Charles Dickens—A Lecture.

I suppose almost every one knows that the renowned Mr . Micawber was a sketch from life , and taken from Dickens ' s own father , Mrs . Dickens herself being the unconscious original of Mrs . Nickleby .

Thackeray was a warm admirer of Dickens , and a warm friend also , I believe . But Thackeray became famous when he was forty , Dickens at half that age . The one wrote for a highly polished , elaborately educated , and cynical public , the other wrote for all mankind .

Hence the difference ! There is an admirable lecture by Professor Ward , recently given before the Manchester Institution , and of which I should have liked to give some extracts , but I have been compelled to cut it out for fear of wearying my readers . In concluding that address the learned Professor

says : — " Modestly , as becomes a man speaking of the labour of his life , Charles Dickens once summed up the spirit of his endeavours in these words : — ' I felt an humble and earnest desire , and shall do till I die , to increase the stock of harmless

cheerfulness . I felt that the world was not utterly to be despised , that it was worthy of living in for years . '" Professor Ward adds , " Yes ; this is the task which he set himself , and the task whichby God ' s blessingit was given him

, , to perform . " Dickens had many imitators , and vampires who sucked his blood figuratively . At one time he prosecuted one or two of these gentlemen for pirating his works , but he soon found out what others have

discovered , that the law is often a great wrong doer , and that it is as uncertain in its results as it is expensive in its operation .

One thing must not be forgotten . Dickens has never , so far as I know , had to bring actions against newspapers for describing his books as indecent or profane , as have other authors , whose names have recentl y been brought rather prominently

before the public . It is a curious but melancholy circumstance that the most objectionable novels of the present day are written by ladies , and it would be an'interesting fact to know how much of their popularity depended upon the impropriety .

Of Dickens it may be said he painted vice , but he never painted it in glowing colours . He introduces us to Yirtue , but it is virtue which is human and loveable , often allied with weakness and eccentricity , but because it is human and not angelic

we recognise it as true , and we love poor Tom Pinch or honest Mark Tapley , though we laugh at them , and despise Pecksniff and Stiggins , and the whole tribe of hypocritical pretenders to religion as much and as heartily as we abhor Bill SykesQuilp

, , Fagin , and the rest of the outspoken exponents of vice in all its hideous deformity . Of Dickens ' s private character it is enough to say that he was a good father and a firm friendand if there were

do-, mestic troubles which vexed him sorely , let us not , now the grave has closed over him , seek to rake up old sores and raise new scandals .

He died somewhat suddenly on the 9 th of June , 1870 , and was buried , at the express wish of the whole British people , in Westminster Abbey . I feel I cannot do better than give a short passage from the eloquent sermon of

Dean Stanley , preached on the Sunday following : — The Dean selected as his text the parable of the Bich Man and Lazarus ( Luke , 16 th 19 ) , and in the course of a powerful and eloquent sermonhe observed there

, were-some passages in Scripture which demanded special notice , as there were incidents in human life calling for special observation , from the breadth and depth of feeling which they awakened in a congregation . "Such was the ceremony of

Tuesday , the day of Dickens ' s funeral , " the Dean said , " when the gifted being whom we all lament was carried to his grave . The story of the text is a real one , but , nevertheless , a tale of pure fiction from first to last , and it is well we should see that the Bible sanctions that mode of

instruction . " The Dean then spoke of the great Sir Walter Scott , whom he characterised as the glory of fiction and the glory of Scotland ; and , passing to the consideration of the effect produced by the writings of Charles Dickens , and how we should regard them , said ;—" "V iew these wondrous works of genius , enjoy them as God ' s special gift to us , and