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  Dickens, Charles - Speeches, Literary & Social

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  Speeches: Literary and Social

  by Charles Dickens

  February, 1997 [Etext #824]

  **The Project Gutenberg Etext of Speeches: Literary and Social**

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  Dickens, Charles - Speeches, Literary & Social

  Speeches: Literary and Social by Charles Dickens

  Scanned and proofed by David Price

  [email protected]

  Speeches: Literary and Social by Charles Dickens

  SPEECH: EDINBURGH, JUNE 25, 1841.

  [At a public dinner, given in honour of Mr. Dickens, and presided

  over by the late Professor Wilson, the Chairman having proposed his

  health in a long and eloquent speech, Mr. Dickens returned thanks

  as follows:-]

  IF I felt your warm and generous welcome less, I should be better

  able to thank you. If I could have listened as you have listened

  to the glowing language of your distinguished Chairman, and if I

  could have heard as you heard the "thoughts that breathe and words

  that burn," which he has uttered, it would have gone hard but I

  should have caught some portion of his enthusiasm, and kindled at

  his example. But every word which fell from his lips, and every

  demonstration of sympathy and approbation with which you received

  his eloquent expressions, renders me unable to respond to his

  kindness, and leaves me at last all heart and no lips, yearning to

  respond as I would do to your cordial greeting - possessing, heaven

  knows, the will, and desiring only to find the way.

  The way to your good opinion, favour, and support, has been to me

  very pleasing - a path strewn with flowers and cheered with

  sunshine. I feel as if I stood amongst old friends, whom I had

  intimately known and highly valued. I feel as if the deaths of the

  fictitious creatures, in which you have been kind enough to express

  an interest, had endeared us to each other as real afflictions

  deepen friendships in actual life; I feel as if they had been real

  persons, whose fortunes we had pursued together in inseparable

  connexion, and that I had never known them apart from you.

  It is a difficult thing for a man to speak of himself or of his

  works. But perhaps on this occasion I may, without impropriety,

  venture to say a word on the spirit in which mine were conceived.

  I felt an earnest and humble desire, and shall do till I die, to

  increase the stock of harmless cheerfulness. I felt that the world

  was not utterly to be despised; that it was worthy of living in for

  many reasons. I was anxious to find, as the Professor has said, if

  I could, in evil things, that soul of goodness which the Creator

  has put in them. I was anxious to show that virtue may be found in

  the bye-ways of the world, that it is not incompatible with pover
ty

  and even with rags, and to keep steadily through life the motto,

  expressed in the burning words of your Northern poet -

  "The rank is but the guinea stamp,

  The man's the gowd for a' that."

  Page 5

  Dickens, Charles - Speeches, Literary & Social

  And in following this track, where could I have better assurance

  that I was right, or where could I have stronger assurance to cheer

  me on than in your kindness on this to me memorable night?

  I am anxious and glad to have an opportunity of saying a word in

  reference to one incident in which I am happy to know you were

  interested, and still more happy to know, though it may sound

  paradoxical, that you were disappointed - I mean the death of the

  little heroine. When I first conceived the idea of conducting that

  simple story to its termination, I determined rigidly to adhere to

  it, and never to forsake the end I had in view. Not untried in the

  school of affliction, in the death of those we love, I thought what

  a good thing it would be if in my little work of pleasant amusement

  I could substitute a garland of fresh flowers for the sculptured

  horrors which disgrace the tomb. If I have put into my book

  anything which can fill the young mind with better thoughts of

  death, or soften the grief of older hearts; if I have written one

  word which can afford pleasure or consolation to old or young in

  time of trial, I shall consider it as something achieved -

  something which I shall be glad to look back upon in after life.

  Therefore I kept to my purpose, notwithstanding that towards the

  conclusion of the story, I daily received letters of remonstrance,

  especially from the ladies. God bless them for their tender

  mercies! The Professor was quite right when he said that I had not

  reached to an adequate delineation of their virtues; and I fear

  that I must go on blotting their characters in endeavouring to

  reach the ideal in my mind. These letters were, however, combined

  with others from the sterner sex, and some of them were not

  altogether free from personal invective. But, notwithstanding, I

  kept to my purpose, and I am happy to know that many of those who

  at first condemned me are now foremost in their approbation.

  If I have made a mistake in detaining you with this little

  incident, I do not regret having done so; for your kindness has

  given me such a confidence in you, that the fault is yours and not

  mine. I come once more to thank you, and here I am in a difficulty