in Costigan and F. B., and
the Chevalier Strong--all that host of friends imperishable--you must
survive with Shakespeare and Cervantes in the memory and affection of
men.

II. To Charles Dickens.

Sir,--It has been said that every man is born a Platonist or an
Aristotelian, though the enormous majority of us, to be sure, live and
die without being conscious of any invidious philosophic partiality
whatever. With more truth (though that does not imply very much) every
Englishman who reads may be said to be a partisan of yourself or of Mr.
Thackeray. Why should there be any partisanship in the matter; and
why, having two such good things as your novels and those of your
contemporary, should we not be silently happy in the possession? Well,
men are made so, and must needs fight and argue over their tastes in
enjoyment. For myself, I may say that in this matter I am what the
Americans do not call a 'Mugwump,' what English politicians dub a
'superior person'--that is, I take no side, and attempt to enjoy the
best of both.

It must be owned that this attitude is sometimes made a little difficult
by the vigour of your special devotees. They have ceased, indeed, thank
Heaven! to imitate you; and even in 'descriptive articles' the touch
of Mr. Gigadibs, of him whom 'we almost took for the true Dickens,'
has disappeared. The young lions of the Press no longer mimic your less
admirable mannerisms--do not strain so much after fantastic comparisons,
do not (in your manner and Mr. Carlyle's) give people nick-names derived
from their teeth, or their complexion; and, generally, we are spared
second-hand copies of all that in your style was least to be commended.
But, though improved by lapse of time in this respect, your devotees
still put on little conscious airs of virtue, robust manliness, and so
forth, which would have irritated you very much, and there survive some
press men who seem to have read you a little (especially your later
works), and never to have read anything else. Now familiarity with the
pages of 'Our Mutual Friend'and 'Dombey and Son' does not precisely
constitute a liberal education, and the assumption that it does is apt
(quite unreasonably) to prejudice people against the greatest comic
genius of modern times.

On the other hand, Time is at last beginning to sift the true admirers
of Dickens from the false. Yours, Sir, in the best sense of the word, is
a popular success, a popular reputation. For e