Speeches: Literary and Social by Charles Dickens

Speeches: Literary and Social by Charles Dickens

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 poverty

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.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *