, at least it is amusing him. Even when he is tiring he is
not tired.

But in the case of _David Copperfield_ there is a real reason for noting
an air of fatigue. For although this is the best of all Dickens's books,
it constantly disappoints the critical and intelligent reader. The
reason is that Dickens began it under his sudden emotional impulse of
telling the whole truth about himself and gradually allowed the whole
truth to be more and more diluted, until towards the end of the book we
are back in the old pedantic and decorative art of Dickens, an art which
we justly admired in its own place and on its own terms, but which we
resent when we feel it gradually returning through a tale pitched
originally in a more practical and piercing key. Here, I say, is the one
real example of the fatigue of Dickens. He begins his story in a new
style and then slips back into an old one. The earlier part is in his
later manner. The later part is in his earlier manner.

There are many marks of something weak and shadowy in the end of _David
Copperfield_. Here, for instance, is one of them which is not without
its bearing on many tendencies of modern England. Why did Dickens at the
end of this book give way to that typically English optimism about
emigration? He seems to think that he can cure the souls of a whole
cartload, or rather boatload, of his characters by sending them all
to the Colonies. Peggotty is a desolate and insulted parent whose house
has been desecrated and his pride laid low; therefore let him go to
Australia. Emily is a woman whose heart is broken and whose honour is
blasted; but she will be quite happy if she goes to Australia. Mr.
Micawber is a man whose soul cannot be made to understand the tyranny of
time or the limits of human hope; but he will understand all these
things if he goes to Australia. For it must be noted that Dickens does
not use this emigration merely as a mode of exit. He does not send these
characters away on a ship merely as a symbol suggesting that they pass
wholly out of his hearer's life. He does definitely suggest that
Australia is a sort of island Valley of Avalon, where the soul may heal
it of its grievous wound. It is seriously suggested that Peggotty finds
peace in Australia. It is really indicated that Emily regains her
dignity in Australia. It is positively explained of Mr. Micawber not
that he was happy in Australia (for he would be that anywhere), but that
he was definitely pros