -The glory of Mr. Crisparkle partly consists in the -fact that he might really exist anywhere, in any -country town into which we may happen to stray. -The glory of Mr. Stiggins wholly consists in the -fact that he could not possibly exist anywhere except -in the head of Dickens. Dickens has the -secret recipe of that divine dish. In some sense, -therefore, when we say that he became less of a -caricaturist we mean that he became less of a -creator. That original violent vision of all things -which he had seen from his boyhood began to be -mixed with other men’s milder visions and with -the light of common day. He began to understand -and practise other than his own mad merits; -began to have some movement towards the merits -of other writers, towards the mixed emotion of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span> -Thackeray, or the solidity of George Eliot. And -this must be said for the process; that the fierce -wine of Dickens could endure some dilution. On -the whole, perhaps, his primal personalism was all -the better when surging against some saner restraints. -Perhaps a flavour of strong Stiggins -goes a long way. Perhaps the colossal Crummles -might be cut down into six or seven quite credible -characters. For my own part, for reasons which -I shall afterwards mention, I am in real doubt -about the advantage of this realistic education of -Dickens. I am not sure that it made his books -better; but I am sure it made them less bad. He -made fewer mistakes undoubtedly; he succeeded -in eliminating much of the mere rant or cant of -his first books; he threw away much of the old -padding, all the more annoying, perhaps, in a -literary sense, because he did not mean it for padding, -but for essential eloquence. But he did not -produce anything actually better than Mr. Chuckster. -But then there is nothing better than Mr. -Chuckster. Certain works of art, such as the -Venus of Milo, exhaust our aspiration. Upon the -whole this may, perhaps, be safely said of the -transition. Those who have any doubt about -Dickens can have no doubt of the superiority of -the later books. Beyond question they have less<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span> -of what annoys us in Dickens. But do not, if -you are in the company of any ardent adorers of -Dickens (as I hope for your sake you are) do -not insist too urgently and exclusively on the splendour -of Dickens’s last works, or they will discover -that you do not like him.</p> - -<p>“Dombey and Son” is the last novel in the first -manner: “David Copperfield” is the first novel -in the last. The increase in care and realism in -the second of the two is almost startling. Yet -even in “Dombey and Son” we can see the coming -of a change, however faint, if we compare it with -his first fantasies, such as “Nicholas Nickleby” -or “The Old Curiosity Shop.” The central story -is still melodrama, but it is much more tactful and -effective melodrama. Melodrama is a form of -art, legitimate like any other, as noble as farce, -almost as noble as pantomime. The essence of -melodrama is that it appeals to the moral sense -in a highly simplified state, just as farce appeals -to the sense of humour in a highly simplified state. -Farce creates people who are so intellectually simple -as to hide in packing-cases or pretend to be -their own aunts. Melodrama creates people so -morally simple as to kill their enemies in Oxford -Street, and repent on seeing their mother’s photograph. -The object of the simplification in farce<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span> -and melodrama is the same, and quite artistically -legitimate, the object of gaining a resounding rapidity -of action which subtleties would obstruct. -And this can be done well or ill. The simplified -villain can be a spirited charcoal sketch or a mere -black smudge. Carker is a spirited charcoal -sketch: Ralph Nickleby is a mere black smudge. -The tragedy of Edith Dombey teems with unlikelihood, -but it teems with life. That Dombey should -give his own wife censure through his own business -manager is impossible, I will not say in a -gentleman, but in a person of ordinary sane self-conceit. -But once having got the inconceivable -trio before the footlights, Dickens gives us good -ringing dialogue, very different from the mere -rants in which Ralph Nickleby figures in the unimaginable -character of a rhetorical money-lender. -And there is another point of technical improvement -in this book over such books as “Nicholas -Nickleby.” It has not only a basic idea, but a -good basic idea. There is a real artistic opportunity -in the conception of a solemn and selfish -man of affairs, feeling for his male heir his first -and last emotion, mingled of a thin flame of tenderness -and a strong flame of pride. But with all -these possibilities, the serious episode of the Dombeys -serves ultimately only to show how unfitted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span> -Dickens was for such things, how fitted he was for -something opposite.</p> - -<p>The incurable poetic character, the hopelessly -non-realistic character of Dickens’s essential genius -could not have a better example than the story of -the Dombeys. For the story itself is probable; -it is the treatment that makes it unreal. In attempting -to paint the dark pagan devotion of the -father (as distinct from the ecstatic and Christian -devotion of the mother), Dickens was painting -something that was really there. This is no wild -theme, like the wanderings of Nell’s grandfather, -or the marriage of Gride. A man of Dombey’s -type would love his son as he loves Paul. He -would neglect his daughter as he neglects Florence. -And yet we feel the utter unreality of it -all, while we feel the utter reality of monsters -like Stiggins or Mantalini. Dickens could only -work in his own way, and that way was the wild -way. We may almost say this: that he could only -make his characters probable if he was allowed to -make them impossible. Give him license to say -and do anything, and he could create beings as -vivid as our own aunts and uncles. Keep him to -likelihood and he could not tell the plainest tale -so as to make it seem likely. The story of “Pickwick” -is credible, although it is not possible. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span> -story of Florence Dombey is incredible although -it is true.</p> - -<p>An excellent example can be found in the same -story. Major Bagstock is a grotesque, and yet he -contains touch after touch of Dickens’s quiet and -sane observation of things as they are. He was -always most accurate when he was most fantastic. -Dombey and Florence are perfectly reasonable, -but we simply know that they do not exist. The -Major is mountainously exaggerated, but we all -feel that we have met him at Brighton. Nor is -the rationale of the paradox difficult to see; Dickens -exaggerated when he had found a real truth -to exaggerate. It is a deadly error (an error at -the back of much of the false placidity of our -politics) to suppose that lies are told with excess -and luxuriance, and truths told with modesty and -restraint. Some of the most frantic lies on the -face of life are told with modesty and restraint; -for the simple reason that only modesty and restraint -will save them. Many official declarations -are just as dignified as Mr. Dombey, because they -are just as fictitious. On the other hand, the man -who has found a truth dances about like a boy -who has found a shilling; he breaks into extravagances, -as the Christian churches broke into gargoyles. -In one sense truth alone can be exaggerated;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span> -nothing else can stand the strain. The -outrageous Bagstock is a glowing and glaring exaggeration -of a thing we have all seen in life—the -worst and most dangerous of all its hypocrisies. -For the worst and most dangerous hypocrite is -not he who affects unpopular virtue, but he who -affects popular vice. The jolly fellow of the saloon -bar and the racecourse is the real deceiver -of mankind; he has misled more than any false -prophet, and his victims cry to him out of hell. -The excellence of the Bagstock conception can best -be seen if we compare it with the much weaker -and more improbable knavery of Pecksniff. It -would not be worth a man’s while, with any -worldly object, to pretend to be a holy and high-minded -architect. The world does not admire -holy and high-minded architects. The world does -admire rough and tough old army men who swear -at waiters and wink at women. Major Bagstock -is simply the perfect prophecy of that decadent -jingoism which corrupted England of late years. -England has been duped, not by the cant of goodness, -but by the cant of badness. It has been -fascinated by a quite fictitious cynicism, and -reached that last and strangest of all impostures -in which the mask is as repulsive as the face.</p> - -<p>“Dombey and Son” provides us with yet another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span> -instance of this general fact in Dickens. -He could only get to the most solemn emotions -adequately if he got to them through the grotesque. -He could only, so to speak, really get into the inner -chamber by coming down the chimney, like his -own most lovable lunatic in “Nicholas Nickleby.” -A good example is such a character as Toots. -Toots is what none of Dickens’s dignified characters -are, in the most serious sense, a true lover. -He is the twin of Romeo. He has passion, humility, -self-knowledge, a mind lifted into all magnanimous -thoughts, everything that goes with the -best kind of romantic love. His excellence in the -art of love can only be expressed by the somewhat -violent expression that he is as good a lover as -Walter Gay is a bad one. Florence surely deserved -her father’s scorn if she could prefer Gay -to Toots. It is neither a joke nor any kind of -exaggeration to say that in the vacillations of -Toots, Dickens not only came nearer to the -psychology of true love than he ever came elsewhere, -but nearer than any one else ever came. -To ask for the loved one, and then not to dare to -cross the threshold, to be invited by her, to long -to accept, and then to lie in order to decline, these -are the funny things that Mr. Toots did, and that -every honest man who yells with laughter at him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span> -has done also. For the moment, however, I only -mention this matter as a pendent case to the case -of Major Bagstock, an example of the way in -which Dickens had to be ridiculous in order to -begin to be true. His characters that begin solemn -end futile; his characters that begin frivolous end -solemn in the best sense. His foolish figures are -not only more entertaining than his serious figures, -they are also much more serious. The Marchioness -is not only much more laughable than Little -Nell; she is also much more of all that Little Nell -was meant to be; much more really devoted, pathetic, -and brave. Dick Swiveller is not only a -much funnier fellow than Kit, he is also a much -more genuine fellow, being free from that slight -stain of “meekness,” or the snobbishness of the -respectable poor, which the wise and perfect -Chuckster wisely and perfectly perceived in Kit. -Susan Nipper is not only more of a comic character -than Florence; she is more of a heroine than -Florence any day of the week. In “Our Mutual -Friend” we do not, for some reason or other, feel -really very much excited about the fall or rescue -of Lizzie Hexam. She seems too romantic to be -really pathetic. But we do feel excited about the -rescue of Miss Lammle, because she is, like Toots, -a holy fool; because her pink nose and pink elbows,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span> -and candid outcry and open indecent affections -do convey to us a sense of innocence helpless -among human dragons, of Andromeda tied naked -to a rock. Dickens had to make a character humorous -before he could make it human; it was the -only way he knew, and he ought to have always -adhered to it. Whether he knew it or not, the -only two really touching figures in “Martin Chuzzlewit” -are the Misses Pecksniff. Of the things -he tried to treat unsmilingly and grandly we can -all make game to our heart’s content. But when -once he has laughed at a thing it is sacred for ever.</p> - -<p>“Dombey,” however, means first and foremost -the finale of the early Dickens. It is difficult to -say exactly in what it is that we perceive that the -old crudity ends there, and does not reappear in -“David Copperfield” or in any of the novels after -it. But so certainly it is. In detached scenes and -characters, indeed, Dickens kept up his farcical note -almost or quite to the end. But this is the last -farce; this is the last work in which a farcical -license is tacitly claimed, a farcical note struck to -start with. And in a sense his next novel may be -called his first novel. But the growth of this great -novel, “David Copperfield,” is a thing very interesting, -but at the same time very dark, for it is -a growth in the soul. We have seen that Dickens’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span> -mind was in a stir of change; that he was -dreaming of art, and even of realism. Hugely -delighted as he invariably was with his own books, -he was humble enough to be ambitious. He was -even humble enough to be envious. In the matter -of art, for instance, in the narrower sense, of arrangement -and proportion in fictitious things, he -began to be conscious of his deficiency, and even, -in a stormy sort of way, ashamed of it; he tried -to gain completeness even while raging at any one -who called him incomplete. And in this matter of -artistic construction, his ambition (and his success -too) grew steadily up to the instant of his death. -The end finds him attempting things that are at -the opposite pole to the frank formlessness of -“Pickwick.” His last book, “The Mystery of -Edwin Drood,” depends entirely upon construction, -even upon a centralized strategy. He staked -everything upon a plot; he who had been the -weakest of plotters, weaker than Sim Tappertit. -He essayed a detective story, he who could never -keep a secret; and he has kept it to this day. A -new Dickens was really being born when Dickens -died.</p> - -<p>And as with art, so with reality. He wished to -show that he could construct as well as anybody. -He also wished to show that he could be as accurate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span> -as anybody. And in this connection (as -in many others) we must recur constantly to the -facts mentioned in connection with America and -with his money-matters. We must recur, I mean, -to the central fact that his desires were extravagant -in quantity, but not in quality; that his wishes -were excessive, but not eccentric. It must never be -forgotten that sanity was his ideal, even when he -seemed almost insane. It was thus with his literary -aspirations. He was brilliant; but he wished -sincerely to be solid. Nobody out of an asylum -could deny that he was a genius and an unique -writer; but he did not wish to be an unique writer, -but an universal writer. Much of the manufactured -pathos or rhetoric against which his enemies -quite rightly rail, is really due to his desire to give -all sides of life at once, to make his book a cosmos -instead of a tale. He was sometimes really vulgar -in his wish to be a literary Whiteley, an universal -provider. Thus it was that he felt about realism -and truth to life. Nothing is easier than to defend -Dickens as Dickens, but Dickens wished to be -everybody else. Nothing is easier than to defend -Dickens’s world as a fairyland, of which he alone -has the key; to defend him as one defends Maeterlinck, -or any other original writer. But Dickens -was not content with being original, he had a wild<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span> -wish to be true. He loved truth so much in the -abstract that he sacrificed to the shadow of it his -own glory. He denied his own divine originality, -and pretended that he had plagiarized from life. -He disowned his own soul’s children, and said he -had picked them up in the street.</p> - -<p>And in this mixed and heated mood of anger -and ambition, vanity and doubt, a new and great -design was born. He loved to be romantic, yet he -desired to be real. How if he wrote of a thing -that was real and showed that it was romantic? -He loved real life; but he also loved his own way. -How if he wrote his own real life, but wrote it in -his own way? How if he showed the carping -critics who doubted the existence of his strange -characters, his own yet stranger existence? How -if he forced these pedants and unbelievers to admit -that Weller and Pecksniff, Crummles and Swiveller, -whom they thought so improbably wild and -wonderful, were less wild and wonderful than -Charles Dickens? What if he ended the quarrels -about whether his romances could occur, by confessing -that his romance had occurred?</p> - -<p>For some time past, probably during the greater -part of his life, he had made notes for an autobiography. -I have already quoted an admirable -passage from these notes, a passage reproduced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span> -in “David Copperfield,” with little more alteration -than a change of proper names—the passage -which describes Captain Porter and the debtor’s -petition in the Marshalsea. But he probably perceived -at last what a less keen intelligence must -ultimately have perceived, that if an autobiography -is really to be honest it must be turned into -a work of fiction. If it is really to tell the truth, -it must at all costs profess not to. No man dare -say of himself, over his own name, how badly he -has behaved. No man dare say of himself, over -his own name, how well he has behaved. Moreover, -of course a touch of fiction is almost always -essential to the real conveying of fact, because -fact, as experienced, has a fragmentariness which -is bewildering at first hand and quite blinding at -second hand. Facts have at least to be sorted into -compartments and the proper head and tail given -to each. The perfection and pointedness of art -are a sort of substitute for the pungency of actuality. -Without this selection and completion our -life seems a tangle of unfinished tales, a heap of -novels, all volume one. Dickens determined to -make one complete novel of it.</p> - -<p>For though there are many other aspects of -“David Copperfield,” this autobiographical aspect -is, after all, the greatest. The point of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span> -book is, that unlike all the other books of Dickens, -it is concerned with quite common actualities, -but it is concerned with them warmly and with the -war-like sympathies. It is not only both realistic -and romantic; it is realistic because it is romantic. -It is human nature described with the human exaggeration. -We all know the actual types in the -book; they are not like the turgid and preternatural -types elsewhere in Dickens. They are not -purely poetic creations like Mr. Kenwiggs or Mr. -Bunsby. We all know that they exist. We all -know the stiff-necked and humorous old-fashioned -nurse, so conventional and yet so original, so dependent -and yet so independent. We all know the -intrusive stepfather, the abstract strange male, -coarse, handsome, sulky, successful; a breaker-up -of homes. We all know the erect and sardonic -spinster, the spinster who is so mad in small things -and so sane in great ones. We all know the cock -of the school; we all know Steerforth, the creature -whom the gods love and even the servants respect. -We know his poor and aristocratic mother, -so proud, so gratified, so desolate. We know the -Rosa Dartle type, the lonely woman in whom -affection itself has stagnated into a sort of -poison.</p> - -<p>But while these are real characters they are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span> -real characters lit up with the colours of youth -and passion. They are real people romantically -felt; that is to say, they are real people felt as -real people feel them. They are exaggerated, like -all Dickens’s figures: but they are not exaggerated -as personalities are exaggerated by an artist; they -are exaggerated as personalities are exaggerated -by their own friends and enemies. The strong -souls are seen through the glorious haze of the -emotions that strong souls really create. We have -Murdstone as he would be to a boy who hated -him; and rightly, for a boy would hate him. We -have Steerforth as he would be to a boy who -adored him; and rightly, for a boy would adore -him. It may be that if these persons had a mere -terrestrial existence, they appeared to other eyes -more insignificant. It may be that Murdstone in -common life was only a heavy business man with -a human side that David was too sulky to find. -It may be that Steerforth was only an inch or -two taller than David, and only a shade or two -above him in the lower middle classes; but this -does not make the book less true. In cataloguing -the facts of life the author must not omit that -massive fact, illusion.</p> - -<p>When we say the book is true to life we must -stipulate that it is especially true to youth; even<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span> -to boyhood. All the characters seem a little larger -than they really were, for David is looking up at -them. And the early pages of the book are in -particular astonishingly vivid. Parts of it seem -like fragments of our forgotten infancy. The -dark house of childhood, the loneliness, the things -half understood, the nurse with her inscrutable -sulks and her more inscrutable tenderness, the sudden -deportations to distant places, the seaside and -its childish friendships, all this stirs in us when -we read it, like something out of a previous existence. -Above all, Dickens has excellently depicted -the child enthroned in that humble circle which -only in after years he perceives to have been -humble. Modern and cultured persons, I believe, -object to their children seeing kitchen company or -being taught by a woman like Peggoty. But -surely it is more important to be educated in a -sense of human dignity and equality than in anything -else in the world. And a child who has once -had to respect a kind and capable woman of the -lower classes will respect the lower classes for -ever. The true way to overcome the evil in class -distinctions is not to denounce them as revolutionists -denounce them, but to ignore them as children -ignore them.</p> - -<p>The early youth of David Copperfield is psychologically<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span> -almost as good as his childhood. In -one touch especially Dickens pierced the very core -of the sensibility of boyhood; it was when he made -David more afraid of a manservant than of anybody -or anything else. The lowering Murdstone, -the awful Mrs. Steerforth are not so alarming to -him as Mr. Littimer, the unimpeachable gentleman’s -gentleman. This is exquisitely true to the -masculine emotions, especially in their undeveloped -state. A youth of common courage does not -fear anything violent, but he is in mortal fear of -anything correct. This may or may not be the -reason that so few female writers understand their -male characters, but this fact remains: that the -more sincere and passionate and even headlong a -lad is the more certain he is to be conventional. -The bolder and freer he seems the more the traditions -of the college or the rules of the club will -hold him with their gyves of gossamer; and the -less afraid he is of his enemies the more cravenly -he will be afraid of his friends. Herein lies indeed -the darkest peril of our ethical doubt and chaos. -The fear is that as morals become less urgent, -manners will become more so; and men who have -forgotten the fear of God will retain the fear of -Littimer. We shall merely sink into a much -meaner bondage. For when you break the great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span> -laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get -anarchy. You get the small laws.</p> - -<p>The sting and strength of this piece of fiction, -then, do (by a rare accident) lie in the circumstance -that it was so largely founded on fact. -“David Copperfield” is the great answer of a -great romancer to the realists. David says in -effect: “What! you say that the Dickens tales -are too purple really to have happened! Why, -this is what happened to me, and it seemed the -most purple of all. You say that the Dickens -heroes are too handsome and triumphant! Why, -no prince or paladin in Ariosto was ever so handsome -and triumphant as the Head Boy seemed to -me walking before me in the sun. You say the -Dickens villains are too black! Why, there was -no ink in the devil’s ink-stand black enough for -my own stepfather when I had to live in the same -house with him. The facts are quite the other -way to what you suppose. This life of grey -studies and half tones, the absence of which you -regret in Dickens, is only life as it is looked at. -This life of heroes and villains is life as it is lived. -The life a man knows best is exactly the life he -finds most full of fierce certainties and battles between -good and ill—his own. Oh, yes, the life -we do not care about may easily be a psychological<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span> -comedy. Other people’s lives may easily be human -documents. But a man’s own life is always -a melodrama.”</p> - -<p>There are other effective things in “David -Copperfield;” they are not all autobiographical, -but they nearly all have this new note of quietude -and reality. Micawber is gigantic; an immense -assertion of the truth that the way to live is to -exaggerate everything. But of him I shall have to -speak more fully in another connection. Mrs. -Micawber, artistically speaking, is even better. -She is very nearly the best thing in Dickens. Nothing -could be more absurd, and at the same time -more true, than her clear, argumentative manner -of speech as she sits smiling and expounding in the -midst of ruin. What could be more lucid and logical -and unanswerable than her statement of the -prolegomena of the Medway problem, of which -the first step must be to “see the Medway,” or -of the coal-trade, which required talent and capital. -“Talent Mr. Micawber has. Capital Mr. Micawber -has not.” It seems as if something should -have come at last out of so clear and scientific an -arrangement of ideas. Indeed if (as has been -suggested) we regard “David Copperfield” as -an unconscious defence of the poetic view of life, -we might regard Mrs. Micawber as an unconscious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span> -satire on the logical view of life. She sits as a -monument of the hopelessness and helplessness of -reason in the face of this romantic and unreasonable -world.</p> - -<p>As I have taken “Dombey and Son” as the -book before the transition, and “David Copperfield” -as typical of the transition itself, I may -perhaps take “Bleak House” as the book after -the transition. “Bleak House” has every characteristic -of his new realistic culture. Dickens -never, as in his early books, revels now in the -parts he likes and scamps the parts he does not, -after the manner of Scott. He does not, as in -previous tales, leave his heroes and heroines mere -walking gentlemen and ladies with nothing at all -to do but walk: he expends upon them at least -ingenuity. By the expedients (successful or not) -of the self-revelation of Esther or the humorous -inconsistencies of Rick, he makes his younger figures -if not lovable at least readable. Everywhere -we see this tighter and more careful grip. He -does not, for instance, when he wishes to denounce -a dark institution, sandwich it in as a mere episode -in a rambling story of adventure, as the debtor’s -prison is embedded in the body of Pickwick or the -low Yorkshire school in the body of Nicholas -Nickleby. He puts the Court of Chancery in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span> -centre of the stage, a sombre and sinister temple, -and groups round it in artistic relation decaying -and fantastic figures, its offspring and its satirists. -An old dipsomaniac keeps a rag and bone shop, -type of futility and antiquity, and calls himself -the Lord Chancellor. A little mad old maid hangs -about the courts on a forgotten or imaginary lawsuit, -and says with perfect and pungent irony, -“I am expecting a judgment shortly, on the Day -of Judgment.” Rick and Ada and Esther are not -mere strollers who have strayed into the court of -law, they are its children, its symbols, and its victims. -The righteous indignation of the book is -not at the red heat of anarchy, but at the white -heat of art. Its anger is patient and plodding, like -some historic revenge. Moreover, it slowly and -carefully creates the real psychology of oppression. -The endless formality, the endless unemotional urbanity, -the endless hope deferred, these things -make one feel the fact of injustice more than the -madness of Nero. For it is not the activeness of -tyranny that maddens, but its passiveness. We -hate the deafness of the god more than his -strength. Silence is the unbearable repartee.</p> - -<p>Again we can see in this book strong traces of -an increase in social experience. Dickens, as his -fame carried him into more fashionable circles,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span> -began really to understand something of what is -strong and what is weak in the English upper -class. Sir Leicester Deadlock is a far more effective -condemnation of oligarchy than the ugly -swagger of Sir Mulberry Hawke, because pride -stands out more plainly in all its impotence and -insolence as the one weakness of a good man, than -as one of the million weaknesses of a bad one. -Dickens, like all young Radicals, had imagined in -his youth that aristocracy rested upon the hardness -of somebody; he found, as we all do, that it rests -upon the softness of everybody. It is very hard -not to like Sir Leicester Deadlock, not to applaud -his silly old speeches, so foolish, so manly, so -genuinely English, so disastrous to England. It -is true that the English people love a lord, but -it is not true that they fear him; rather, if anything, -they pity him; there creeps into their love -something of the feeling they have towards a baby -or a black man. In their hearts they think it -admirable that Sir Leicester Deadlock should be -able to speak at all. And so a system, which no -iron laws and no bloody battles could possibly force -upon a people, is preserved from generation to -generation by pure, weak good-nature.</p> - -<p>In “Bleak House” occurs the character of Harold -Skimpole, the character whose alleged likeness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span> -to Leigh Hunt has laid Dickens open to so much -disapproval. Unjust disapproval, I think, as far -as fundamental morals are concerned. In method -he was a little clamorous and clumsy, as, indeed, -he was apt to be. But when he said that it was -possible to combine a certain tone of conversation -taken from a particular man with other characteristics -which were not meant to be his, he surely -said what all men who write stories know. A -work of fiction often consists in combining a pair -of whiskers seen in one street with a crime seen -in another. He may quite possibly have really -meant only to make Leigh Hunt’s light philosophy -the mask for a new kind of scamp, as a variant on -the pious mask of Pecksniff or the candid mask -of Bagstock. He may never once have had the -unfriendly thought, “Suppose Hunt behaved -like a rascal!” he may have only had the -fanciful thought, “Suppose a rascal behaved like -Hunt!”</p> - -<p>But there is a good reason for mentioning Skimpole -especially. In the character of Skimpole, -Dickens displayed again a quality that was very -admirable in him—I mean a disposition to see -things sanely and to satirize even his own faults. -He was commonly occupied in satirizing the Gradgrinds, -the economists, the men of Smiles and Self-Help.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span> -For him there was nothing poorer than -their wealth, nothing more selfish than their self-denial. -And against them he was in the habit of -pitting the people of a more expansive habit—the -happy Swivellers and Micawbers, who, if they -were poor, were at least as rich as their last penny -could make them. He loved that great Christian -carelessness that seeks its meat from God. It was -merely a kind of uncontrollable honesty that forced -him into urging the other side. He could not disguise -from himself or from the world that the -man who began by seeking his meat from God -might end by seeking his meat from his neighbour, -without apprising his neighbour of the -fact. He had shown how good irresponsibility -could be; he could not stoop to hide how bad it -could be. He created Skimpole; and Skimpole is -the dark underside of Micawber.</p> - -<p>In attempting Skimpole he attempted something -with a great and urgent meaning. He attempted -it, I say; I do not assert that he carried it through. -As has been remarked, he was never successful in -describing psychological change; his characters are -the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. And -critics have complained very justly of the crude -villainy of Skimpole’s action in the matter of Joe -and Mr. Bucket. Certainly Skimpole had no need<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span> -to commit a clumsy treachery to win a clumsy -bribe; he had only to call on Mr. Jarndyce. He -had lost his honour too long to need to sell it.</p> - -<p>The effect is bad; but I repeat that the aim was -great. Dickens wished, under the symbol of Skimpole, -to point out a truth which is perhaps the most -terrible in moral psychology. I mean the fact that -it is by no means easy to draw the line between -light and heavy offence. He desired to show that -there are no faults, however kindly, that we can -afford to flatter or to let alone; he meant that -perhaps Skimpole had once been as good a man as -Swiveller. If flattered or let alone, our kindliest -fault can destroy our kindliest virtue. A thing -may begin as a very human weakness, and end as -a very inhuman weakness. Skimpole means that -the extremes of evil are much nearer than we think. -A man may begin by being too generous to pay his -debts, and end by being too mean to pay his debts. -For the vices are very strangely in league, and -encourage each other. A sober man may become -a drunkard through being a coward. A brave -man may become a coward through being a drunkard. -That is the thing Dickens was darkly trying -to convey in Skimpole—that a man might become -a mountain of selfishness if he attended only to the -Dickens virtues. There is nothing that can be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span> -neglected; there is no such thing (he meant) as a -peccadillo.</p> - -<p>I have dwelt on this consciousness of his because, -alas, it had a very sharp edge for himself. -Even while he was permitting a fault, originally -small, to make a comedy of Skimpole, a fault, -originally small, was making a tragedy of Charles -Dickens. For Dickens also had a bad quality, not -intrinsically very terrible, which he allowed to -wreck his life. He also had a small weakness that -could sometimes become stronger than all his -strengths. His selfishness was not, it need hardly -be said, the selfishness of Gradgrind; he was particularly -compassionate and liberal. Nor was it -in the least the selfishness of Skimpole. He was -entirely self-dependent, industrious, and dignified. -His selfishness was wholly a selfishness of the -nerves. Whatever his whim or the temperature -of the instant told him to do, must be done. He -was the type of man who would break a window if -it would not open and give him air. And this -weakness of his had, by the time of which we -speak, led to a breach between himself and his wife -which he was too exasperated and excited to heal -in time. Everything must be put right, and put -right at once, with him. If London bored him, he -must go to the Continent at once; if the Continent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span> -bored him, he must come back to London at once. -If the day was too noisy, the whole household -must be quiet; if night was too quiet, the whole -household must wake up. Above all, he had this -supreme character of the domestic despot—that -his good temper was, if possible, more despotic -than his bad temper. When he was miserable -(as he often was, poor fellow), they only had -to listen to his railings. When he was happy they -had to listen to his novels. All this, which was -mainly mere excitability, did not seem to amount -to much; it did not in the least mean that he had -ceased to be a clean-living and kind-hearted and -quite honest man. But there was this evil about it—that -he did not resist his little weakness at all; -he pampered it as Skimpole pampered his. And -it separated him and his wife. A mere silly trick -of temperament did everything that the blackest -misconduct could have done. A random sensibility, -started about the shuffling of papers or the -shutting of a window, ended by tearing two clean, -Christian people from each other, like a blast of -bigamy or adultery.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_211">CHAPTER IX<br /> - -<span class="subhead">LATER LIFE AND WORKS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">I have</span> deliberately in this book mentioned only -such facts in the life of Dickens as were, I will -not say significant (for all facts must be significant, -including the million facts that can never -be mentioned by anybody), but such facts as illustrated -my own immediate meaning. I have observed -this method consistently and without shame -because I think that we can hardly make too evident -a chasm between books which profess to be -statements of all ascertainable facts, and books -which (like this one) profess only to contain a -particular opinion or a summary deducible from -the facts. Books like Forster’s exhaustive work -and others exist, and are as accessible as St. Paul’s -Cathedral; we have them in common as we have -the facts of the physical universe; and it seems -highly desirable that the function of making an -exhaustive catalogue and that of making an individual -generalization should not be confused. No -catalogue, of course, can contain all the facts even -of five minutes; every catalogue, however long and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span> -learned, must be not only a bold, but, one may -say, an audacious selection. But if a great many -facts are given, the reader gains a blurred belief -that all the facts are being given. In a professedly -personal judgment it is therefore clearer and -more honest to give only a few illustrative facts, -leaving the other obtainable facts to balance them. -For thus it is made quite clear that the thing is a -sketch, an affair of a few lines.</p> - -<p>It is as well, however, to make at this point a -pause sufficient to indicate the main course of -the later life of the novelist. And it is best to -begin with the man himself, as he appeared in -those last days of popularity and public distinction. -Many are still alive who remember him in his -after-dinner speeches, his lectures, and his many -public activities; as I am not one of these, I cannot -correct my notions with that flash of the living -features without which a description may be subtly -and entirely wrong. Once a man is dead, if it be -only yesterday, the newcomer must piece him together -from descriptions really as much at random -as if he were describing Cæsar or Henry II. Allowing, -however, for this inevitable falsity, a figure -vivid and a little fantastic, does walk across the -stage of Forster’s “Life.”</p> - -<p>Dickens was of a middle size and his vivacity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span> -and relative physical insignificance probably gave -rather the impression of small size; certainly of -the absence of bulk. In early life he wore, even -for that epoch, extravagant clusters of brown hair, -and in later years, a brown moustache and a fringe -of brown beard (cut like a sort of broad and bushy -imperial) sufficiently individual in shape to give -him a faint air as of a foreigner. His face had a -peculiar tint or quality which is hard to describe -even after one has contrived to imagine it. It -was the quality which Mrs. Carlyle felt to be, as -it were, metallic, and compared to clear steel. It -was, I think, a sort of pale glitter and animation, -very much alive and yet with something deathly -about it, like a corpse galvanized by a god. His -face (if this was so) was curiously a counterpart -of his character. For the essence of Dickens’s -character was that it was at once tremulous and yet -hard and sharp, just as the bright blade of a sword -is tremulous and yet hard and sharp. He vibrated -at every touch and yet he was indestructible; you -could bend him, but you could not break him. -Brown of hair and beard, somewhat pale of visage -(especially in his later days of excitement and ill-health) -he had quite exceptionally bright and -active eyes; eyes that were always darting about -like brilliant birds to pick up all the tiny things of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span> -which he made more, perhaps, than any novelist -has done; for he was a sort of poetical Sherlock -Holmes. The mouth behind the brown beard was -large and mobile, like the mouth of an actor; indeed -he was an actor, in many things too much of -an actor. In his lectures, in later years, he could -turn his strange face into any of the innumerable -mad masks that were the faces of his grotesque -characters. He could make his face fall suddenly -into the blank inanity of Mrs. Raddle’s servant, or -swell, as if to twice its size, into the apoplectic -energy of Mr. Sergeant Buzfuz. But the outline -of his face itself, from his youth upwards, was cut -quite delicate and decisive, and in repose and its -own keen way, may even have looked effeminate.</p> - -<p>The dress of the comfortable classes during the -later years of Dickens was, compared with ours, -somewhat slipshod and somewhat gaudy. It was -the time of loose pegtop trousers of an almost -Turkish oddity, of large ties, of loose short jackets -and of loose long whiskers. Yet even this expansive -period, it must be confessed, considered Dickens -a little too flashy or, as some put it, too Frenchified -in his dress. He wore velvet coats; he wore -wild waistcoats that were like incredible sunsets; -he wore large hats of an unnecessary and startling -whiteness. He did not mind being seen in sensational<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span> -dressing-gowns; nay, he had his portrait -painted in one of them. All this is not meritorious; -neither is it particularly discreditable; it is a characteristic -only, but an important one. He was an -absolutely independent and entirely self-respecting -man. But he had none of that old dusty, half-dignified -English feeling upon which Thackeray -was so sensitive; I mean the desire to be regarded -as a private gentleman, which means at bottom the -desire to be left alone. This again is not a merit; -it is only one of the milder aspects of aristocracy. -But meritorious or not, Dickens did not possess it. -He had no objection to being stared at, if he were -also admired. He did not exactly pose in the -oriental manner of Disraeli; his instincts were too -clean for that; but he did pose somewhat in the -French manner, of some leaders like Mirabeau and -Gambetta. Nor had he the dull desire to “get -on” which makes men die contented as inarticulate -Under Secretaries of State. He did not desire -success so much as fame, the old human glory, -the applause and wonder of the people. Such he -was as he walked down the street in his white hat, -probably with a slight swagger.</p> - -<p>His private life consisted of one tragedy and ten -thousand comedies. By one tragedy I mean one -real and rending moral tragedy—the failure of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span> -marriage. He loved his children dearly, and more -than one of them died; but in sorrows like these -there is no violence and above all no shame. The -end of life is not tragic like the end of love. And -by the ten thousand comedies I mean the whole -texture of his life, his letters, his conversation, -which were one incessant carnival of insane and -inspired improvisation. So far as he could prevent -it, he never permitted a day of his life to be ordinary. -There was always some prank, some impetuous -proposal, some practical joke, some sudden -hospitality, some sudden disappearance. It is -related of him (I give one anecdote out of a hundred) -that in his last visit to America, when he -was already reeling as it were under the blow that -was to be mortal, he remarked quite casually to -his companions that a row of painted cottages -looked exactly like the painted shops in a pantomime. -No sooner had the suggestion passed his -lips than he leapt at the nearest doorway and in -exact imitation of the clown in the harlequinade, -beat conscientiously with his fist, not on the door -(for that would have burst the canvas scenery of -course), but on the side of the doorpost. Having -done this he lay down ceremoniously across -the doorstep for the owner to fall over him if he -should come rushing out. He then got up gravely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span> -and went on his way. His whole life was full of -such unexpected energies, precisely like those of -the pantomime clown. Dickens had indeed a great -and fundamental affinity with the landscape, or -rather house-scape, of the harlequinade. He liked -high houses, and sloping roofs, and deep areas. -But he would have been really happy if some good -fairy of the eternal pantomime had given him the -power of flying off the roofs and pitching harmlessly -down the height of the houses and bounding -out of the areas like an indiarubber ball. The -divine lunatic in “Nicholas Nickleby” comes nearest -to his dream. I really think Dickens would -rather have been that one of his characters than -any of the others. With what excitement he would -have struggled down the chimney. With what -ecstatic energy he would have hurled the cucumbers -over the garden wall.</p> - -<p>His letters exhibit even more the same incessant -creative force. His letters are as creative as any -of his literary creations. His shortest postcard is -often as good as his ablest novel; each one of them -is spontaneous; each one of them is different. He -varies even the form and shape of the letter as far -as possible; now it is in absurd French! now it is -from one of his characters; now it is an advertisement -for himself as a stray dog. All of them are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span> -very funny; they are not only very funny, but they -are quite as funny as his finished and published -work. This is the ultimately amazing thing about -Dickens; the amount there is of him. He wrote, -at the very least, sixteen thick important books -packed full of original creation. And if you -had burnt them all he could have written sixteen -more, as a man writes idle letters to his -friend.</p> - -<p>In connection with this exuberant part of his -nature there is another thing to be noted, if we are -to make a personal picture of him. Many modern -people, chiefly women, have been heard to object -to the Bacchic element in the books of Dickens, -that celebration of social drinking as a supreme -symbol of social living, which those books share -with almost all the great literature of mankind, -including the New Testament. Undoubtedly there -is an abnormal amount of drinking in a page of -Dickens, as there is an abnormal amount of fighting, -say, in a page of Dumas. If you reckon up -the beers and brandies of Mr. Bob Sawyer, with -the care of an arithmetician and the deductions of -a pathologist, they rise alarmingly, like a rising -tide at sea. Dickens did defend drink clamorously, -praised it with passion, and described whole -orgies of it with enormous gusto. Yet it is wonderfully<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span> -typical of his prompt and impatient nature -that he himself drank comparatively little. He -was the type of man who could be so eager in -praising the cup that he left the cup untasted. It -was a part of his active and feverish temperament -that he did not drink wine very much. But it -was a part of his humane philosophy, of his -religion, that he did drink wine. To healthy -European philosophy, wine is a symbol; to -European religion it is a sacrament. Dickens -approved it because it was a great human institution, -one of the rites of civilization, and this it -certainly is. The teetotaller who stands outside -it may have perfectly clear ethical reasons of his -own, as a man may have who stands outside education -or nationality, who refuses to go to an University -or to serve in an Army. But he is neglecting -one of the great social things that man has -added to nature. The teetotaller has chosen a -most unfortunate phrase for the drunkard when -he says that the drunkard is making a beast of -himself. The man who drinks ordinarily makes -nothing but an ordinary man of himself. The -man who drinks excessively makes a devil of himself. -But nothing connected with a human and -artistic thing like wine can bring one nearer to -the brute life of nature. The only man who is, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span> -the exact and literal sense of the words, making -a beast of himself is the teetotaller.</p> - -<p>The tone of Dickens towards religion, though -like that of most of his contemporaries, philosophically -disturbed and rather historically ignorant, -had an element that was very characteristic -of himself. He had all the prejudices of his time. -He had, for instance, that dislike of defined dogmas, -which really means a preference for unexamined -dogmas. He had the usual vague notion -that the whole of our human past was packed with -nothing but insane Tories. He had, in a word, -all the old Radical ignorances which went along -with the old Radical acuteness and courage and -public spirit. But this spirit tended, in almost all -the others who held it, to a specific dislike of the -Church of England; and a disposition to set the -other sects against it, as truer types of inquiry, or -of individualism. Dickens had a definite tenderness -for the Church of England. He might have -even called it a weakness for the Church of England, -but he had it. Something in those placid -services, something in that reticent and humane -liturgy pleased him against all the tendencies of -his time; pleased him in the best part of himself, -his virile love of charity and peace. Once, in a -puff of anger at the Church’s political stupidity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span> -(which is indeed profound), he left it for a week -or two and went to an Unitarian Chapel; in a -week or two he came back. This curious and -sentimental hold of the English Church upon him -increased with years. In the book he was at -work on when he died he describes the Minor -Canon, humble, chivalrous, tender-hearted, answering -with indignant simplicity the froth and platform -righteousness of the sectarian philanthropist. -He upholds Canon Crisparkle and satirizes Mr. -Honeythunder. Almost every one of the other -Radicals, his friends, would have upheld Mr. -Honeythunder and satirized Canon Crisparkle.</p> - -<p>I have mentioned this matter for a special reason. -It brings us back to that apparent contradiction -or dualism in Dickens to which, in one -connection or another, I have often adverted, and -which, in one shape or another, constitutes the -whole crux of his character. I mean the union of -a general wildness approaching lunacy, with a sort -of secret moderation almost amounting to mediocrity. -Dickens was, more or less, the man I have -described—sensitive, theatrical, amazing, a bit of -a dandy, a bit of a buffoon. Nor are such characteristics, -whether weak or wild, entirely accidents -or externals. He had some false theatrical tendencies -integral in his nature. For instance, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span> -had one most unfortunate habit, a habit that often -put him in the wrong, even when he happened to -be in the right. He had an incurable habit of explaining -himself. This reduced his admirers to -the mental condition of the authentic but hitherto -uncelebrated little girl who said to her mother, “I -think I should understand if only you wouldn’t -explain.” Dickens always would explain. It was -a part of that instinctive publicity of his which -made him at once a splendid democrat and a little -too much of an actor. He carried it to the craziest -lengths. He actually wanted to have printed in -<i>Punch</i>, it is said, an apology for his own action in -the matter of his marriage. That incident alone -is enough to suggest that his external offers and -proposals were sometimes like screams heard from -Bedlam. Yet it remains true that he had in him a -central part that was pleased only by the most -decent and the most reposeful rites, by things of -which the Anglican prayer-book is very typical. -It is certainly true that he was often extravagant. -It is most certainly equally true that he detested -and despised extravagance.</p> - -<p>The best explanation can be found in his literary -genius. His literary genius consisted in a contradictory -capacity at once to entertain and to deride—very -ridiculous ideas. If he is a buffoon, he is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span> -laughing at buffoonery. His books were in some -ways the wildest on the face of the world. Rabelais -did not introduce into Paphlagonia or the -Kingdom of the Coqcigrues satiric figures more -frantic and misshapen than Dickens made to walk -about the Strand and Lincoln’s Inn. But for all -that, you come, in the core of him, on a sudden -quietude and good sense. Such, I think, was the -core of Rabelais, such were all the far-stretching -and violent satirists. This is a point essential to -Dickens, though very little comprehended in our -current tone of thought. Dickens was an immoderate -jester, but a moderate thinker. He was an -immoderate jester because he was a moderate -thinker. What we moderns call the wildness of -his imagination was actually created by what we -moderns call the tameness of his thought. I mean -that he felt the full insanity of all extreme tendencies, -because he was himself so sane; he felt -eccentricities, because he was in the centre. We -are always, in these days, asking our violent -prophets to write violent satires; but violent -prophets can never possibly write violent satires. -In order to write satire like that of Rabelais—satire -that juggles with the stars and kicks the world -about like a football—it is necessary to be one’s -self temperate, and even mild. A modern man<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span> -like Nietzsche, a modern man like Gorky, a modern -man like d’Annunzio, could not possibly write -real and riotous satire. They are themselves too -much on the borderlands. They could not be a -success as caricaturists, for they are already a great -success as caricatures.</p> - -<p>I have mentioned his religious preference merely -as an instance of this interior moderation. To -say, as some have done, that he attacked Nonconformity -is quite a false way of putting it. It -is clean across the whole trend of the man and -his time to suppose that he could have felt bitterness -against any theological body as a theological -body; but anything like religious extravagance, -whether Protestant or Catholic, moved him to an -extravagance of satire. And he flung himself into -the drunken energy of Stiggins, he piled up to the -stars the “verbose flights of stairs” of Mr. Chadband, -exactly because his own conception of religion -was the quiet and impersonal Morning -Prayer. It is typical of him that he had a peculiar -hatred for speeches at the graveside.</p> - -<p>An even clearer case of what I mean can be -found in his political attitude. He seemed to some -an almost anarchic satirist. He made equal fun -of the systems which reformers made war on, and -of the instruments on which reformers relied. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span> -made no secret of his feeling that the average -English premier was an accidental ass. In two -superb sentences he summed up and swept away -the whole British constitution: “England, for the -last week, has been in an awful state. Lord Coodle -would go out, Sir Thomas Doodle wouldn’t come -in, and there being no people in England to speak -of except Coodle and Doodle, the country has been -without a government.” He lumped all cabinets -and all government offices together, and made the -same game of them all. He created his most staggering -humbugs, his most adorable and incredible -idiots, and set them on the highest thrones of our -national system. To many moderate and progressive -people, such a satirist seemed to be insulting -heaven and earth, ready to wreck society for some -mad alternative, prepared to pull down St. Paul’s, -and on its ruins erect a gory guillotine. Yet, as -a matter of fact, this apparent wildness of his came -from his being, if anything, a very moderate politician. -It came, not at all from fanaticism, but -from a rather rational detachment. He had the -sense to see that the British constitution was not -democracy, but the British constitution. It was -an artificial system—like any other, good in some -ways, bad in others. His satire of it sounded wild -to those that worshipped it; but his satire of it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span> -arose not from his having any wild enthusiasm -against it, but simply from his not having, like -every one else, a wild enthusiasm for it. Alone, as -far as I know, among all the great Englishmen of -that age, he realized the thing that Frenchmen and -Irishmen understand. I mean the fact that popular -government is one thing, and representative -government another. He realized that representative -government has many minor disadvantages, -one of them being that it is never representative. -He speaks of his “hope to have made every -man in England feel something of the contempt -for the House of Commons that I have.” He -says also these two things, both of which are wonderfully -penetrating as coming from a good Radical -in 1855, for they contain a perfect statement -of the peril in which we now stand, and which may, -if it please God, sting us into avoiding the long -vista at the end of which one sees so clearly the -dignity and the decay of <span class="locked">Venice—</span></p> - -<p>“I am hourly strengthened,” he says, “in my -old belief, that our political aristocracy and our -tuft-hunting are the death of England. In all -this business I don’t see a gleam of hope. As to -the popular spirit, it has come to be so entirely -separated from the Parliament and the Government, -and so perfectly apathetic about them both,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span> -that I seriously think it a most portentous sign.” -And he says also this: “I really am serious in -thinking—and I have given as painful consideration -to the subject as a man with children to live -and suffer after him can possibly give it—that -representative government is become altogether a -failure with us, that the English gentilities and -subserviences render the people unfit for it, and the -whole thing has broken down since the great seventeenth -century time, and has no hope in it.”</p> - -<p>These are the words of a wise and perhaps -melancholy man, but certainly not of an unduly -excited one. It is worth noting, for instance, how -much more directly Dickens goes to the point than -Carlyle did, who noted many of the same evils. -But Carlyle fancied that our modern English government -was wordy and long-winded because it -was democratic government. Dickens saw, what -is certainly the fact, that it is wordy and long-winded -because it is aristocratic government, the -two most pleasant aristocratic qualities being a love -of literature and an unconsciousness of time. But -all this amounts to the same conclusion of the -matter. Frantic figures like Stiggins and Chadband -were created out of the quietude of his -religious preference. Wild creations like the Barnacles -and the Bounderbys were produced in a kind<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span> -of ecstasy of the ordinary, of the obvious in -political justice. His monsters were made out of -his level and his moderation, as the old monsters -were made out of the level sea.</p> - -<p>Such was the man of genius we must try to imagine; -violently emotional, yet with a good judgment; -pugnacious, but only when he thought himself -oppressed; prone to think himself oppressed, -yet not cynical about human motives. He was a -man remarkably hard to understand or to reanimate. -He almost always had reasons for his -action; his error was that he always expounded -them. Sometimes his nerve snapped; and then he -was mad. Unless it did so he was quite unusually -sane.</p> - -<p>Such a rough sketch at least must suffice us in -order to summarize his later years. Those years -were occupied, of course, in two main additions to -his previous activities. The first was the series of -public readings and lectures which he now began -to give systematically. The second was his successive -editorship of <i>Household Words</i> and of <i>All -the Year Round</i>. He was of a type that enjoys -every new function and opportunity. He had been -so many things in his life, a reporter, an actor, a -conjurer, a poet. As he had enjoyed them all, so -he enjoyed being a lecturer, and enjoyed being an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span> -editor. It is certain that his audiences (who sometimes -stacked themselves so thick that they lay -flat on the platform all round him) enjoyed his -being a lecturer. It is not so certain that the sub-editors -enjoyed his being an editor. But in both -connections the main matter of importance is the -effect on the permanent work of Dickens himself. -The readings were important for this reason, that -they fixed, as if by some public and pontifical pronouncement, -what was Dickens’s interpretation of -Dickens’s work. Such a knowledge is mere tradition, -but it is very forcible. My own family has -handed on to me, and I shall probably hand on -to the next generation, a definite memory of how -Dickens made his face suddenly like the face of -an idiot in impersonating Mrs. Raddle’s servant, -Betsy. This does serve one of the permanent purposes -of tradition; it does make it a little more -difficult for any ingenious person to prove that -Betsy was meant to be a brilliant satire on the -over-cultivation of the intellect.</p> - -<p>As for his relation to his two magazines, it is -chiefly important, first for the admirable things -that he wrote in the magazines himself (one cannot -forbear to mention the inimitable monologue -of the waiter in “Somebody’s Luggage”), and -secondly for the fact that in his capacity of editor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span> -he made one valuable discovery. He discovered -Wilkie Collins. Wilkie Collins was the one man -of unmistakable genius who has a certain affinity -with Dickens; an affinity in this respect, that they -both combine in a curious way a modern and cockney -and even commonplace opinion about things -with a huge elemental sympathy with strange oracles -and spirits and old night. There were no two -men in Mid-Victorian England, with their top-hats -and umbrellas, more typical of its rationality and -dull reform; and there were no two men who could -touch them at a ghost story. No two men would -have more contempt for superstitions; and no two -men could so create the superstitious thrill. Indeed, -our modern mystics make a mistake when -they wear long hair or loose ties to attract the -spirits. The elves and the old gods when they -revisit the earth really go straight for a dull top-hat. -For it means simplicity, which the gods love.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile his books, which, as brilliant as ever, -were appearing from time to time, bore witness to -that increasing tendency to a more careful and -responsible treatment which we have marked in -the transition which culminated in “Bleak House.” -His next important book, “Hard Times,” strikes -an almost unexpected note of severity. The characters -are indeed exaggerated, but they are bitterly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span> -and deliberately exaggerated; they are not exaggerated -with the old unconscious high spirits of -Nicholas Nickleby or Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens -exaggerates Bounderby because he really hates -him. He exaggerated Pecksniff because he really -loved him. “Hard Times” is not one of the -greatest books of Dickens; but it is perhaps in a -sense one of his greatest monuments. It stamps -and records the reality of Dickens’s emotion on a -great many things that were then considered unphilosophical -grumblings, but which since have -swelled into the immense phenomenon of the socialist -philosophy. To call Dickens a Socialist is a -wild exaggeration; but the truth and peculiarity -of his position might be expressed thus: that even -when everybody thought that Liberalism meant -individualism he was emphatically a Liberal and -emphatically not an individualist. Or the truth -might be better still stated in this manner: that -he saw that there was a secret thing, called humanity, -to which both extreme socialism and extreme -individualism were profoundly and inexpressibly -indifferent, and that this permanent and presiding -humanity was the thing he happened to understand; -he knew that individualism is nothing and -non-individualism is nothing but the keeping of the -commandment of man. He felt, as a novelist<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span> -should, that the question is too much discussed as -to whether a man is in favour of this or that scientific -philosophy; that there is another question, -whether the scientific philosophy is in favour of -the man. That is why such books as “Hard -Times” will remain always a part of the power -and tradition of Dickens. He saw that economic -systems are not things like the stars, but things -like the lamp-posts, manifestations of the human -mind, and things to be judged by the human -heart.</p> - -<p>Thenceforward until the end his books grow -consistently graver and, as it were, more responsible; -he improves as an artist if not always as a -creator. “Little Dorrit” (published in 1857) -is at once in some ways so much more subtle and -in every way so much more sad than the rest of -his work that it bores Dickensians and especially -pleases George Gissing. It is the only one of the -Dickens tales which could please Gissing, not only -by its genius, but also by its atmosphere. There is -something a little modern and a little sad, something -also out of tune with the main trend of -Dickens’s moral feeling, about the description of -the character of Dorrit as actually and finally -weakened by his wasting experiences, as not lifting -any cry above the conquered years. It is but a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span> -faint fleck of shadow. But the illimitable white -light of human hopefulness, of which I spoke at -the beginning, is ebbing away, the work of the -revolution is growing weaker everywhere; and -the night of necessitarianism cometh when no man -can work. For the first time in a book by Dickens -perhaps we really do feel that the hero is forty-five. -Clennam is certainly very much older than -Mr. Pickwick.</p> - -<p>This was indeed only a fugitive grey cloud; -he went on to breezier operations. But whatever -they were, they still had the note of the later days. -They have a more cautious craftsmanship; they -have a more mellow and a more mixed human -sentiment. Shadows fell upon his page from the -other and sadder figures out of the Victorian decline. -A good instance of this is his next book, -“The Tale of Two Cities” (1859). In dignity -and eloquence it almost stands alone among the -books by Dickens, but it also stands alone among -his books in this respect, that it is not entirely by -Dickens. It owes its inspiration avowedly to the -passionate and cloudy pages of Carlyle’s “French -Revolution.” And there is something quite essentially -inconsistent between Carlyle’s disturbed and -half-sceptical transcendentalism and the original -school and spirit to which Dickens belonged, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span> -lucid and laughing decisiveness of the old convinced -and contented Radicalism. Hence the -genius of Dickens cannot save him, just as the -great genius of Carlyle could not save him from -making a picture of the French Revolution, which -was delicately and yet deeply erroneous. Both -tend too much to represent it as a mere elemental -outbreak of hunger or vengeance; they do not see -enough that it was a war for intellectual principles, -even for intellectual platitudes. We, the -modern English, cannot easily understand the -French Revolution, because we cannot easily understand -the idea of bloody battle for pure common -sense; we cannot understand common sense -in arms and conquering. In modern England common -sense appears to mean putting up with existing -conditions. For us a practical politician really -means a man who can be thoroughly trusted to do -nothing at all; that is where his practicality comes -in. The French feeling—the feeling at the back -of the Revolution—was that the more sensible a -man was, the more you must look out for -slaughter.</p> - -<p>In all the imitators of Carlyle, including Dickens, -there is an obscure sentiment that the thing -for which the Frenchmen died must have been -something new and queer, a paradox, a strange -idolatry. But when such blood ran in the streets,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span> -it was for the sake of a truism; when those cities -were shaken to their foundations, they were shaken -to their foundations by a truism.</p> - -<p>I have mentioned this historical matter because -it illustrates these later and more mingled influences -which at once improve and as it were perplex -the later work of Dickens. For Dickens had in -his original mental composition capacities for -understanding this cheery and sensible element -in the French Revolution far better than Carlyle. -The French Revolution was, among other things, -French, and, so far as that goes, could never have -a precise counterpart in so jolly and autochthonous -an Englishman as Charles Dickens. But there was -a great deal of the actual and unbroken tradition -of the Revolution itself in his early radical indictments; -in his denunciations of the Fleet Prison -there was a great deal of the capture of the Bastille. -There was, above all, a certain reasonable -impatience which was the essence of the old Republican, -and which is quite unknown to the Revolutionist -in modern Europe. The old Radical did -not feel exactly that he was “in revolt;” he felt -if anything that a number of idiotic institutions -had revolted against reason and against him. -Dickens, I say, had the revolutionary idea, though -an English form of it, by clear and conscious inheritance; -Carlyle had to rediscover the Revolution<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span> -by a violence of genius and vision. If Dickens, -then, took from Carlyle (as he said he did) -his image of the Revolution, it does certainly mean -that he had forgotten something of his own youth -and come under the more complex influences of -the end of the nineteenth century. His old hilarious -and sentimental view of human nature seems -for a moment dimmed in “Little Dorrit.” His -old political simplicity has been slightly disturbed -by Carlyle.</p> - -<p>I repeat that this graver note is varied, but it -remains a graver note. We see it struck, I think, -with particular and remarkable success in “Great -Expectations” (1860–61). This fine story is told -with a consistency and quietude of individuality -which is rare in Dickens. But so far had he -travelled along the road of a heavier reality, that -he even intended to give the tale an unhappy -ending, making Pip lose Estella for ever; and he -was only dissuaded from it by the robust romanticism -of Bulwer-Lytton. But the best part of the -tale—the account of the vacillations of the hero -between the humble life to which he owes everything, -and the gorgeous life from which he expects -something, touch a very true and somewhat tragic -part of morals; for the great paradox of morality -(the paradox to which only the religions have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span> -given an adequate expression) is that the very -vilest kind of fault is exactly the most easy kind. -We read in books and ballads about the wild fellow -who might kill a man or smoke opium, but who -would never stoop to lying or cowardice or to -“anything mean.” But for actual human beings -opium and slaughter have only occasional charm; -the permanent human temptation is the temptation -to be mean. The one standing probability is the -probability of becoming a cowardly hypocrite. -The circle of the traitors is the lowest of the -abyss, and it is also the easiest to fall into. That -is one of the ringing realities of the Bible, that it -does not make its great men commit grand sins; -it makes its great men (such as David and -St. Peter) commit small sins and behave like -sneaks.</p> - -<p>Dickens has dealt with this easy descent of -desertion, this silent treason, with remarkable accuracy -in the account of the indecisions of Pip. -It contains a good suggestion of that weak romance -which is the root of all snobbishness: that the -mystery which belongs to patrician life excites us -more than the open, even the indecent virtues of -the humble. Pip is keener about Miss Havisham, -who may mean well by him, than about Joe Gargery, -who evidently does. All this is very strong<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span> -and wholesome; but it is still a little stern. “Our -Mutual Friend” (1864) brings us back a little -into his merrier and more normal manner; some -of the satire, such as that upon Veneering’s election, -is in the best of his old style, so airy and -fanciful, yet hitting so suddenly and so hard. But -even here we find the fuller and more serious treatment -of psychology; notably in the two facts that -he creates a really human villain, Bradley Headstone, -and also one whom we might call a really -human hero, Eugene, if it were not that he is much -too human to be called a hero at all. It has been -said (invariably by cads) that Dickens never described -a gentleman; it is like saying that he never -described a zebra. A gentleman is a very rare -animal among human creatures, and to people -like Dickens, interested in all humanity, not a -supremely important one. But in Eugene Wrayburne -he does, whether consciously or not, turn -that accusation with a vengeance. For he not only -describes a gentleman but describes the inner weakness -and peril that belong to a gentleman, the devil -that is always rending the entrails of an idle and -agreeable man. In Eugene’s purposeless pursuit -of Lizzie Hexam, in his yet more purposeless -torturing of Bradley Headstone, the author has -marvellously realized that singular empty obstinacy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span> -that drives the whims and pleasures of a -leisured class. He sees that there is nothing that -such a man more stubbornly adheres to, than the -thing that he does not particularly want to do. -We are still in serious psychology.</p> - -<p>His last book represents yet another new departure, -dividing him from the chaotic Dickens of -days long before. His last book is not merely an -attempt to improve his power of construction in -a story: it is an attempt to rely entirely on that -power of construction. It not only has a plot, it -is a plot. “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” -(1870) was in such a sense, perhaps, the most -ambitious book that Dickens ever attempted. It -is, as every one knows, a detective story, and certainly -a very successful one, as is attested by the -tumult of discussion as to its proper solution. In -this, quite apart from its unfinished state, it stands, -I think, alone among the author’s works. Elsewhere, -if he introduced a mystery, he seldom took -the trouble to make it very mysterious. “Our -Mutual Friend” was finished, but if only half -of it were readable, I think any one could see that -John Rokesmith was John Harman. “Bleak -House” is finished, but if it were only half finished -I think any one would guess that Lady Deadlock -and Nemo had sinned in the past. “Edwin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span> -Drood” is not finished; for in the very middle of -it Dickens died.</p> - -<p>He had altogether overstrained himself in a -last lecturing tour in America. He was a man in -whom any serious malady would naturally make -very rapid strides; for he had the temper of an -irrational invalid. I have said before that there -was in his curious character something that was -feminine. Certainly there was nothing more entirely -feminine than this, that he worked because -he was tired. Fatigue bred in him a false and -feverish industry, and his case increased, like the -case of a man who drinks to cure the effects of -drink. He died in 1870; and the whole nation -mourned him as no public man has ever been -mourned; for prime ministers and princes were -private persons compared with Dickens. He had -been a great popular king, like a king of some -more primal age whom his people could come and -see, giving judgment under an oak tree. He had -in essence held great audiences of millions, and -made proclamations to more than one of the nations -of the earth. His obvious omnipresence in -every part of public life was like the omnipresence -of the sovereign. His secret omnipresence in -every house and hut of private life was more like -the omnipresence of a deity. Compared with that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span> -popular leadership all the fusses of the last forty -years are diversions in idleness. Compared with -such a case as his it may be said that we play -with our politicians, and manage to endure our -authors. We shall never have again such a popularity -until we have again a people.</p> - -<p>He left behind him this almost sombre fragment, -“The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” As one -turns it over the tragic element of its truncation -mingles somewhat with an element of tragedy in -the thing itself; the passionate and predestined -Landless, or the half maniacal Jasper carving -devils out of his own heart. The workmanship -of it is very fine; the right hand has not only not -lost, but is still gaining its cunning. But as we -turn the now enigmatic pages the thought creeps -into us again which I have suggested earlier, and -which is never far off the mind of a true lover of -Dickens. Had he lost or gained by the growth of -technique and probability in his later work? His -later characters were more like men; but were not -his earlier characters more like immortals? He -has become able to perform a social scene so that -it is possible at any rate; but where is that Dickens -who once performed the impossible? Where is -that young poet who created such majors and -architects as nature will never dare to create?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span> -Dickens learnt to describe daily life as Thackeray -and Jane Austen could describe it; but Thackeray -could not have thought such a thought as Crummles; -and it is painful to think of Miss Austen -attempting to imagine Mantalini. After all, we -feel there are many able novelists; but there is -only one Dickens, and whither has he fled?</p> - -<p>He was alive to the end. And in this last dark -and secretive story of Edwin Drood he makes -one splendid and staggering appearance, like a -magician saying farewell to mankind. In the centre -of this otherwise reasonable and rather melancholy -book, this grey story of a good clergyman -and the quiet Cloisterham Towers, Dickens has -calmly inserted one entirely delightful and entirely -insane passage. I mean the frantic and inconceivable -epitaph of Mrs. Sapsea, that which describes -her as “the reverential wife” of Thomas -Sapsea, speaks of her consistency in “Looking up -to him,” and ends with the words, spaced out so -admirably on the tombstone, “Stranger pause. -And ask thyself this question, Canst thou do likewise? -If not, with a blush retire.” Not the wildest -tale in Pickwick contains such an impossibility -as that; Dickens dare scarcely have introduced it, -even as one of Jingle’s lies. In no human churchyard -will you find that invaluable tombstone; indeed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span> -you could scarcely find it in any world where -there are churchyards. You could scarcely have -such immortal folly as that in a world where there -is also death. Mr. Sapsea is one of the golden -things stored up for us in a better world.</p> - -<p>Yes, there were many other Dickenses: a clever -Dickens, an industrious Dickens, a public-spirited -Dickens; but this was the great one. This last -outbreak of insane humour reminds us wherein -lay his power and his supremacy. The praise of -such beatific buffoonery should be the final praise, -the ultimate word in his honour. The wild epitaph -of Mrs. Sapsea should be the serious epitaph -of Dickens.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_244">CHAPTER X<br /> - -<span class="subhead">THE GREAT DICKENS CHARACTERS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">All</span> criticism tends too much to become criticism -of criticism; and the reason is very evident. It is -that criticism of creation is so very staggering a -thing. We see this in the difficulty of criticizing -any artistic creation. We see it again in the difficulty -of criticizing that creation which is spelt with -a capital C. The pessimists who attack the Universe -are always under this disadvantage. They -have an exhilarating consciousness that they could -make the sun and moon better; but they also have -the depressing consciousness that they could not -make the sun and moon at all. A man looking at -a hippopotamus may sometimes be tempted to regard -a hippopotamus as an enormous mistake; but -he is also bound to confess that a fortunate inferiority -prevents him personally from making such -mistakes. It is neither a blasphemy nor an exaggeration -to say that we feel something of the same -difficulty in judging of the very creative element -in human literature. And this is the first and last -dignity of Dickens; that he was a creator. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span> -did not point out things, he made them. We may -disapprove of Mr. Guppy, but we recognize him -as a creation flung down like a miracle out of an -upper sphere; we can pull him to pieces, but we -could not have put him together. We can destroy -Mrs. Gamp in our wrath, but we could not have -made her in our joy. Under this disadvantage -any book about Dickens must definitely labour. -Real primary creation (such as the sun or the birth -of a child) calls forth not criticism, not appreciation, -but a kind of incoherent gratitude. This is -why most hymns about God are bad; and this is -why most eulogies on Dickens are bad. The eulogists -of the divine and of the human creator are -alike inclined to appear sentimentalists because -they are talking about something so very real. In -the same way love-letters always sound florid and -artificial because they are about something real.</p> - -<p>Any chapter such as this chapter must therefore -in a sense be inadequate. There is no way of dealing -properly with the ultimate greatness of Dickens, -except by offering sacrifice to him as a god; -and this is opposed to the etiquette of our time. -But something can perhaps be done in the way of -suggesting what was the quality of this creation. -But even in considering its quality we ought to remember -that quality is not the whole question. One<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span> -of the godlike things about Dickens is his quantity, -his quantity as such, the enormous output, the incredible -fecundity of his invention. I have said -a moment ago that not one of us could have invented -Mr. Guppy. But even if we could have -stolen Mr. Guppy from Dickens we have still to -confront the fact that Dickens would have been -able to invent another quite inconceivable character -to take his place. Perhaps we could have created -Mr. Guppy; but the effort would certainly have -exhausted us; we should be ever afterwards -wheeled about in a bath-chair at Bournemouth.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless there is something that is worth -saying about the quality of Dickens. At the very -beginning of this review I remarked that the -reader must be in a mood, at least, of democracy. -To some it may have sounded irrelevant; but the -Revolution was as much behind all the books of -the nineteenth century as the Catholic religion -(let us say) was behind all the colours and carving -of the Middle Ages. Another great name of the -nineteenth century will afford an evidence of this; -and will also bring us most sharply to the problem -of the literary quality of Dickens.</p> - -<p>Of all these nineteenth century writers there -is none, in the noblest sense, more democratic than -Walter Scott. As this may be disputed, and as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">247</span> -it is relevant, I will expand the remark. There -are two rooted spiritual realities out of which grow -all kinds of democratic conception or sentiment of -human equality. There are two things in which -all men are manifestly unmistakably equal. They -are not equally clever or equally muscular or -equally fat, as the sages of the modern reaction -(with piercing insight) perceive. But this is a -spiritual certainty, that all men are tragic. And -this again, is an equally sublime spiritual certainty, -that all men are comic. No special and private -sorrow can be so dreadful as the fact of having -to die. And no freak or deformity can be so -funny as the mere fact of having two legs. Every -man is important if he loses his life; and every -man is funny if he loses his hat, and has to run -after it. And the universal test everywhere of -whether a thing is popular, of the people, is -whether it employs vigorously these extremes of -the tragic and the comic. Shelley, for instance, -was an aristocrat, if ever there was one in this -world. He was a Republican, but he was not a -democrat: in his poetry there is every perfect quality -except this pungent and popular stab. For the -tragic and the comic you must go, say, to Burns, -a poor man. And all over the world, the folk -literature, the popular literature, is the same. It<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">248</span> -consists of very dignified sorrow and very undignified -fun. Its sad tales are of broken hearts; its -happy tales are of broken heads.</p> - -<p>These, I say, are two roots of democratic reality. -But they have in more civilized literature, a -more civilized embodiment or form. In literature -such as that of the nineteenth century the two elements -appear somewhat thus. Tragedy becomes -a profound sense of human dignity. The other -and jollier element becomes a delighted sense of -human variety. The first supports equality by -saying that all men are equally sublime. The second -supports equality by observing that all men -are equally interesting.</p> - -<p>In this democratic aspect the interest and variety -of all men, there is, of course, no democrat -so great as Dickens. But in the other matter, in -the idea of the dignity of all men, I repeat that -there is no democrat so great as Scott. This fact, -which is the moral and enduring magnificence of -Scott, has been astonishingly overlooked. His rich -and dramatic effects are gained in almost every -case by some grotesque or beggarly figure rising -into a human pride and rhetoric. The common -man, in the sense of the paltry man, becomes the -common man in the sense of the universal man. -He declares his humanity. For the meanest of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">249</span> -all the modernites has been the notion that the -heroic is an oddity or variation, and that the -things that unite us are merely flat or foul. The -common things are terrible and startling, death, -for instance, and first love: the things that are -common are the things that are not commonplace. -Into such high and central passions the comic Scott -character will suddenly rise. Remember the firm -and almost stately answer of the preposterous -Nicol Jarvie when Helen Macgregor seeks to -browbeat him into condoning lawlessness and -breaking his bourgeois decency. That speech is -a great monument of the middle class. Molière -made M. Jourdain talk prose; but Scott made him -talk poetry. Think of the rising and rousing -voice of the dull and gluttonous Athelstane when -he answers and overwhelms De Bracy. Think of -the proud appeal of the old beggar in the “Antiquary” -when he rebukes the duellists. Scott was -fond of describing kings in disguise. But all his -characters are kings in disguise. He was, with -all his errors, profoundly possessed with the old -religious conception (the only possible democratic -basis), the idea that man himself is a king in -disguise.</p> - -<p>In all this Scott, though a Royalist and a Tory, -had in the strangest way the heart of the Revolution.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">250</span> -For instance, he regarded rhetoric, the art -of the orator, as the immediate weapon of the -oppressed. All his poor men make grand speeches, -as they did in the Jacobin Club, which Scott would -have so much detested. And it is odd to reflect -that he was, as an author, giving free speech to -fictitious rebels while he was, as a stupid politician, -denying it to real ones. But the point for us here -is this: that all this popular sympathy of his rests -on the graver basis, on the dark dignity of man. -“Can you find no way?” asks Sir Arthur Wardour -of the beggar when they are cut off by the -tide. “I’ll give you a farm.... I’ll make -you rich.” ... “Our riches will soon be -equal,” says the beggar, and looks out across the -advancing sea.</p> - -<p>Now, I have dwelt on this strong point of Scott -because it is the best illustration of the one weak -point of Dickens. Dickens had little or none of -this sense of the concealed sublimity of every separate -man. Dickens’s sense of democracy was -entirely of the other kind; it rested on the other -of the two supports of which I have spoken. It -rested on the sense that all men were wildly interesting -and wildly varied. When a Dickens character -becomes excited he becomes more and more -himself. He does not, like the Scott beggar, turn<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">251</span> -more and more into man. As he rises he grows -more and more into a gargoyle or grotesque. He -does not, like the fine speaker in Scott, grow more -classical as he grows more passionate, more universal -as he grows more intense. The thing can -only be illustrated by a special case. Dickens did -more than once, of course, make one of his quaint -or humble characters assert himself in a serious -crisis or defy the powerful. There is, for instance, -the quite admirable scene in which Susan Nipper -(one of the greatest of Dickens’s achievements) -faces and rebukes Mr. Dombey. But it is still true -(and quite appropriate in its own place and manner) -that Susan Nipper remains a purely comic -character throughout her speech, and even grows -more comic as she goes on. She is more serious -than usual in her meaning, but not more serious -in her style. Dickens keeps the natural diction -of Nipper, but makes her grow more Nipperish -as she grows more warm. But Scott keeps the -natural diction of Bailie Jarvie, but insensibly -sobers and uplifts that style until it reaches a plain -and appropriate eloquence. This plain and appropriate -eloquence was (except in a few places -at the end of “Pickwick”) almost unknown to -Dickens. Whenever he made comic characters -talk sentiment comically, as in the instance of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">252</span> -Susan, it was a success, but an avowedly extravagant -success. Whenever he made comic characters -talk sentiment seriously it was an extravagant failure. -Humour was his medium; his only way of -approaching emotion. Wherever you do not get -humour, you get unconscious humour.</p> - -<p>As I have said elsewhere in this book Dickens -was deeply and radically English; the most English -of our great writers. And there is something -very English in this contentment with a grotesque -democracy; and in this absence of the eloquence -and elevation of Scott. The English democracy -is the most humorous democracy in the world. -The Scotch democracy is the most dignified, while -the whole abandon and satiric genius of the English -populace come from its being quite undignified -in every way. A comparison of the two types -might be found, for instance, by putting a Scotch -Labour leader like Mr. Keir Hardie alongside an -English Labour leader like Mr. Will Crooks. -Both are good men, honest and responsible and -compassionate; but we can feel that the Scotchman -carries himself seriously and universally, the -Englishman personally and with an obstinate humour. -Mr. Hardie wishes to hold up his head -as Man, Mr. Crooks wishes to follow his nose -as Crooks. Mr. Keir Hardie is very like a poor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">253</span> -man in Walter Scott. Mr. Crooks is very like a -poor man in Dickens.</p> - -<p>Dickens then had this English feeling of a -grotesque democracy. By that is more properly -meant a vastly varying democracy. The intoxicating -variety of men—that was his vision and -conception of human brotherhood. And certainly -it is a great part of human brotherhood. In one -sense things can only be equal if they are entirely -different. Thus, for instance, people talk with a -quite astonishing gravity about the inequality or -equality of the sexes; as if there could possibly -be any inequality between a lock and a key. -Wherever there is no element of variety, wherever -the items literally have an identical aim, there -is at once and of necessity inequality. A woman -is only inferior to man in the matter of being not -so manly; she is inferior in nothing else. Man is -inferior to woman in so far as he is not a woman; -there is no other reason. And the same applies -in some degree to all genuine differences. It is a -great mistake to suppose that love unites and unifies -men. Love diversifies them, because love is -directed towards individuality. The thing that -really unites men and makes them like to each -other is hatred. Thus, for instance, the more we -love Germany the more pleased we shall be that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">254</span> -Germany should be something different from ourselves, -should keep her own ritual and conviviality -and we ours. But the more we hate Germany -the more we shall copy German guns and German -fortifications in order to be armed against Germany. -The more modern nations detest each -other the more meekly they follow each other; -for all competition is in its nature only a furious -plagiarism. As competition means always similarity, -it is equally true that similarity always means -inequality. If everything is trying to be green, -some things will be greener than others; but there -is an immortal and indestructible equality between -green and red. Something of the same kind of -irrefutable equality exists between the violent and -varying creations of such a writer as Dickens. -They are all equally ecstatic fulfilments of a separate -line of development. It would be hard to say -that there could be any comparison or inequality, -let us say between Mr. Sapsea and Mr. Elijah -Pogram. They are both in the same difficulty; they -can neither of them contrive to exist in this world; -they are both too big for the gate of birth.</p> - -<p>Of the high virtue of this variation I shall speak -more adequately in a moment; but certainly this -love of mere variation (which I have contrasted -with the classicism of Scott) is the only intelligent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">255</span> -statement of the common case against the exaggeration -of Dickens. This is the meaning, the -only sane or endurable meaning, which people have -in their minds when they say that Dickens is a -mere caricaturist. They do not mean merely that -Uncle Pumblechook does not exist. A fictitious -character ought not to be a person who exists; -he ought to be an entirely new combination, an -addition to the creatures already existing on the -earth. They do not mean that Uncle Pumblechook -could not exist; for on that obviously they -can have no knowledge whatever. They do not -mean that Uncle Pumblechook’s utterances are -selected and arranged so as to bring out his essential -Pumblechookery; to say that is simply to -say that he occurs in a work of art. But what they -do really mean is this, and there is an element of -truth in it. They mean that Dickens nowhere -makes the reader feel that Pumblechook has any -kind of fundamental human dignity at all. It is -nowhere suggested that Pumblechook will some -day die. He is felt rather as one of the idle and -evil fairies, who are innocuous and yet malignant, -and who live for ever because they never really -live at all. This dehumanized vitality, this fantasy, -this irresponsibility of creation, does in some -sense truly belong to Dickens. It is the lower side<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">256</span> -of his hilarious human variety. But now we come -to the higher side of his human variety, and it is -far more difficult to state.</p> - -<p>Mr. George Gissing, from the point of view of -the passing intellectualism of our day, has made -(among his many wise tributes to Dickens) a -characteristic complaint about him. He has said -that Dickens, with all his undoubted sympathy for -the lower classes, never made a working man, a -poor man, specifically and highly intellectual. An -exception does exist, which he must at least have -realized—a wit, a diplomatist, a great philosopher. -I mean, of course, Mr. Weller. Broadly, -however, the accusation has a truth, though it is -a truth that Mr. Gissing did not grasp in its entirety. -It is not only true that Dickens seldom -made a poor character what we call intellectual; -it is also true that he seldom made any character -what we call intellectual. Intellectualism was not -at all present to his imagination. What was present -to his imagination was character—a thing -which is not only more important than intellect, -but is also much more entertaining. When some -English moralists write about the importance of -having character, they appear to mean only the -importance of having a dull character. But character -is brighter than wit, and much more complex<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">257</span> -than sophistry. The whole superiority of the -democracy of Dickens over the democracy of such -a man as Gissing lies exactly in the fact that Gissing -would have liked to prove that poor men could -instruct themselves and could instruct others. It -was of final importance to Dickens that poor men -could amuse themselves and could amuse him. He -troubled little about the mere education of that -life; he declared two essential things about it—that -it was laughable, and that it was livable. The -humble characters of Dickens do not amuse each -other with epigrams; they amuse each other with -themselves. The present that each man brings -in hand is his own incredible personality. In the -most sacred sense, and in the most literal sense -of the phrase, he “gives himself away.” Now, -the man who gives himself away does the last act -of generosity; he is like a martyr, a lover, or a -monk. But he is also almost certainly what we -commonly call a fool.</p> - -<p>The key of the great characters of Dickens is -that they are all great fools. There is the same -difference between a great fool and a small fool -as there is between a great poet and a small poet. -The great fool is a being who is above wisdom -rather than below it. That element of greatness -of which I spoke at the beginning of this book is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">258</span> -nowhere more clearly indicated than in such characters. -A man can be entirely great while he is -entirely foolish. We see this in the epic heroes, -such as Achilles. Nay, a man can be entirely great -because he is entirely foolish. We see this in all -the great comic characters of all the great comic -writers of whom Dickens was the last. Bottom -the Weaver is great because he is foolish; Mr. -Toots is great because he is foolish. The thing -I mean can be observed, for instance, in innumerable -actual characters. Which of us has not known, -for instance, a great rustic?—a character so incurably -characteristic that he seemed to break -through all canons about cleverness or stupidity; -we do not know whether he is an enormous idiot -or an enormous philosopher; we know only that -he is enormous, like a hill. These great, grotesque -characters are almost entirely to be found where -Dickens found them—among the poorer classes. -The gentry only attain this greatness by going -slightly mad. But who has not known an unfathomably -personal old nurse? Who has not -known an abysmal butler? The truth is that our -public life consists almost exclusively of small men. -Our public men are small because they have to -prove that they are in the common-place interpretation -clever, because they have to pass examinations,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">259</span> -to learn codes of manners, to imitate a fixed -type. It is in private life that we find the great -characters. They are too great to get into the -public world. It is easier for a camel to pass -through the eye of a needle than for a great man -to enter into the kingdoms of the earth. The -truly great and gorgeous personality, he who talks -as no one else could talk and feels with an elementary -fire, you will never find this man on any -cabinet bench, in any literary circle, at any society -dinner. Least of all will you find him in artistic -society; he is utterly unknown in Bohemia. He -is more than clever, he is amusing. He is more -than successful, he is alive. You will find him -stranded here and there in all sorts of unknown -positions, almost always in unsuccessful positions. -You will find him adrift as an impecunious commercial -traveller like Micawber. You will find -him but one of a batch of silly clerks, like Swiveller. -You will find him as an unsuccessful actor, -like Crummles. You will find him as an unsuccessful -doctor, like Sawyer. But you will always -find this rich and reeking personality where Dickens -found it—among the poor. For the glory of -this world is a very small and priggish affair, and -these men are too large to get in line with it. -They are too strong to conquer.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">260</span></p> - -<p>It is impossible to do justice to these figures -because the essential of them is their multiplicity. -The whole point of Dickens is that he not only -made them, but made them by myriads; that he -stamped his foot, and armies came out of the -earth. But let us, for the sake of showing the true -Dickens method, take one of them, a very sublime -one, Toots. It affords a good example of -the real work of Dickens, which was the revealing -of a certain grotesque greatness inside an obscure -and even unattractive type. It reveals the great -paradox of all spiritual things; that the inside is -always larger than the outside.</p> - -<p>Toots is a type that we all know as well as we -know chimney-pots. And of all conceivable human -figures he is apparently the most futile and the -most dull. He is the blockhead who hangs on at a -private school, overgrown and underdeveloped. -He is always backward in his lessons, but forward -in certain cheap ways of the world; he can smoke -before he can spell. Toots is a perfect and pungent -picture of the wretched youth. Toots has, as -this youth always has, a little money of his own; -enough to waste in a semi-dissipation, he does not -enjoy, and in a gaping regard for sports, in which -he could not possibly excel. Toots has, as this -youth always has, bits of surreptitious finery, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">261</span> -his case the incomparable ring. In Toots, above -all, is exactly rendered the central and most startling -contradiction; the contrast between a jauntiness -and a certain impudence of the attire, with the -profound shame and sheepishness of the visage and -the character. In him, too, is expressed the larger -contrasts between the external gaiety of such a -lad’s occupations, and the infinite, disconsolate sadness -of his empty eyes. This is Toots; we know -him, we pity him, and we avoid him. Schoolmasters -deal with him in despair or in a heartbreaking -patience. His family is vague about -him. His low-class hangers-on (like the Game -Chicken) lead him by the nose. The very parasites -that live on him despise him. But Dickens -does not despise him. Without denying one of -the dreary details which make us avoid the man, -Dickens makes him a man whom we long to meet. -He does not gloss over one of his dismal deficiencies, -but he makes them seem suddenly like -violent virtues that we would go to the world’s -end to see. Without altering one fact he manages -to alter the whole atmosphere, the whole -universe of Toots. He makes us not only like, -but love; not only love, but reverence this little -dunce and cad. The power to do this is a power -truly and literally to be called divine.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">262</span></p> - -<p>For this is the very wholesome point. Dickens -does not alter Toots in any vital point. The thing -he does alter is us. He makes us lively where we -were bored, kind where we were cruel, and above -all, free for an universal human laughter where -we were cramped in a small competition about that -sad and solemn thing, the intellect. His enthusiasm -fills us, as does the love of God, with a -glorious shame; after all, he has only found in -Toots what we might have found for ourselves. -He has only made us as much interested in Toots -as Toots is in himself. He does not alter the proportions -of Toots; he alters only the scale; we -seem as if we were staring at a rat risen to the -stature of an elephant. Hitherto we have passed -him by; now we feel that nothing could induce us -to pass him by; that is the nearest way of putting -the truth. He has not been whitewashed in the -least; he has not been depicted as any cleverer -than he is. He has been turned from a small fool -into a great fool. We know Toots is not clever; -but we are not inclined to quarrel with Toots because -he is not clever. We are more likely to -quarrel with cleverness because it is not Toots. -All the examinations he could not pass, all the -schools he could not enter, all the temporary -tests of brain and culture which surrounded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">263</span> -him shall pass, and Toots shall remain like a -mountain.</p> - -<p>It may be noticed that the great artists always -choose great fools rather than great intellectuals -to embody humanity. Hamlet does express the -æsthetic dreams and the bewilderments of the intellect; -but Bottom the Weaver expresses them -much better. In the same manner Toots expresses -certain permanent dignities in human nature more -than any of Dickens’s more dignified characters -can do it. For instance, Toots expresses admirably -the enduring fear, which is the very essence of -falling in love. When Toots is invited by Florence -to come in, when he longs to come in, but still -stays out, he is embodying a sort of insane and -perverse humility which is elementary in the lover.</p> - -<p>There is an apostolic injunction to suffer fools -gladly. We always lay the stress on the word -suffer, and interpret the passage as one urging -resignation. It might be better, perhaps, to lay -the stress upon the word gladly, and make our -familiarity with fools a delight, and almost a dissipation. -Nor is it necessary that our pleasure in -fools (or at least in great and godlike fools) -should be merely satiric or cruel. The great fool -is he in whom we cannot tell which is the conscious -and which the unconscious humour; we laugh with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">264</span> -him and laugh at him at the same time. An obvious -instance is that of ordinary and happy marriage. -A man and a woman cannot live together -without having against each other a kind of everlasting -joke. Each has discovered that the other -is a fool, but a great fool. This largeness, this -grossness and gorgeousness of folly is the thing -which we all find about those with whom we are -in intimate contact; and it is the one enduring -basis of affection, and even of respect. When we -know an individual named Tomkins, we know that -he has succeeded where all others have failed; he -has succeeded in being Tomkins. Just so Mr. -Toots succeeded; he was defeated in all scholastic -examinations, but he was the victor in that visionary -battle in which unknown competitors vainly -tried to be Toots.</p> - -<p>If we are to look for lessons, here at least is the -last and deepest lesson of Dickens. It is in our -own daily life that we are to look for the portents -and the prodigies. This is the truth, not merely -of the fixed figures of our life; the wife, the husband, -the fool that fills the sky. It is true of the -whole stream and substance of our daily experience; -every instant we reject a great fool merely -because he is foolish. Every day we neglect -Tootses and Swivellers, Guppys and Joblings, Simmerys<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">265</span> -and Flashers. Every day we lose the last -sight of Jobling and Chuckster, the Analytical -Chemist, or the Marchioness. Every day we are -missing a monster whom we might easily love, and -an imbecile whom we should certainly admire. -This is the real gospel of Dickens; the inexhaustible -opportunities offered by the liberty and the -variety of man. Compared with this life, all -public life, all fame, all wisdom, is by its nature -cramped and cold and small. For on that defined -and lighted public stage men are of necessity -forced to profess one set of accomplishments, to -rise to one rigid standard. It is the utterly unknown -people, who can grow in all directions like -an exuberant tree. It is in our interior lives that -we find that people are too much themselves. It -is in our private life that we find people intolerably -individual, that we find them swelling into the -enormous contours, and taking on the colours of -caricature. Many of us live publicly with featureless -public puppets, images of the small public -abstractions. It is when we pass our own private -gate, and open our own secret door, that we step -into the land of the giants.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">266</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_266">CHAPTER XI<br /> - -<span class="subhead">ON THE ALLEGED OPTIMISM OF DICKENS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">In</span> one of the plays of the decadent period, an -intellectual expressed the atmosphere of his epoch -by referring to Dickens as “a vulgar optimist.” -I have in a previous chapter suggested something -of the real strangeness of such a term. After all, -the main matter of astonishment (or rather of -admiration) is that optimism should be vulgar. -In a world in which physical distress is almost the -common lot, we actually complain that happiness -is too common. In a world in which the majority -is physically miserable we actually complain of the -sameness of praise; we are bored with the abundance -of approval. When we consider what the -conditions of the vulgar really are, it is difficult to -imagine a stranger or more splendid tribute to -humanity than such a phrase as vulgar optimism. -It is as if one spoke of “vulgar martyrdom” or -“common crucifixion.”</p> - -<p>First, however, let it be said frankly that there -is a foundation for the charge against Dickens -which is implied in the phrase about vulgar optimism.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">267</span> -It does not concern itself with Dickens’s -confidence in the value of existence and the intrinsic -victory of virtue; that is not optimism but -religion. It is not concerned with his habit of -making bright occasions bright, and happy stories -happy; that is not optimism, but literature. Nor -is it concerned even with his peculiar genius for -the description of an almost bloated joviality; that -is not optimism, it is simply Dickens. With all -these higher variations of optimism I deal elsewhere. -But over and above all these there is a -real sense in which Dickens laid himself open to -the accusation of vulgar optimism, and I desire -to put the admission of this first, before the discussion -that follows. Dickens did have a disposition -to make his characters at all costs happy, -or, to speak more strictly, he had a disposition to -make them comfortable rather than happy. He -had a sort of literary hospitality; he too often -treated his characters as if they were his guests. -From a host is always expected, and always ought -to be expected as long as human civilization is -healthy, a strictly physical benevolence, if you will, -a kind of coarse benevolence. Food and fire and -such things should always be the symbols of the -man entertaining men; because they are the things -which all men beyond question have in common.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">268</span> -But something more than this is needed from the -man who is imagining and making men, the artist, -the man who is not receiving men, but rather sending -them forth.</p> - -<p>As I shall remark in a moment in the matter of -the Dickens villains, it is not true that he made -every one thus at home. But he did do it to a -certain wide class of incongruous characters; he -did it to all who had been in any way unfortunate. -It had indeed its origin (a very beautiful origin) -in his realization of how much a little pleasure -was to such people. He knew well that the greatest -happiness that has been known since Eden is -the happiness of the unhappy. So far he is admirable. -And as long as he was describing the -ecstasy of the poor, the borderland between pain -and pleasure, he was at his highest. Nothing that -has ever been written about human delights, no -Earthly Paradise, no Utopia has ever come so -near the quick nerve of happiness as his descriptions -of the rare extravagances of the poor; such -an admirable description, for instance, as that of -Kit Nubbles taking his family to the theatre. For -he seizes on the real source of the whole pleasure; -a holy fear. Kit tells the waiter to bring the beer. -“And the waiter, instead of saying, ‘Did you -address that language to me?’ only said, ‘Pot of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">269</span> -beer, sir; yes, sir.’” That internal and quivering -humility of Kit is the only way to enjoy life or -banquets; and the fear of the waiter is the beginning -of dining. People in this mood “take -their pleasures sadly”; which is the only way of -taking them at all.</p> - -<p>So far Dickens is supremely right. As long as -he was dealing with such penury and such festivity -his touch was almost invariably sure. But when -he came to more difficult cases, to people who for -one reason or another could not be cured with -one good dinner, he did develop this other evil, -this genuinely vulgar optimism of which I speak. -And the mark of it is this: that he gave the characters -a comfort that had no especial connection -with themselves; he threw comfort at them like -alms. There are cases at the end of his stories -in which his kindness to his characters is a careless -and insolent kindness. He loses his real -charity and adopts the charity of the Charity Organization -Society; the charity that is not kind, -the charity that is puffed up, and that does behave -itself unseemly. At the end of some of his stories -he deals out his characters a kind of out-door -relief.</p> - -<p>I will give two instances. The whole meaning -of the character of Mr. Micawber is that a man<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">270</span> -can be always almost rich by constantly expecting -riches. The lesson is a really important one in -our sweeping modern sociology. We talk of the -man whose life is a failure; but Micawber’s life -never is a failure, because it is always a crisis. -We think constantly of the man who if he looked -back would see that his existence was unsuccessful; -but Micawber never does look back; he always -looks forward, because the bailiff is coming -to-morrow. You cannot say he is defeated, for his -absurd battle never ends; he cannot despair of life, -for he is so much occupied in living. All this is -of immense importance in the understanding of the -poor; it is worth all the slum novelists that ever -insulted democracy. But how did it happen, how -could it happen, that the man who created this -Micawber could pension him off at the end of -the story and make him a successful colonial -mayor? Micawber never did succeed, never ought -to succeed; his kingdom is not of this world. But -this is an excellent instance of Dickens’s disposition -to make his characters grossly and incongruously -comfortable. There is another instance in -the same book. Dora, the first wife of David -Copperfield, is a very genuine and amusing figure; -she has certainly far more force of character than -Agnes. She represents the infinite and divine irrationality<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">271</span> -of the human heart. What possessed -Dickens to make her such a dehumanized prig as -to recommend her husband to marry another -woman? One could easily respect a husband who -after time and development made such a marriage, -but surely not a wife who desired it. If Dora had -died hating Agnes we should know that everything -was right, and that God would reconcile the irreconcilable. -When Dora dies recommending Agnes -we know that everything is wrong, at least if hypocrisy -and artificiality and moral vulgarity are -wrong. There, again, Dickens yields to a mere -desire to give comfort. He wishes to pile up -pillows round Dora; and he smothers her with -them, like Othello.</p> - -<p>This is the real vulgar optimism of Dickens; -it does exist, and I have deliberately put it first. -Let us admit that Dickens’s mind was far too much -filled with pictures of satisfaction and cosiness and -repose. Let us admit that he thought principally -of the pleasures of the oppressed classes; let us -admit that it hardly cost him any artistic pang to -make out human beings as much happier than they -are. Let us admit all this, and a curious fact -remains.</p> - -<p>For it was this too easily contented Dickens, -this man with cushions at his back and (it sometimes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">272</span> -seems) cotton wool in his ears, it was this -happy dreamer, this vulgar optimist who alone of -modern writers did really destroy some of the -wrongs he hated and bring about some of the -reforms he desired. Dickens did help to pull -down the debtors’ prisons; and if he was too much -of an optimist he was quite enough of a destroyer. -Dickens did drive Squeers out of his Yorkshire -den; and if Dickens was too contented, it was -more than Squeers was. Dickens did leave his -mark on parochialism, on nursing, on funerals, on -public executions, on workhouses, on the Court of -Chancery. These things were altered; they are -different. It may be that such reforms are not -adequate remedies; that is another question altogether. -The next sociologists may think these old -Radical reforms quite narrow or accidental. But -such as they were, the old radicals got them done; -and the new sociologists cannot get anything done -at all. And in the practical doing of them Dickens -played a solid and quite demonstrable part; -that is the plain matter that concerns us here. If -Dickens was an optimist he was an uncommonly -active and useful kind of optimist. If Dickens -was a sentimentalist he was a very practical sentimentalist.</p> - -<p>And the reason of this is one that goes deep<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">273</span> -into Dickens’s social reform, and like every other -real and desirable thing, involves a kind of mystical -contradiction. If we are to save the oppressed, -we must have two apparently antagonistic -emotions in us at the same time. We must think -the oppressed man intensely miserable, and, at the -same time, intensely attractive and important. We -must insist with violence upon his degradation; -we must insist with the same violence upon his -dignity. For if we relax by one inch the one assertion, -men will say he does not need saving. -And if we relax by one inch the other assertion, -men will say he is not worth saving. The optimists -will say that reform is needless. The -pessimists will say that reform is hopeless. We -must apply both simultaneously to the same oppressed -man; we must say that he is a worm and -a god; and we must thus lay ourselves open to -the accusation (or the compliment) of transcendentalism. -This is, indeed, the strongest argument -for the religious conception of life. If the -dignity of man is an earthly dignity we shall be -tempted to deny his earthly degradation. If it -is a heavenly dignity we can admit the earthly -degradation with all the candour of Zola. If we -are idealists about the other world we can be realists -about this world. But that is not here the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">274</span> -point. What is quite evident is that if a logical -praise of the poor man is pushed too far, and if -a logical distress about him is pushed too far, either -will involve wreckage to the central paradox of -reform. If the poor man is made too admirable -he ceases to be pitiable; if the poor man is made -too pitiable he becomes merely contemptible. -There is a school of smug optimists who will deny -that he is a poor man. There is a school of scientific -pessimists who will deny that he is a man.</p> - -<p>Out of this perennial contradiction arises the -fact that there are always two types of the reformer. -The first we may call for convenience -the pessimistic, the second the optimistic reformer. -One dwells upon the fact that souls are being lost; -the other dwells upon the fact that they are worth -saving. Both, of course, are (so far as that is -concerned) quite right, but they naturally tend to a -difference of method, and sometimes to a difference -of perception. The pessimistic reformer points out -the good elements that oppression has destroyed; -the optimistic reformer, with an even fiercer joy, -points out the good elements that it has not destroyed. -It is the case for the first reformer that -slavery has made men slavish. It is the case for -the second reformer that slavery has not made -men slavish. The first describes how bad men are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">275</span> -under bad conditions. The second describes how -good men are under bad conditions. Of the first -class of writers, for instance, is Gorky. Of the -second class of writers is Dickens.</p> - -<p>But here we must register a real and somewhat -startling fact. In the face of all apparent probability, -it is certainly true that the optimistic reformer -reforms much more completely than the pessimistic -reformer. People produce violent changes by -being contented, by being far too contented. The -man who said that revolutions are not made with -rose-water was obviously inexperienced in practical -human affairs. Men like Rousseau and Shelley -do make revolutions, and do make them with -rose-water; that is, with a too rosy and sentimental -view of human goodness. Figures that come before -and create convulsion and change (for instance, -the central figure of the New Testament) -always have the air of walking in an unnatural -sweetness and calm. They give us their peace -ultimately in blood and battle and division; not -as the world giveth give they unto us.</p> - -<p>Nor is the real reason of the triumph of the -too-contented reformer particularly difficult to define. -He triumphs because he keeps alive in the -human soul an invincible sense of the thing being -worth doing, of the war being worth winning,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">276</span> -of the people being worth their deliverance. I -remember that Mr. William Archer, some time -ago, published in his interesting series of interviews, -an interview with Mr. Thomas Hardy. -That powerful writer was represented as saying, -in the course of the conversation, that he did not -wish at the particular moment to define his position -with regard to the ultimate problem of -whether life itself was worth living. There are, -he said, hundreds of remediable evils in this world. -When we have remedied all these (such was his -argument), it will be time enough to ask whether -existence itself under its best possible conditions -is valuable or desirable. Here we have presented, -with a considerable element of what can only be -called unconscious humour, the plain reason of the -failure of the pessimist as a reformer. Mr. -Hardy is asking us, I will not say to buy a pig -in a poke; he is asking us to buy a poke on the -remote chance of there being a pig in it. When -we have for some few frantic centuries tortured -ourselves to save mankind, it will then be “time -enough” to discuss whether they can possibly be -saved. When, in the case of infant mortality, for -example, we have exhausted ourselves with the -earth-shaking efforts required to save the life of -every individual baby, it will then be time enough<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">277</span> -to consider whether every individual baby would -not have been happier dead. We are to remove -mountains and bring the millennium, because then -we can have a quiet moment to discuss whether the -millennium is at all desirable. Here we have the -low-water mark of the impotence of the sad reformer. -And here we have the reason of the -paradoxical triumph of the happy one. His triumph -is a religious triumph; it rests upon his perpetual -assertion of the value of the human soul -and of human daily life. It rests upon his assertion -that human life is enjoyable because it is -human. And he will never admit, like so many -compassionate pessimists, that human life ever -ceases to be human. He does not merely pity the -lowness of men; he feels an insult to their elevation. -Brute pity should be given only to the -brutes. Cruelty to animals is cruelty and a vile -thing; but cruelty to a man is not cruelty, it is -treason. Tyranny over a man is not tyranny, it -is rebellion, for man is loyal. Now, the practical -weakness of the vast mass of modern pity for the -poor and the oppressed is precisely that it is merely -pity; the pity is pitiful, but not respectful. Men -feel that the cruelty to the poor is a kind of -cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is -injustice to equals; nay, it is treachery to comrades.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">278</span> -This dark, scientific pity, this brutal pity, has an -elemental sincerity of its own; but it is entirely -useless for all ends of social reform. Democracy -swept Europe with the sabre when it was founded -upon the Rights of Man. It has done literally -nothing at all since it has been founded only upon -the wrongs of man. Or, more strictly speaking, -its recent failures have been due to its not admitting -the existence of any rights or wrongs, or indeed -of any humanity. Evolution (the sinister enemy -of revolution) does not especially deny the existence -of God; what it does deny is the existence of -man. And all the despair about the poor, and the -cold and repugnant pity for them, has been largely -due to the vague sense that they have literally -relapsed into the state of the lower animals.</p> - -<p>A writer sufficiently typical of recent revolutionism—Gorky—has -called one of his books by -the eerie and effective title “Creatures that Once -were Men.” That title explains the whole failure -of the Russian revolution. And the reason why -the English writers, such as Dickens, did with all -their limitations achieve so many of the actual -things at which they aimed, was that they could -not possibly have put such a title upon a human -book. Dickens really helped the unfortunate in -the matters to which he set himself. And the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">279</span> -reason is that across all his books and sketches -about the unfortunate might be written the common -title, “Creatures that Still are Men.”</p> - -<p>There does exist, then, this strange optimistic -reformer; the man whose work begins with approval -and yet ends with earthquake. Jesus Christ -was destined to found a faith which made the -rich poorer and the poor richer; but even when -He was going to enrich them, He began with the -phrase, “Blessed are the poor.” The Gissings -and the Gorkys say, as an universal literary motto, -“Cursed are the poor.” Among a million who -have faintly followed Christ in this divine contradiction, -Dickens stands out especially. He said, in -all his reforming utterances, “Cure poverty”; but -he said in all his actual descriptions, “Blessed are -the poor.” He described their happiness, and men -rushed to remove their sorrow. He described -them as human, and men resented the insults to -their humanity. It is not difficult to see why, as -I said at an earlier stage of this book, Dickens’s -denunciations have had so much more practical an -effect than the denunciations of such a man as -Gissing. Both agreed that the souls of the people -were in a kind of prison. But Gissing said that -the prison was full of dead souls. Dickens said -that the prison was full of living souls. And the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">280</span> -fiery cavalcade of rescuers felt that they had not -come too late.</p> - -<p>Of this general fact about Dickens’s descriptions -of poverty there will not, I suppose, be any -serious dispute. The dispute will only be about -the truth of those descriptions. It is clear that -whereas Gissing would say, “See how their poverty -depresses the Smiths or the Browns,” Dickens -says, “See how little, after all, their poverty can -depress the Cratchits.” No one will deny that he -made a special feature a special study of the subject -of the festivity of the poor. We will come -to the discussion of the veracity of these scenes -in a moment. It is here sufficient to register in -conclusion of our examination of the reforming -optimist, that Dickens certainly was such an optimist, -and that he made it his business to insist -upon what happiness there is in the lives of the -unhappy. His poor man is always a Mark Tapley, -a man the optimism of whose spirit increases -if anything with the pessimism of his experience. -It can also be registered as a fact equally solid and -quite equally demonstrable that this optimistic -Dickens did effect great reforms.</p> - -<p>The reforms in which Dickens was instrumental -were, indeed, from the point of view of our sweeping, -social panaceas, special and limited. But perhaps,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">281</span> -for that reason especially, they afford a compact -and concrete instance of the psychological -paradox of which we speak. Dickens did definitely -destroy—or at the very least help to destroy—certain -institutions; he destroyed those institutions -simply by describing them. But the crux and -peculiarity of the whole matter is this, that, in a -sense, it can really be said that he described these -things too optimistically. In a real sense, he described -Dotheboys Hall as a better place than it is. -In a real sense, he made out the workhouse as a -pleasanter place than it can ever be. For the chief -glory of Dickens is that he made these places -interesting; and the chief infamy of England is -that it has made these places dull. Dulness was -the one thing that Dickens’s genius could never -succeed in describing; his vitality was so violent -that he could not introduce into his books the -genuine impression even of a moment of monotony. -If there is anywhere in his novels an instant of -silence, we only hear more clearly the hero whispering -with the heroine, the villain sharpening his -dagger, or the creaking of the machinery that is -to give out the god from the machine. He could -splendidly describe gloomy places, but he could -not describe dreary places. He could describe -miserable marriages, but not monotonous marriages.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">282</span> -It must have been genuinely entertaining -to be married to Mr. Quilp. This sense of a still -incessant excitement he spreads over every inch -of his story, and over every dark tract of his landscape. -His idea of a desolate place is a place -where anything can happen; he has no idea of that -desolate place where nothing can happen. This is -a good thing for his soul, for the place where -nothing can happen is hell. But still, it might -reasonably be maintained by the modern mind that -he is hampered in describing human evil and sorrow -by this inability to imagine tedium, this -dulness in the matter of dulness. For, after all, -it is certainly true that the worst part of the lot -of the unfortunate is the fact that they have long -spaces in which to review the irrevocability of their -doom. It is certainly true that the worst days of -the oppressed man are the nine days out of ten -in which he is not oppressed. This sense of sickness, -and sameness Dickens did certainly fail or -refuse to give. When we read such a description -as that excellent one—in detail—of Dotheboys -Hall, we feel that, while everything else is accurate, -the author does, in the words of the excellent -Captain Nares in Stevenson’s “Wrecker,” “draw -the dreariness rather mild.” The boys at Dotheboys -were, perhaps, less bullied, but they were certainly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">283</span> -more bored. For, indeed, how could any -one be bored with the society of so sumptuous a -creature as Mr. Squeers? Who would not put up -with a few illogical floggings in order to enjoy -the conversation of a man who could say, “She’s -a rum ’un, is Natur’.... Natur’ is more easier -conceived than described”? The same principle -applies to the workhouse in “Oliver Twist.” We -feel vaguely that neither Oliver nor any one else -could be entirely unhappy in the presence of the -purple personality of Mr. Bumble. The one thing -he did not describe in any of the abuses he denounced -was the soul-destroying potency of routine. -He made out the bad school, the bad parochial -system, the bad debtors’ prison as very -much jollier and more exciting than they may -really have been. In a sense, then, he flattered -them; but he destroyed them with the flattery. By -making Mrs. Gamp delightful he made her impossible. -He gave every one an interest in Mr. -Bumble’s existence; and by the same act gave -every one an interest in his destruction. It would -be difficult to find a stronger instance of the utility -and energy of the method which we have, for the -sake of argument, called the method of the optimistic -reformer. As long as low Yorkshire schools -were entirely colourless and dreary, they continued<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">284</span> -quietly tolerated by the public, and quietly intolerable -to the victims. So long as Squeers was dull -as well as cruel he was permitted; the moment he -became amusing as well as cruel he was destroyed. -As long as Bumble was merely inhuman he was -allowed. When he became human, humanity -wiped him out. For in order to do these great acts -of justice we must always realize not only the -humanity of the oppressed, but even the humanity -of the oppressor. The satirist had, in a sense, to -create the images in the mind before, as an iconoclast, -he could destroy them. Dickens had to make -Squeers live before he could make him die.</p> - -<p>In connection with the accusation of vulgar -optimism, which I have taken as a text for this -chapter, there is another somewhat odd thing to -notice. Nobody in the world was ever less optimistic -than Dickens in his treatment of evil or the -evil man. When I say optimistic in this matter -I mean optimism, in the modern sense, of an attempt -to whitewash evil. Nobody ever made less -attempt to whitewash evil than Dickens. Nobody -black was ever less white than Dickens’s black. -He painted his villains and lost characters more -black than they really are. He crowds his stories -with a kind of villain rare in modern fiction—the -villain really without any “redeeming point.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">285</span> -There is no redeeming point in Squeers, or in -Monck, or in Ralph Nickleby, or in Bill Sikes, or -in Quilp, or in Brass, or in Mr. Chester, or in Mr. -Pecksniff, or in Jonas Chuzzlewit, or in Carker, or -in Uriah Heep, or in Blandois, or in a hundred -more. So far as the balance of good and evil in -human characters is concerned, Dickens certainly -could not be called a vulgar optimist. His emphasis -on evil was melodramatic. He might be called -a vulgar pessimist.</p> - -<p>Some will dismiss this lurid villainy as a detail -of his artificial romance. I am not inclined to do -so. He inherited, undoubtedly, this unqualified -villain as he inherited so many other things, from -the whole history of European literature. But he -breathed into the blackguard a peculiar and vigorous -life of his own. He did not show any tendency -to modify his blackguardism in accordance with the -increasing considerateness of the age; he did not -seem to wish to make his villain less villainous; -he did not wish to imitate the analysis of George -Eliot, or the reverent scepticism of Thackeray. -And all this works back, I think, to a real thing in -him, that he wished to have an obstreperous and -incalculable enemy. He wished to keep alive the -idea of combat, which means, of necessity, a combat -against something individual and alive. I do not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">286</span> -know whether, in the kindly rationalism of his -epoch, he kept any belief in a personal devil in his -theology, but he certainly created a personal devil -in every one of his books.</p> - -<p>A good example of my meaning can be found, -for instance, in such a character as Quilp. Dickens -may, for all I know, have had originally some -idea of describing Quilp as the bitter and unhappy -cripple, a deformity whose mind is stunted along -with his body. But if he had such an idea, he soon -abandoned it. Quilp is not in the least unhappy. -His whole picturesqueness consists in the fact that -he has a kind of hellish happiness, an atrocious -hilarity that makes him go bounding about like an -indiarubber ball. Quilp is not in the least bitter; -he has an unaffected gaiety, an expansiveness, an -universality. He desires to hurt people in the -same hearty way that a good-natured man desires -to help them. He likes to poison people with the -same kind of clamorous camaraderie with which -an honest man likes to stand them drink. Quilp -is not in the least stunted in mind; he is not in -reality even stunted in body—his body, that is, -does not in any way fall short of what he wants -it to do. His smallness gives him rather the -promptitude of a bird or the precipitance of a -bullet. In a word, Quilp is precisely the devil of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">287</span> -the Middle Ages; he belongs to that amazingly -healthy period when even the lost spirits were -hilarious.</p> - -<p>This heartiness and vivacity in the villains of -Dickens is worthy of note because it is directly -connected with his own cheerfulness. This is a -truth little understood in our time, but it is a very -essential one. If optimism means a general approval, -it is certainly true that the more a man -becomes an optimist the more he becomes a melancholy -man. If he manages to praise everything, -his praise will develop an alarming resemblance to -a polite boredom. He will say that the marsh is -as good as the garden; he will mean that the -garden is as dull as the marsh. He may force -himself to say that emptiness is good, but he will -hardly prevent himself from asking what is the -good of such good. This optimism does exist—this -optimism which is more hopeless than pessimism—this -optimism which is the very heart of -hell. Against such an aching vacuum of joyless -approval there is only one antidote—a sudden and -pugnacious belief in positive evil. This world -can be made beautiful again by beholding it as a -battlefield. When we have defined and isolated -the evil thing, the colours come back into everything -else. When evil things have become evil,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">288</span> -good things, in a blazing apocalypse, become good. -There are some men who are dreary because they -do not believe in God; but there are many others -who are dreary because they do not believe in the -devil. The grass grows green again when we -believe in the devil, the roses grow red again when -we believe in the devil.</p> - -<p>No man was more filled with the sense of this -bellicose basis of all cheerfulness than Dickens. -He knew very well the essential truth, that the -true optimist can only continue an optimist so long -as he is discontented. For the full value of this -life can only be got by fighting; the violent take -it by storm. And if we have accepted everything, -we have missed something—war. This life of -ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable -truce. And it appears strange to me that so few -critics of Dickens or of other romantic writers -have noticed this philosophical meaning in the -undiluted villain. The villain is not in the story -to be a character; he is there to be a danger—a -ceaseless, ruthless, and uncompromising menace, -like that of wild beasts or the sea. For the full -satisfaction of the sense of combat, which everywhere -and always involves a sense of equality, it -is necessary to make the evil thing a man; but it -is not always necessary, it is not even always artistic,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">289</span> -to make him a mixed and probable man. In -any tale, the tone of which is at all symbolic, he -may quite legitimately be made an aboriginal and -infernal energy. He must be a man only in the -sense that he must have a wit and will to be -matched with the wit and will of the man chiefly -fighting. The evil may be inhuman, but it must -not be impersonal, which is almost exactly the -position occupied by Satan in the theological -scheme.</p> - -<p>But when all is said, as I have remarked before, -the chief fountain in Dickens of what I have called -cheerfulness, and some prefer to call optimism, is -something deeper than a verbal philosophy. It is, -after all, an incomparable hunger and pleasure -for the vitality and the variety, for the infinite -eccentricity of existence. And this word “eccentricity” -brings us, perhaps, nearer to the matter -than any other. It is, perhaps, the strongest mark -of the divinity of man that he talks of this world -as “a strange world,” though he has seen no other. -We feel that all there is is eccentric, though we do -not know what is the centre. This sentiment of -the grotesqueness of the universe ran through -Dickens’s brain and body like the mad blood of -the elves. He saw all his streets in fantastic perspectives, -he saw all his cockney villas as top heavy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">290</span> -and wild, he saw every man’s nose twice as big as -it was, and every man’s eyes like saucers. And -this was the basis of his gaiety—the only real basis -of any philosophical gaiety. This world is not to -be justified as it is justified by the mechanical optimists; -it is not to be justified as the best of all -possible worlds. Its merit is not that it is orderly -and explicable; its merit is that it is wild and -utterly unexplained. Its merit is precisely that -none of us could have conceived such a thing, that -we should have rejected the bare idea of it as -miracle and unreason. It is the best of all impossible -worlds.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">291</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="toclink_291">CHAPTER XII<br /> - -<span class="subhead">A NOTE ON THE FUTURE OF DICKENS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> hardest thing to remember about our own -time, of course, is simply that it is a time; we all -instinctively think of it as the Day of Judgment. -But all the things in it which belong to it merely -as this time will probably be rapidly turned upside -down; all the things that can pass will pass. -It is not merely true that all old things are already -dead; it is also true that all new things are -already dead; for the only undying things are the -things that are neither new nor old. The more -you are up with this year’s fashion, the more (in -a sense) you are already behind next year’s. Consequently, -in attempting to decide whether an author -will, as it is cantly expressed, live, it is necessary -to have very firm convictions about what part, -if any part, of man is unchangeable. And it is -very hard to have this if you have not a religion; -or, at least, a dogmatic philosophy.</p> - -<p>The equality of men needs preaching quite as -much as regards the ages as regards the classes -of men. To feel infinitely superior to a man in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">292</span> -the twelfth century is just precisely as snobbish -as to feel infinitely superior to a man in the Old -Kent Road. There are differences between the -man and us, there may be superiorities in us over -the man; but our sin in both cases consists in thinking -of the small things wherein we differ when -we ought to be confounded and intoxicated by the -terrible and joyful matters in which we are at -one. But here again the difficulty always is that -the things near us seem larger than they are, and -so seem to be a permanent part of mankind, when -they may really be only one of its parting modes of -expression. Few people, for instance, realize that -a time may easily come when we shall see the -great outburst of Science in the nineteenth century -as something quite as splendid, brief, unique, and -ultimately abandoned, as the outburst of Art at -the Renascence. Few people realize that the general -habit of fiction, of telling tales in prose, may -fade, like the general habit of the ballad, of telling -tales in verse, has for the time faded. Few people -realize that reading and writing are only arbitrary, -and perhaps temporary sciences, like heraldry.</p> - -<p>The immortal mind will remain, and by that -writers like Dickens will be securely judged. That -Dickens will have a high place in permanent literature -there is, I imagine, no prig surviving to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">293</span> -deny. But though all prediction is in the dark, -I would devote this chapter to suggesting that his -place in nineteenth century England will not only -be high, but altogether the highest. At a certain -period of his contemporary fame, an average -Englishman would have said that there were at -that moment in England about five or six able and -equal novelists. He could have made a list, Dickens, -Bulwer-Lytton, Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë, -George Eliot, perhaps more. Forty years or more -have passed and some of them have slipped to a -lower place. Some would now say that the highest -platform is left to Thackeray and Dickens; -some to Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot; -some to Dickens, Thackeray, and Charlotte -Brontë. I venture to offer the proposition that -when more years have passed and more weeding -has been effected, Dickens will dominate the whole -England of the nineteenth century; he will be left -on that platform alone.</p> - -<p>I know that this is an almost impertinent thing -to assert, and that its tendency is to bring in those -disparaging discussions of other writers in which -Mr. Swinburne brilliantly embroiled himself in -his suggestive study of Dickens. But my disparagement -of the other English novelists is -wholly relative and not in the least positive. It is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">294</span> -certain that men will always return to such a -writer as Thackeray, with his rich emotional autumn, -his feeling that life is a sad but sacred -retrospect, in which at least we should forget nothing. -It is not likely that wise men will forget -him. So, for instance, wise and scholarly men do -from time to time return to the lyrists of the -French Renascence, to the delicate poignancy of -Du Bellay: so they will go back to Thackeray. -But I mean that Dickens will bestride and dominate -our time as the vast figure of Rabelais dominates -Du Bellay, dominates the Renascence and -the world.</p> - -<p>Yet we put a negative reason first. The particular -things for which Dickens is condemned -(and justly condemned) by his critics, are precisely -those things which have never prevented a -man from being immortal. The chief of them is -the unquestionable fact that he wrote an enormous -amount of bad work. This does lead to a man -being put below his place in his own time: it does -not affect his permanent place, to all appearance, -at all. Shakespeare, for instance, and Wordsworth -wrote not only an enormous amount of bad -work, but an enormous amount of enormously bad -work. Humanity edits such writers’ works for -them. Virgil was mistaken in cutting out his inferior<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">295</span> -lines; we would have undertaken the job. -Moreover in the particular case of Dickens there -are special reasons for regarding his bad work -as in some sense irrelevant. So much of it was -written, as I have previously suggested, under a -kind of general ambition that had nothing to do -with his special genius; an ambition to be a public -provider of everything, a warehouse of all human -emotions. He held a kind of literary day of judgment. -He distributed bad characters as punishments -and good characters as rewards. My meaning -can be best conveyed by one instance out of -many. The character of the kind old Jew in -“Our Mutual Friend” (a needless and unconvincing -character) was actually introduced because -some Jewish correspondent complains that the bad -old Jew in “Oliver Twist” conveyed the suggestion -that all Jews were bad. The principle is so -lightheadedly absurd that it is hard to imagine any -literary man submitting to it for an instant. If -ever he invented a bad auctioneer he must immediately -balance him with a good auctioneer; if he -should have conceived an unkind philanthropist, -he must on the spot, with whatever natural agony -and toil, imagine a kind philanthropist. The complaint -is frantic; yet Dickens, who tore people in -pieces for much fairer complaints, liked this complaint<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">296</span> -of his Jewish correspondent. It pleased -him to be mistaken for a public arbiter: it pleased -him to be asked (in a double sense) to judge -Israel. All this is so much another thing, a non-literary -vanity, that there is much less difficulty -than usual in separating it from his serious genius: -and by his serious genius, I need hardly say, I -mean his comic genius. Such irrelevant ambitions -as this are easily passed over, like the sonnets of -great statesmen. We feel that such things can -be set aside, as the ignorant experiments of men -otherwise great, like the politics of Professor Tyndall -or the philosophy of Professor Haeckel. -Hence, I think, posterity will not care that Dickens -has done bad work, but will know that he has -done good.</p> - -<p>Again, the other chief accusation against Dickens -was that his characters and their actions were -exaggerated and impossible. But this only meant -that they were exaggerated and impossible as -compared with the modern world and with certain -writers (like Thackeray or Trollope) who -were making a very exact copy of the manners -of the modern world. Some people, oddly enough -have suggested that Dickens has suffered or will -suffer from the change of manners. Surely this -is irrational. It is not the creators of the impossible<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">297</span> -who will suffer from the process of -time: Mr. Bunsby can never be any more impossible -than he was when Dickens made him. -The writers who will obviously suffer from time -will be the careful and realistic writers; the writers -who have observed every detail of the fashion of -this world which passeth away. It is surely obvious -that there is nothing so fragile as a fact, -that a fact flies away quicker than a fancy. A -fancy will endure for two thousand years. For -instance, we all have fancy for an entirely fearless -man, a hero: and the Achilles of Homer still -remains. But exactly the thing we do not know -about Achilles is how far he was possible. The -realistic narrators of the time are all forgotten -(thank God); so we cannot tell whether Homer -slightly exaggerated or wildly exaggerated or did -not exaggerate at all, the personal activity of a -Mycenæan captain in battle: for the fancy has -survived the facts. So the fancy of Podsnap may -survive the facts of English commerce: and no -one will know whether Podsnap was possible, but -only know that he is desirable, like Achilles.</p> - -<p>The positive argument for the permanence of -Dickens comes back to the thing that can only be -stated and cannot be discussed: creation. He -made things which nobody else could possibly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">298</span> -make. He made Dick Swiveller in a very different -sense to that in which Thackeray made Colonel -Newcome. Thackeray’s creation was observation: -Dickens’s was poetry, and is therefore permanent. -But there is one other test that can be added. The -immortal writer, I conceive, is commonly he who -does something universal in a special manner. I -mean that he does something interesting to all men -in a way in which only one man or one land can -do. Other men in that land, who do only what -other men in other lands are doing as well, tend -to have a great reputation in their day and to -sink slowly into a second or a third or a fourth -place. A parallel from war will make the point -clearer. I cannot think that any one will doubt -that, although Wellington and Nelson were always -bracketed, Nelson will steadily become more -important and Wellington less. For the fame of -Wellington rests upon the fact that he was a good -soldier in the service of England, exactly as twenty -similar men were good soldiers in the service of -Austria or Prussia or France. But Nelson is the -symbol of a special mode of attack, which is at -once universal and yet specially English, the sea. -Now Dickens is at once as universal as the sea -and as English as Nelson. Thackeray and George -Eliot and the other great figures of that great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">299</span> -England, were comparable to Wellington in this, -that the kind of thing they were doing,—realism, -the acute study of intellectual things, numerous -men in France, Germany, and Italy were doing -as well or better than they. But Dickens was -really doing something universal, yet something -that no one but an Englishman could do. This is -attested by the fact that he and Byron are the -men who, like pinnacles, strike the eye of the continent. -The points would take long to study: yet -they may take only a moment to indicate. No -one but an Englishman could have filled his books -at once with a furious caricature and with a positively -furious kindness. In more central countries, -full of cruel memories of political change, caricature -is always inhumane. No one but an Englishman -could have described the democracy as -consisting of free men, but yet of funny men. In -other countries where the democratic issue has -been more bitterly fought, it is felt that unless -you describe a man as dignified you are describing -him as a slave. This is the only final greatness of -a man; that he does for all the world what all -the world cannot do for itself. Dickens, I believe, -did it.</p> - -<p>The hour of absinthe is over. We shall not be -much further troubled with the little artists who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">300</span> -found Dickens too sane for their sorrows and too -clean for their delights. But we have a long way -to travel before we get back to what Dickens -meant: and the passage is along a rambling English -road, a twisting road such as Mr. Pickwick -travelled. But this at least is part of what he -meant; that comradeship and serious joy are not -interludes in our travel; but that rather our travels -are interludes in comradeship and joy, which -through God shall endure for ever. The inn does -not point to the road; the road points to the inn. -And all roads point at last to an ultimate inn, -where we shall meet Dickens and all his characters: -and when we drink again it shall be from -the great flagons in the tavern at the end of the -world.</p> - -<p class="p2 center wspace">THE END</p> - -<div class="chapter"><div class="transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected.</p> - -<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made -consistent when a predominant preference was found -in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.</p> -</div></div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES DICKENS ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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