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CHAPTER XX.

THE INFLUENCE OF CHARLES DICKENS.

Sympathy for the Poor. -Love for the Young. - The Golden Rule.

"Rugged strength and radiant beauty,

These were one in Nature's plan:

Humble toil and heavenward duty,

These will form the perfect man."

MRS. HALE.

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." ROM. xiii. 10.

AMES T. FIELDS bears testimony to the unvarying kindness and sympathy, both of heart and manner, which were characteristic of Charles Dickens, and says,

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"It was his mission to make people happy. Words of good cheer were native to his lips; and he was always doing what he could to lighten the lot of all who came into his beautiful presence. His talk was simple, natural, and direct, never dropping into circumlocution nor elocution.

"Now that he has gone, whoever has known him in

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timately for any considerable period of time will linger over his tender regard for, and his engaging manner with, children; his cheery Good-day!' to poor people whom he happened to be passing in the road; his trustful and earnest Please God!' when he was promising himself any special pleasure, like rejoining an old friend, or returning again to scenes he loved. At such times, his voice had an irresistible pathos in it, and his smile diffused a sensation like music."

The beautiful tribute which Lydia Maria Child paid to Charles Dickens in her "Letters from New York," so long ago as 1844, deserves a place here. Speaking of The Christmas Carol," she says,

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"It is a most genial production, one of the sunniest bubbles that ever floated on the stream of light literature. The ghost is nothing more nor less than memory. "About this Carol,' I will tell you a merry joy,' as Jeremy Taylor was wont to say. Two friends of mine proposed to give me a New-Year's present, and asked me to choose what it should be. I had certain projects in my head for the benefit of another person; and I answered, that the most acceptable gift would be a donation to carry out my plans. One of the friends whom I addressed was ill pleased with my request. She either did not like the object, or she thought I had no right thus to change the appropriation of their intended

bounty. She at once said in a manner extremely laconic and decided, 'I won't give one cent!' Her sister remonstrated, and represented that the person in question had been very unfortunate. 'There is no use in talking to me,' she replied: "I won't give one cent!'

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“Soon after, a neighbor sent in Dickens's Christmas Carol,' saying it was a new work, and perhaps the ladies would like to read it. When the story was carried home, the neighbor asked, 'How did you like it? ' — ' I have not much reason to thank you for it,' said she; 'for it has cost me three dollars.'. 'And pray, how is that?' 'I was called upon to contribute towards a charitable object which did not in all respects meet my approbation. I said I wouldn't give one cent. Sister tried to coax me; but I told her it was of no use, for I wouldn't give one cent. But I have read "The Christmas Carol," and now I am obliged to give three dollars.'

"It is indeed a blessed mission to write books which abate prejudices, unlock the human heart, and make the kindly sympathies flow freely."

Useless is it, and worse than useless is it, to attempt to gauge the character of Charles Dickens by his profession or non-profession of religion. His life and works attest that he believed in the golden rule. Well says a Chicago writer in "The Liberal Christian,"

“Wherever the English tongue is spoken, he has

gone, helping to make the world brighter and better by 'the gift of his peerless genius; and the whole world is in mourning because he is not. The rare old motto, 'Speak nought but good of the dead,' comes before us now; and for the sake of all he has been, for the sake of all he must continue to be, it were only a lovingkindness that can now find expression in no other way, to speak nought but good of the great soul that was too human to be faultless, but so tender and pitying, that it is the least tribute that can be given to him to see through our tears nothing but his virtues. He was the children's friend; and none loved them so well or appreciated them so well as he. And in that home whither he has gone from out our longing hold, there must have been a great chorus of sweet child-voices welcoming their friend; and Little Nell and Walter, Paul Dombey, and all the dear children that owed their place in the world to him, were realities that welcomed him to that fairer home.

"To us who are left, there is only a memory and the priceless creations of his pen; for there can never be another to wear his mantle of genius, or to hold us captive as he has done."

"Let us do him no injustice," adds "The Independent." "We content ourselves with what he was, lover of his kind, a friend of the friendless, a champion

of the poor, the degraded, the outcast, the forlorn. His career was a prolonged beneficence to his fellow-beings. It may be said of his books that they made a circumnavigation of charity.'

"We have a special love for each particular one. They form a library of remembrance that fills an inner niche in our heart of hearts. It is hard to realize that the world is to have no more droppings from the same pen, which are now ended in the dropping of the pen itself."

Of the many friends of Dickens, perhaps the most· intimate was Mr. John Forster, the biographer of Goldsmith and Landor, to whom Mr. Dickens dedicated the last editions of his works; and it seems likely that upon Mr. Forster will devolve the duty of writing the life of his friend. Meanwhile, this memorial volume, by an American woman, though but a compilation, will present him in a pleasant light to the homes of America into which it shall enter. It shall be closed with a few grand words from the eloquent discourse of Rev. William R. Alger, of Boston, as follows:

"Dickens has ever been pre-eminently distinguished for the democratic breadth of his affections, which irradiate all his works like a divine sunshine, revealing the most beautiful qualities in the lowliest places. He

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