"I commit my soul to the mercy of God through our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide
themselves by the teaching of the New Testament, in its broad
spirit, and to put no faith in any man's narrow construction of its
letter here or there."
Although a man of deep emotional nature, his religion was, after all,
mostly a religion of good deeds. Helpfulness, kindliness,--these were to
him the supreme things. One who knew him well wrote after his death:--
"I frankly confess that having met innumerable men and had dealings
with innumerable men, I never met one with an approach to his
genuine, unaffected, unchanging kindness, or one that ever found so
sunshiny a pleasure in doing one a kindness. I cannot call to mind
that any request I ever made to him was ungranted, or left without
an attempt to grant it."
Upon this point all who ever knew the man are well agreed. It will
suffice. To him who loved so much, if need be much will be forgiven.
As we close this paper, how softly pass before us the long procession of
the men and women he has created,--for they all seem thus to us,--not
characters, but people, many of them personal acquaintances of our own.
There are actual tears in our eyes as the little company of children
pass in review, led by David Copperfield, and followed by Oliver Twist,
with Paul Dombey in his wake, and little Nell timidly pressing near;
while trooping after, sad, tearful, or grotesque, come Florence Dombey,
poor Joe, Pip and Smike, Sloppy and Peepy, Little Dorrit and Tiny Tim,
and many more of those with whose sorrows we have sympathized, and over
each and all of whom we have wept hot tears in the days that are no
more. Dream-children, he calls them; but the great world acknowledges
them as real beings, and sorrows and rejoices with them, even more, it
is to be feared, than it does sometimes with the children of flesh and
blood, homeless and forsaken as many of them are. But for the sake of
Tiny Tim many an old Scrooge has softened his hard heart somewhat; and
in memory of poor Joe many a hardened city man has been a little less
imperious to the beggar-boy about "moving on." Even poor Smike has
served the purpose of ameliorating a trifle the hard lot of such
unfortunates as he, who are tyrannized over in public institutions; and,
altogether, Dickens's dream-children can be said to have been useful in
their day and generation.
How the other old friends come following on! We have our own peculiar
greeting for each. We cannot help holding our sides as Mr. Pickwick and
Sam Weller go by, followed by Captain Cuttle with his hook, the finest
gentleman of them all; by the Major and Mrs. Bagnet, by whom discipline
is maintained in the group; by Micawber, with his large outlines and
flowing periods; and by Mrs. Micawber and her relations, senseless
imbeciles or unmitigated scoundrels all, as her husband testifies; by
Mrs. Gamp, by Barkis, and even the young man by the name of Guppy. A
smile spreads over the face of the whole reading world at the bare
mention of their names. How the smiles deepen into tears as we think
over the other friends to whom he has introduced us,--mutual friends of
us all; of whom we talk when we congregate together, with just as much
of real feeling and interest as we do of other friends of flesh and
blood, laugh over their foibles and follies, pity their sorrows, blame
their acts, and all with no other feeling than that of utter reality.
Will little Nell's friend, the old schoolmaster, ever cease to draw
tears from our eyes? Shall we ever weary of gentle Tom Pinch? Shall we
not always touch our hats to Joe Gargery? Shall we ever cease loving Mr.
Jarndyce, even when the wind is in the east? And will Agnes and Esther
ever pall upon our taste? Not, we verily believe, until the sources of
feeling are dried up in us forever, and we have grown indifferent to all
of earth. What an array of them there are, too! The bare catalogue of
their names would fill a volume, and it would not be bad reading to the
genuine Dickens lover,--recalling, as each name would, so much of vivid
portrayal, and starting so many associations in the mind. But there is
no need to repeat the names; the big, dull old world long ago learned
them by heart. Nor will they soon be relegated to the shades. While the
tide of English speech flows on, they will linger, component parts of
the language itself.
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