tute any truer word in any place-was, we are told, elaborate and slow. But, in his happier days, the process was by no means wearisome. It was the love of the idea, that could not let it go till he had nursed it to its utmost growth. In this he resembled many of the greatest humorists, whose enjoyment of their own fancies is evidenced by the impossibility of passing them into print while a single mirth-stirring thought or word could be added to make the picture perfect. The result was invaluable. With the exception only of Shakspeare, among English writers of drama and fiction, no other author than Dickens yields so many sentences on each page of sterling value in themselves; no other author can be read and re-read with such certainty of finding fresh pleasure on every perusal. Nowhere, with the one exception, does so much thought go to finish the production. It is jeweller's work, inlaying and enriching every part."*

"THE CHIEF."-In his own immediate literary circle, and amongst those who were on the most familiar terms with him, the name "Mr. Dickens," or "Mr. Charles Dickens," or even "Charles," with his most intimate friends, was never heard. The respect felt for his genius-his superiority-took a more striking, although more familiar form. He was

*Weekly Dispatch, June 18, 1870.

invariably spoken of as "the Chief"! At All the Year Round office, the question was never, "Is Mr. Dickens in?" but "Has the Chief arrived?" "Is the Chief in ?"

BLUE INK.-The present habit amongst literary men-especially amongst those formerly connected with Household Words, and more recently with All the Year Round-of using blue in preference to black ink, arose with Mr. Dickens. "The Chief" disliked the necessity of blotting his MS. in the progress of composition, and on finding that a certain make of blue ink dried almost immediately it left the pen, he invariably used that kind ever after; and thus began the fashion for blue ink among London journalists.

DICKENS IN PRIVATE LIFE.-One who was intimately acquainted with him says :-" To those who never saw Dickens, and who ask whether he was like his works, we answer emphatically, Yes. When in congenial society, his humour was so abundant and overflowing, that the impression it gave the listener was that it would have been painful to check it; while, in nobility and tenderness, in generous sympathy for all that is elevating and pure, in lofty scorn of the base, in hatred of the wrong, Dickens the author and Dickens the man was

one. The stories of his goodness and generosity are endless. His was the common fate of having to bear the burdens of others as well as his own, and those who knew him under circumstances of trial unite in testifying to the open-handed justice of the man."

"Never was human being more 'thorough.' His friendship was a fervent reality, and he spared no pains, and withheld no exertion, to save those whom he thought worthy, and to whom his countenance was valuable. The whole energy of his nature—and the passage in 'David Copperfield,' in which the hero attributes whatever success he has acquired in this life to his faculty of devoting his whole strength and thoughts to the subject in hand, whatever it might be, precisely describes Charles Dickens himself—was given to the friend as readily and fully as to the day's work; and it would be impossible to say more. Again, this kindly helpfulness was more valuable in Dickens than in most men, from his shrewd common sense, his worldly wisdom, his business habits, his intense regard for accuracy in detail. Whatever he said should be done, those who knew him regarded as accomplished. There was no forgetfulness, no procrastination, no excuse, when the time for granting a promised favour came."*

Daily News, June 11, 1870.

SYMPATHY WITH WORKING MENA friend, writing in the Observer, says :

"He took a certain honest pride in receiving and returning the salutations of working people personally unknown to him as he walked along the City's streets or the country roads, and he was greatly pleased by the reception at Christmas time of numberless small presents, generally of provisions, sent to him, "in honour of the season," by humble and anonymous admirers."

ESTIMATE

OF HIS

A BEGGAR'S GENEROSITY.-Dickens has, like others in this world, been made to suffer every now and then for his good nature. High up on a list, taken from the pocket of a begging-letter writer, of persons easily induced to give money to those who pleaded distress, was found the name of "Charles Dickens," in company with that of an equally kindly, but more wealthy, charitable person, Miss Burdett Coutts. His own account of how he has been victimized by the clever tales of systematic impostors has been told in his own inimitable way in Household Words.

PARAGRAPH DISEASE.—Writing to a friend in Boston, Dickens said :—“ I notice that about once in every seven years I become the victim of a para

graph disease. It breaks out in England, travels to India by the Overland route, gets to America per Cunard line, strikes the base of the Rocky Mountains, and, rebounding back to Europe, mostly perishes on the steppes of Russia from inanition and extreme cold."

DICKENS AND THACKERAY-Mr. Hodder tells us that "Thackeray did not keep copies of his own books. I was at his house when he had completed the 'Newcomes,' and on looking at the bookshelves in his studio, I saw a newly-bound copy of that work, but neither 'Vanity Fair,' 'Pendennis,' nor 'Esmond.' I spoke of this strange want in his library; for (said I) Charles Dickens has all his own works neatly bound in the order of publication." "Yes," answered Thackeray, "I know he has, and so ought I; but fellows borrow them or steal them, and I try to keep them, and can't."

*** "In the mere matter of literary style there is a very obvious difference. Mr. Thackeray, according to the general opinion, is the more terse and idiomatic, and Mr. Dickens the more diffuse and luxuriant writer. There is an Horatian strictness and strength in Thackeray which satisfies the more cultivated taste, and wins the respect of the severest critic; but Dickens, if he is the more rapid and careless on the