belonged to one or sympathized with one.
There is one other paragraph in this report which struck my eye in
looking over it, and on which I cannot help offering a word of
joyful notice. It is the steady increase that appears to have
taken place in the number of lady members – among whom I hope I
may presume are included some of the bright fair faces that are
clustered around me. Gentlemen, I hold that it is not good for man
to be alone – even in Mechanics’ Institutions; and I rank it as
very far from among the last or least of the merits of such places,
that he need not be alone there, and that he is not. I believe
that the sympathy and society of those who are our best and dearest
friends in infancy, in childhood, in manhood, and in old age, the
most devoted and least selfish natures that we know on earth, who
turn to us always constant and unchanged, when others turn away,
should greet us here, if anywhere, and go on with us side by side.
I know, gentlemen, by the evidence of my own proper senses at this
moment, that there are charms and graces in such greetings, such as
no other greeting can possess. I know that in every beautiful work
of the Almighty hand, which is illustrated in your lectures, and in
every real or ideal portraiture of fortitude and goodness that you
find in your books, there is something that must bring you home
again to them for its brightest and best example. And therefore,
gentlemen, I hope that you will never be without them, or without
an increasing number of them in your studies and your
commemorations; and that an immense number of new marriages, and
other domestic festivals naturally consequent upon those marriages,
may be traced back from time to time to the Leeds Mechanics’
Institution.
There are many gentlemen around me, distinguished by their public
position and service, or endeared to you by frequent intercourse,
or by their zealous efforts on behalf of the cause which brings us
together; and to them I shall beg leave to refer you for further
observations on this happy and interesting occasion; begging to
congratulate you finally upon the occasion itself; upon the
prosperity and thriving prospects of your institution; and upon our
common and general good fortune in living in these times, when the
means of mental culture and improvement are presented cheaply,
socially, and cheerfully, and not in dismal cells or lonely
garrets. And lastly, I congratulate myself, I assure you most
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heartily, upon the part with which I am honoured on an occasion so
congenial to my warmest feelings and sympathies, and I beg to thank
you for such evidences of your good-will, as I never can coldly
remember and never forget.
[In acknowledging the vote of thanks, Mr, Dickens said:-]
Ladies and Gentlemen, – It is a great satisfaction to me that this
question has been put by the Mayor, inasmuch as I hope I may
receive it as a token that he has forgiven me those extremely large
letters, which I must say, from the glimpse I caught of them when I
arrived in the town, looked like a leaf from the first primer of a
very promising young giant.
I will only observe, in reference to the proceeding of this
evening, that after what I have seen, and the excellent speeches I
have heard from gentlemen of so many different callings and
persuasions, meeting here as on neutral ground, I do more strongly
and sincerely believe than I ever have in my life, – and that is
saying a great deal, – that institutions such as this will be the
means of refining and improving that social edifice which has been
so often mentioned to-night, until, – unlike that Babel tower that
would have taken heaven by storm, – it shall end in sweet accord
and harmony amongst all classes of its builders.
Ladies and gentlemen, most respectfully and heartily I bid you good
night and good-bye, and I trust the next time we meet it will be in