le imagination, which was often fantastic. It is true that he could
not be called in the narrow sense a literary writer, that he made no
literary mosaic, and few allusions to the literature of the world. Is it
not probable that he had the art to assimilate his material? For it is
impossible that any writer could pour out such a great flood about the
world and human nature without refreshing his own mind at the great
fountains of literature. And when we turn to such a tale as 'The Tale of
Two Cities,' we are conscious of the vast amount of reading and study he
must have done in order to give us such a true and vivid picture of the
Revolutionary period.

It has been said that Dickens did not write good English, that he could
not draw a lady or a gentleman, that he often makes ear-marks and
personal peculiarities stand for character, that he is sometimes turgid
when he would be impressive, sometimes stilted when he would be fine,
that his sentiment is often false and worked up, that his attempts at
tragedy are melodramatic, and that sometimes his comedy comes near being
farcical. His whole literary attitude has been compared to his boyish
fondness for striking apparel.

There is some truth in all these criticisms, though they do not occur
spontaneously to a fresh reader while he is under the spell of Dickens,
nor were they much brought forward when he was creating a new school and
setting a fashion for an admiring world. His style, which is quite a
part of this singular man, can easily be pulled in pieces and condemned,
and it is not a safe one to imitate. No doubt he wrought for effects,
for he was a magician, and used exaggeration in high lights and low
lights on his crowded canvas. Say what you will of all these defects, of
his lack of classic literary training, of his tendency to melodrama, of
his tricks of style, even of a ray of lime-light here and there, it
remains that he is a great power, a tremendous force in modern life;
half an hour of him is worth a lifetime of his self-conscious analyzers,
and the world is a more cheerful and sympathetic world because of the
loving and lovable presence in it of Charles Dickens.

A sketch of his life and writings, necessarily much condensed for use
here, has been furnished by Mr. Laurence Hutton.

[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS.]

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF DICKENS

BY LAURENCE HUTTON

Charles Dickens was born at Landport in Portsea, on the 7th of February,
1812.