further from this Association’s mind than the impertinence of
patronage. The prizes that it gives, and the certificates that it
gives, are mere admiring assurances of sympathy with so many
striving brothers and sisters, and are only valuable for the spirit
in which they are given, and in which they are received. The
prizes are money prizes, simply because the Institution does not
presume to doubt that persons who have so well governed themselves,
know best how to make a little money serviceable – because it would
be a shame to treat them like grown-up babies by laying it out for
them, and because it knows it is given, and knows it is taken, in
perfect clearness of purpose, perfect trustfulness, and, above all,
perfect independence.
Ladies and Gentlemen, reverting once more to the whole collective
audience before me, I will, in another two minutes, release the
hold which your favour has given me on your attention. Of the
advantages of knowledge I have said, and I shall say, nothing. Of
the certainty with which the man who grasps it under difficulties
rises in his own respect and in usefulness to the community, I have
said, and I shall say, nothing. In the city of Manchester, in the
county of Lancaster, both of them remarkable for self-taught men,
that were superfluous indeed. For the same reason I rigidly
abstain from putting together any of the shattered fragments of
that poor clay image of a parrot, which was once always saying,
without knowing why, or what it meant, that knowledge was a
dangerous thing. I should as soon think of piecing together the
mutilated remains of any wretched Hindoo who has been blown from an
English gun. Both, creatures of the past, have been – as my friend
Mr. Carlyle vigorously has it – “blasted into space;” and there, as
to this world, is an end of them.
So I desire, in conclusion, only to sound two strings. In the
first place, let me congratulate you upon the progress which real
mutual improvement societies are making at this time in your
neighbourhood, through the noble agency of individual employers and
their families, whom you can never too much delight to honour.
Elsewhere, through the agency of the great railway companies, some
of which are bestirring themselves in this matter with a gallantry
and generosity deserving of all praise. Secondly and lastly, let
me say one word out of my own personal heart, which is always very
near to it in this connexion. Do not let us, in the midst of the
visible objects of nature, whose workings we can tell of in
Page 56
Dickens, Charles – Speeches, Literary & Social
figures, surrounded by machines that can be made to the thousandth
part of an inch, acquiring every day knowledge which can be proved
upon a slate or demonstrated by a microscope – do not let us, in
the laudable pursuit of the facts that surround us, neglect the
fancy and the imagination which equally surround us as a part of
the great scheme. Let the child have its fables; let the man or
woman into which it changes, always remember those fables tenderly.
Let numerous graces and ornaments that cannot be weighed and
measured, and that seem at first sight idle enough, continue to
have their places about us, be we never so wise. The hardest head
may co-exist with the softest heart. The union and just balance of
those two is always a blessing to the possessor, and always a
blessing to mankind. The Divine Teacher was as gentle and
considerate as He was powerful and wise. You all know how He could
still the raging of the sea, and could hush a little child. As the
utmost results of the wisdom of men can only be at last to help to
raise this earth to that condition to which His doctrine, untainted
by the blindnesses and passions of men, would have exalted it long
ago; so let us always remember that He set us the example of
blending the understanding and the imagination, and that, following
it ourselves, we tread in His steps, and help our race on to its