CHARACTERIZATION BY E. P. WHIPPLE.

1. Dickens, as a novelist and prose poet, is to be classed in the front rank of the noble company to which he belongs. He has revived the novel of genuine practical life, as it existed in the

works of Fielding, Smollett, and Goldsmith; but, at the same time, has given to his materials an individual coloring and expression peculiarly his own. His characters, like those of his great examplars, constitute a world of their own, whose truth to nature every reader instinctively recognizes in connection with their truth to Dickens. Fielding delineates with more exquisite art, standing more as the spectator of his personages, and commenting on their actions with an ironical humor and a seeming innocence of insight which pierces not only into, but through, their very nature, laying bare their inmost unconscious springs of action, and in every instance indicating that he understands them better than they understand themselves. It is this perfection of knowledge and insight which gives to his novels their naturalness, their freedom of movement, and their value as lessons in human nature as well as consummate representations of actual life. Dickens's eye for forms of things is as accurate as Fielding's, and his range of vision more extended; but he does not probe so profoundly into the heart of what he sees, and he is more led away from the simplicity of truth by a tricksy spirit of fantastic exaggeration. Mentally, he is indisputably below Fielding; but in tenderness, in pathos, in sweetness and purity of feeling, in that comprehensiveness of sympathy which springs from a sense of brotherhood with mankind, he is indisputably above him. . . .

2. In representing life and character, there are two characteristics of his genius which startle every reader by their obviousness and power-his humor and pathos; but in respect to the operation of those qualities in his delineations, critics have sometimes objected that his humor is apt to run into fantastic exaggeration, and his pathos into sentimental excess. Indeed, in regard to his humorous characters, it may be said that the vivid intensity with which he conceives them, and the overflowing abundance of joy and merriment which spring instinctively up from the very foundations of his being at the slightest point of the ludicrous, sometimes lead him to the very verge of caricature. He seems himself to be taken by surprise as his glad and genial fancies throng into his brain, and to laugh and exult with the beings he has called into existence in the spirit of a man observing, not creating. Squeers and Pecksniff, Simon Tappertit and

Mark Tapley, Tony Weller and old John Willet, although painted with such distinctness that we seem to see them with the bodily eye, we still feel to be somewhat overcharged in the description. They are caricatured more in appearance than reality, and if grotesque in form, are true and natural at heart. Such caricature as this is to character what epigram is to fact-a mode of conveying truth more distinctly by suggesting it through a brilliant exaggeration.

3. Much of the humor of Dickens is identical with his style. In this the affluence of his fancy in suggestive phrases and epithets is finely displayed; and he often flashes the impression of a character or a scene upon the mind by a few graphic verbal combinations. When Ralph Nickleby says "God bless you" to his nephew, the words stick in his throat, as if unused to the passage. When Tigg clasped Mr. Pecksniff in the dark, that worthy gentleman "found himself collared by something which smelt like several damp umbrellas, a barrel of beer, a cask of warm brandy-and-water, and a small parlorful of tobacco-smoke, mixed." Mrs. Todgers, when she desires to make Ruth Pinch know her station, surveys her with a look of "genteel grimness." A widow of a deceased brother of Martin Chuzzlewit is described as one who, "being almost supernaturally disagreeable, and having a dreary face, a bony figure, and a masculine voice, was, in right of these qualities, called a strong-minded woman." Mr. Richard Swiveller no sooner enters a room than the nostrils of the company are saluted by a strong smell of gin and lemonpeel. Mr. Jonas Chuzzlewit, a person who overfed himself, is sketched as a gentleman with such an obvious disposition to pimples that "the bright spots on his cravat, the rich pattern of his waistcoat, and even his glittering trinkets seemed to have broken out upon him, and not to have come into existence comfortably." Felicities like these Dickens squanders with a prodigality which reduces their relative value, and makes the generality of style-mongers poor indeed.

4. It is difficult to say whether Dickens is more successful in humor or pathos. Many prefer his serious to his comic scenes. It is certain that his genius can as readily draw tears as provoke laughter. Sorrow, want, poverty, pain, and death, the affections which cling to earth and those which rise above it, he represents

always with power, and often with marvellous skill. His style, in the serious moods of his mind, has a harmony of flow which often glides unconsciously into metrical arrangement, and is full of those words

"Which fall as soft as snow on the sea,
And melt in the heart as instantly."

One source of his pathos is the intense and purified conception he has of moral beauty-of that beauty which comes from a thoughtful brooding over the most solemn and affecting realities of life. The character of little Nell is an illustration. The simplicity of this creation, framed, as it is, from the finest elements of human nature, and the unambitious mode of its development through the motley scenes of the Old Curiosity Shop, are calculated to make us overlook its rare merit as a work of high poetic genius. Amidst the wolfish malignity of Quilp, the sugared meanness of Brass, the roaring conviviality of Swiveller, amidst scenes of selfishness and shame, of passion and crime, this delicate creation moves along, unsullied, purified, pursuing the good in the simple earnestness of a pure heart, gliding to the tomb as to a sweet sleep, and leaving in every place that her presence beautifies the marks of celestial footprints. Sorrows such as hers, over which so fine a sentiment sheds its consecrations, have been well said to be ill bartered for the garishness of joy; "for they win us softly from life, and fit us to die smiling."

5. In addition to this refined perception of moral beauty, he has great tragic power. It would be useless, in our limits, to attempt giving illustrations of his closeness to nature in delineating the deeper passions; his profound observation of the workings of the soul when stained with crime and looking forward to death; his skill in gifting remorse, fear, avarice, hatred, and revenge with their appropriate language; and his subtle appreciation of the influence exercised by different moods of the mind in modifying the appearances of external objects. In these the poet always appears through the novelist, and we hardly know whether imagination or observation contributes most to the effect.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

STAVE ONE.-MARLEY'S GHOST.

Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to.

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail,

5

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole 10 friend, his sole mourner.

Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name, however. There it yet stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse doorScrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge 15 Scrooge, and sometimes Marley. He answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

Oh, but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, was Scrooge a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! External heat and cold had little influence: on him. No warmth could warm, no cold could chill him. No

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-I-6. Marley... door-nail. What one statement is made in these two paragraphs? What is the statement as expressed in the second paragraph? Show how this is led up to, and what means are employed to emphasize the statement.

9, 10. executor... legatee. Explain the terms "executor," "administrator," "assign," "legatee." What is the effect of the repetition of the word "sole ?"

15, 16. called Scrooge Scrooge. What is the grammatical construction of the word "Scrooge" in these two uses? (See Swinton's New English Grammar, p. 169, Special Rule iii.)

18–20. Oh . . . sinner! What is peculiar in the construction of this sentence? What is the figure of speech?-Grammatical construction of "sinner?" What is the figure in "sinner?" (See Def. 29.) What epithets are applied to "Scrooge?" What is the effect of their accumulation?

21-27. No wind... did.

Point out the similes; the personifications. Show

the play of words in the last part of the paragraph.

20