Charles Dickens—A Lecture.

best monuments , memorials , and testimonials to the friend whom you have loved , and who loved with all exceeding love his friends , his country , and his fellow men . These are monuments which he would not repress , and which manifestly

the poorest and youngest have all in their power to raise to his memory . " Professor Jowett , who preached an eloquent sermon at the special evening service after his death , in speaking of him , said : —

" Men of genius are different from what we suppose them to be . They have greater pleasures and greater pains , greater affections and greater temptations than the generality of mankind , and they can never be altogether understood by their fellow men . We do not wish to intrude upon them or analyse their lives and characters .

They are . extraordinary persons . We cannot prescribe to them what they should be , but they are so few we cannot afford to lose them . " It would be well if some men were as charitably disposed as the learned professor . " De mortals nil nisi bonum . "

One word at closing . A laudable ambition urged on Dickens , so that from the little blacking maker he rose to be one of the greatest literary men England has ever seen—who was even caressed by royalty , and whose creations were beloved , wept overand bewailed by hundreds of

thou-, sands wherever the English language is spoken , where the sun never sets . Indomitable perseverance , unwearied application , united with genius , placed him on the p innacle of fame . Li a free country he attained a position of great eminence .

He mig ht have got into Parliament . I believe I am right in saying that he was offered knighthood and declined it . Lord Houghton hoped he would be a peer , and so he ought to have been ; for the reason our peerage holds so proud a position before the world is because its ranks are

constantly replenished by the admission of the greatest warriors , the most learned lawyers , the most eminent statesmen , or the most gifted literateurs . This is the secret of the security of the Constitution . We want no Eepublic whilst we have a limited Monarch y , where the most eminent are sine of advancement , and where even the peasant born , if he be the possessor of

Charles Dickens—A Lecture.

God ' s great gift of genius , may one day stand on the steps of the throne . In a country like our own , where the nobility of talent is recognised as amply as the House of Peers , and where greatness and soodness are alike invested with the

purple—instance Lord Napier , of Magdala , Lord Clyde , Lord Lytton , and Lady Burdett Coutts—we want nothing to assure us that after all there is something in the old proverb , that so far as England and the Constitution are concerned , " whatever isis best . "

, The feeling of contentment , the satisfaction with the powers that be , comes to us all the more readily when we remember , that we have the best Queen in Christendom , the best form of Government in the worldthe greatest liberty of any nation on

, the earth , and the most deservedly popular heir to the throne some day to reign oyer the happiest , the most contented , andmost loyal people in the world . Perhaps at this moment I may be addressing some embryo Dickens . To him I

would say , " Learn the lesson of his life . " Kemember he wrote for a purpose , not only to amuse . Remember the good he did , the shams he attacked , the evils he exposed , the wrong doings he unveiled . Remember thatspurred on by an

hon-, ourable ambition , he never forgot to do his duty , never failed to perform his task like an upright and honourable man . I believe Dickens to have been a < rood as well as a

great man ( the things , unfortunately , are often as wide as the poles asunder ) , and if we only all of us work as steadily , honestly , and tmweariedly as he did , we shall , either in this world or the next , reap a like reward .

Light, Beautiful Light.

LIGHT , BEAUTIFUL LIGHT .

BY 31 . F . BIG 21 EY . Light , beautiful light ! Light , the reflection of Deity ' s smile , That wakeneth worlds from the chaos of niht

g , And brighteneth ocean and isle ! Fleet as thought o'er the waters careering , Iris-hued pearls in thy pathway appearing , Gemming the foam , wliile the depths thou art cheering . Light , beautiful light !