1C KENS B .Y BY DAY = =, MABBLL, SMITH u V_X*v_X. DICKENS DAY'BY'DAY COM PI LED SY MABEL LSC SMITH LONDON GEORGE G HARRAP fr CC 9 PORTSMOUTH STOEET KINOSWAY TO J. R. S. " It ain't easy to break up hearts of oak whether they 're in brigs or buzzums." CAP 'N CUTTLE, 14. B PREFACE DICKENS made his appeal to human-wide instincts and experiences. Nothing else would have carried Mr Pecksniff's British gaiters into the land of Tartuffe or Mr Pickwick into Don Quixote's company. Love of home, tenderness for mother and sweetheart and wife and children, reverence for the realities of religion, awe at the lessons of death, comprehension of the value of duty-doing for efficiency's sake, sympathy with the poor, apprecia- tion of nature's beauties, enjoyment of cheerfulness, and a practical philosophy of conduct all these are qualities limited to no race or nation, and Dickens made his appeal with a fullness of energy that sweeps through his pages with an outpouring of freshness and power that carries all before it. Dickens was simple. Complexities of thinking have developed as modern life has grown complex, but men love the simple still, and the writer who strikes the simple note in thought and phrase is sure of lasting understanding. Acknowledgment is made of the kindness of M Messrs Chapman & Hall for permitting the use of the copyright extracts from Edwin Drood, and of Messrs Macmillan & Co. Ltd. for permitting the use of the copyright extracts from Letters of Charles Dickens. [vi] JANUARY JANUARY FIRST NEXT to Christmas-day, the most pleasant annual epoch in existence is the advent of the New Year. . . . Now, we cannot but think it a great deal more complimentary, both to the old year that has rolled away, and to the New Year that is just beginning to dawn upon us, to see the old fellow out and the new one in, with gaiety and glee. There must have been some few occurrences in the past year to which we can look back with a smile of cheerful recollection if not with a feeling of heart- felt thankfulness. And we are bound by every rule of justice and equity to give the New Year credit for being a good one, until he proves himself un- worthy the confidence we repose in him. Sketches by Boz. JANUARY SECOND Good resolutions seldom fail of producing some good effect in the mind from which they spring. Nicholas Nickleby. JANUARY THIRD "The voice of Time," said the Phantom, "cries to man, 'Advance!'" The Chimes. ['I 1 JANUARY FOURTH "Constancy in love is a good thing; but it means nothing, and is nothing, without constancy in every kind of effort. If you had the abilities of the great men, past and present, you could do nothing well without sincerely meaning it and setting about it. If you entertain the supposition that any real suc- cess, in great things or in small, ever was or could be, ever will or can be, wrested from Fortune by fits and starts, leave that wrong idea here." Bleak House. JANUARY FIFTH "Why are we not more natural? Dear me! With all those yearnings, and gushings, and im- pulsive throbbings that we have implanted in our souls, and which are so very charming, why are we not more natural?" Dombey and Son. JANUARY SIXTH If we all had hearts like those which beat so lightly in the bosoms of the young and beautiful, what a heaven this earth would be! If, while our bodies grew old and withered, our hearts could but retain their early youth and freshness, of what avail would be our sorrows and sufferings! Nicholas Nickleby. JANUARY SEVENTH Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Sketches by Boz. [2] JANUARY EIGHTH Be guided only by the healer of the sick, the raiser of the dead, the friend of all who were afflicted and forlorn, the patient Master who shed tears of com- passion for our infirmities. We cannot but be right if we put all the rest away, and do everything in remembrance of Him. Little Dorrit. JANUARY NINTH The speech of the sea is various, and wants not abundant resource of cheerfulness, hope, and lusty encouragement. Our English Watering-Place. JANUARY TENTH A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A Tale of Two Cities. JANUARY ELEVENTH There are not in the unseen world voices more gentle and more true, that may be so implicitly relied on, or that are so certain to give none but tenderest counsel, as the Voices in which the Spirits of the Fireside and the Hearth address themselves to human kind. The Cricket on the Hearth. JANUARY TWELFTH "In the material world, as I have long taught, nothing can be spared; no step or atom in the won- [3] drous structure could be lost, without a blank being made in the great universe. I know, now, that it is the same with good and evil, happiness and sor- row, in the memories of men." The Haunted Man. JANUARY THIRTEENTH "Bless those women! They never do anything by halves. They are always in earnest." A Christmas Carol. JANUARY FOURTEENTH "What I have told you is, that it is a moral im- possibility that any son or daughter of Adam can stand on this ground that I put my foot on, or any ground that mortal treads, and gainsay the healthy tenure on which we hold our existence." "Which is," sneered the Hermit, "according to you " "Which is," returned the other, "according to Eternal Providence, that we must arise and wash our faces and do our gregarious work and act and react on one another, leaving only the idiot and the palsied to sit blinking in the corner." Tom Tiddler's Ground. JANUARY FIFTEENTH Indeed, I have very grave doubts whether a great commercial country, holding communication with all parts of the world can better Christianize the be- nighted portions of it than by the bestowal of its wealth and energy on the making of good Christians [4] at home, and on the utter removal of neglected and untaught childhood from its streets, before it wan- ders elsewhere. For, if it steadily persist in this work, working downward to the lowest, the travellers of all grades whom it sends abroad will be good, exemplary, practical missionaries, instead of un- doers of what the best professed missionaries can do. Letters of Charles Dickens. JANUARY SIXTEENTH "There's one thing you may be sure of, Pip," said Joe, after some rumination, "namely, that lies is lies. However they come they didn't ought to come, and they come from the father of lies and work round to the same. Don't you tell no more of 'em, Pip." Great Expectations. JANUARY SEVENTEENTH Schools of Industry, schools where the simple knowledge learned from books is made pointedly useful, and immediately applicable to the duties and business of life, directly conducive to order, cleanliness, punctuality, and economy schools where the sublime lessons of the New Testament are made the superstructure to be reared, enduringly, on such foundations; . . . schools on such principles, deep as the lowest depth of society, and leaving none of its dregs untouched, are the only means of re- moving the scandal and the danger that beset us in this nineteenth century of our Lord. Ignorance and Crime. JANUARY EIGHTEENTH "Philosopher, Sir?" "An observer of human nature, Sir," said Mr. Pickwick. "Ah, so am I. Most people are when they've little to do and less to get." Pickwick Papers. JANUARY NINETEENTH I stand upon a sea-shore, where the waves are years. They break and fall, and I may little heed them: but, with every wave the sea is rising, and I know that it will float me on this traveller's voyage at last. The Long Voyage. JANUARY TWENTIETH The first article in his code of morals was, that he must begin in practical humility, with looking well to his feet on Earth, and that he could never mount on wings of words to Heaven. Duty on earth, restitution on earth; these first, as the first steep steps upward. Little Dorrit. JANUARY TWENTY-FIRST "The cheeriest, stoutest-hearted fellow in the world!" "He has a right to be. He has a right to be. A better creature never lived. He reaps what he has sown no more." "It is not all men," said Edward, after a moment's hesitation, "who have the happiness to do that." [6] "More than you imagine," returned Mr. Hare- dale. "We note the harvest more than the seed- time." Barnaby Rudge. JANUARY TWENTY-SECOND "I say," returned Mr. Micawber, quite forgetting himself, and smiling again, "the miserable wretch you behold. My advice is, never do to-morrow what you can do to-day. Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him." "My poor papa's maxim," Mrs. Micawber ob- served. David Copperfield, JANUARY TWENTY-THIRD But over and above the getting through his tasks, he had long had another purpose always present to him, and to which he still held fast. It was, to be a gentle, useful, quiet little fellow, always striv- ing to secure the love and attachment of the rest; and though he was yet often to be seen at his old post on the stairs, or watching the waves and clouds from his solitary window, he was oftener found, too, among the other boys, modestly rendering them some little voluntary service. Dombey and Son. JANUARY TWENTY-FOURTH Altogether, the Old Bailey, at that date, was a choice illustration of the precept, that "Whatever is is right;" an aphorism that would be as final as [7] it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome con- sequence, that nothing that ever was, was wrong. A Tale of Two Cities. JANUARY TWENTY-FIFTH The Reverend Frank Milvey, comforting Sloppy, expounded to him how the best of us were more or less remiss in our turnings at our respective Mangles. Our Mutual Friend. JANUARY TWENTY-SIXTH It has always been in my observation of human nature, that a man who has any good reason to be- lieve in himself never flourishes himself before the faces of other people in order that they may believe in him. David Copperfield. JANUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH Cant as we may, and as we shall to the end of all things, it is very much harder for the poor to be virtuous than it is for the rich. American Notes. JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH I admire machinery as much as any man, and am as thankful to it as any man can be for what it does for us. But it will never be a substitute for the face of a man, with his soul in it, encouraging another man to be brave and true. The Wreck of the Golden Mary. JANUARY TWENTY-NINTH In natures, as in seas, depth answers unto depth. Hard Times. JANUARY THIRTIETH But the windows of the house of Memory, and the windows of the house of Mercy, are not so easily closed as windows of glass and wood. They fly open unexpectedly; they rattle in the night; they must be nailed up. Somebody's Luggage. JANUARY THIRTY-FIRST "Well!" Joe pursued, "somebody must keep the pot a-biling, Pip, or the pot won't bile, don't you know!" Great Expectations. FEBRUARY FEBRUARY FIRST IT is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last. Nicholas Nickleby. FEBRUARY SECOND Whereas, the world would do well to reflect, that injustice is in itself, to every generous and properly constituted mind, an injury, of all others the most insufferable, the most torturing, and the most hard to bear. The Old Curiosity Shop. FEBRUARY THIRD He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart. A Tale of Two Cities. FEBRUARY FOURTH "David, to the young this is a world for action; not for moping and droning in." David Copperfield. [II] FEBRUARY FIFTH "Now we lift our eyes up and look hopefully at the distance! Rick, the world is before you; and it is most probable that as you enter it, so it will receive you. Trust in nothing but in Providence and your own efforts. Never separate the two like the heathen waggoner." Bleak House. FEBRUARY SIXTH Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn. Little Dorrit. FEBRUARY SEVENTH (Charles Dickens born, 1812} Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportu- nity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. David Copperfield. FEBRUARY EIGHTH But in this world there is no stay but the hope of a better, and no reliance but on the mercy and good- ness of God. Through those two harbours of a shipwrecked heart, I fully believe that you will, in time, find a peaceful resting-place even on this careworn earth. Heaven speed the time, and do you try hard to help it on! Letters of Charles Dickens. FEBRUARY NINTH "I tell you, ma'am," said Mr. Witherden, "what I think as an honest man, which, as the poet ob- serves, is the noblest work of God. I agree with the poet in every particular, ma'am. The mountain- ous Alps on the one hand, or a humming-bird on the other, is nothing, in point of workmanship, to an honest man or woman or woman." The Old Curiosity Shop. FEBRUARY TENTH To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart. Master Humphrey's Clock Introducing Barnaby Rudge. FEBRUARY ELEVENTH "She brings you a good fortune when she brings you the poverty she has accepted for your sake and the honest truth's!" Our Mutual Friend. FEBRUARY TWELFTH Besidesbeingable to read and write like a Quarter- master he had always one most excellent idea in his mind. That was Duty. Upon my soul, I don't believe, though I admire learning beyond everything, that he could have got a better idea out of all the books in the world, if he had learnt them every word, and been the cleverest of scholars. Perils of Certain English Prisoners. 14- c [ 13 ] FEBRUARY THIRTEENTH " People mutht be amused. They can't be alwayth a-learning, nor yet they can't be alwayth a-working, they an't made for it. You mutht have uth [players] Thquire. Do the withe thing and the kind thing, too, and make the betht of uth; not the wortht!" Hard Times. FEBRUARY FOURTEENTH "One must love something. Human nature is weak." Somebody's Luggage. FEBRUARY FIFTEENTH Oh, moralists, who treat of happiness and self- respect, innate in every sphere of life, bethink your- selves in looking on the swift descent of men who have lived in their own esteem, that there are scores of thousands breathing now, and breathing thick with painful toil, who in that high respect have never lived at all, or had a chance of life ! Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. FEBRUARY SIXTEENTH Most men will be found to be sufficiently true to themselves to be true to an old idea. It is no proof of an inconstant mind, but exactly the opposite, when the idea will not bear close comparison with the reality, and the contrast is a fatal shock to it. Little Donit. FEBRUARY SEVENTEENTH He handed her down to a coach he had at the door; and if his landlady had not been deaf, she would have heard him muttering as he went back upstairs, when the coach had driven off, that we were creatures of habit, and it was a sorrowful habit to be an old bachelor. Dombey and Son. FEBRUARY EIGHTEENTH "I have had my share of sorrows more than the common lot, perhaps but I have borne them ill. I have broken where I should have bent; and have mused and brooded, when my spirit should have mixed with all God's creation. The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother." Barnaby Rudge. FEBRUARY NINETEENTH "Our whole life, Travellers," said I, "is a story more or less intelligible, generally less; but we shall read it by a clearer light when it is ended." The Seven Poor Travellers. FEBRUARY TWENTIETH It is not possible to know how far the influence of any amiable, honest-hearted duty-doing man flies out into the world; but it is very possible to know how it has touched one's self in going by, and I know right well that any good that intermixed it- self with my apprenticeship came of plain, con- [15] tented Joe, and not of restlessly aspiring, discon- tented me. Great Expectations. FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIRST "Perhaps you brought a canary-bird?" Rosa smiled and shook her head. "If you had he should have been made welcome," said Mr. Grewgious, "and I think he would have been pleased to be hung upon a nail outside and pit himself against our Staple sparrows whose exe- cution must be admitted to be not quite equal to their intention. Which is the case with so many of us!" The Mystery of Edwin Drood. FEBRUARY TWENTY-SECOND He was simply and staunchly true to his duty alike in the large case and in the small. So all true souls ever are. So every true soul ever was, ever is, and ever will be. There is nothing little to the really great in spirit. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. FEBRUARY TWENTY-THIRD Moralize as we will the world goes on. As Ham- let says, Hercules may lay about him with his club in every possible direction but he can't prevent the cats from making a most intolerable row on the roofs of the houses, or the dogs from being shot in the hot weather if they run about the streets un- muzzled. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. [ 16 1 FEBRUARY TWENTY-FOURTH Awake the Present! shall no scene display The tragic passion of the passing day? Is it with Man, as with some meaner things, That out of death his single purpose springs? Can his eventful life no moral teach Until he be, for aye, beyond its reach? Letters of Charles Dickens. Prologue to Mr. Marston's Play, "The Patrician's Daughter." FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIFTH Father Time is not always a hard parent, and though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young, and in full vigour. Barnaby Rudge. FEBRUARY TWENTY-SIXTH Some men change their opinions from necessity, others from expediency, others from inspiration. Sketches by Boz. FEBRUARY TWENTY-SEVENTH " But when society is the name for such hollow ladies and gentlemen, Julia, and when its breeding is professed indifference to everything that can advance or retard mankind, I think that we must have lost ourselves in that same Desert of Sahara, and had better find the way out." David Copperfield. ( 17 ] FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us is a hold, a stay, a comfort in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow. Pickwick Papers. FEBRUARY TWENTY-NINTH Everything gave back, besides, some reflection of the kindly spirit of the brothers. The ware- housemen and porters were such sturdy, jolly fel- lows, that it was a treat to see them. Nicholas Nickleby. [18] MARCH MARCH FIRST BUT windy weather, in spite of its using him so roughly, was, after all, a sort of holyday for Toby. That's the fact. He didn't seem to have to wait so long for a sixpence in the wind as at other times; the having to fight with that boisterous element took off his attention, and quite freshened him up when he was getting hungry and low-spirited. The Chimes. MARCH SECOND "But the ship's a good ship, and the lad's a good lad; and it ain't easy, thank the Lord," the Captain made a little bow, " to break up hearts of oak whether they're in brigs or buzzums." Dombey and Son. MARCH THIRD There is no remorse so deep as that which is un- availing; if we would be spared its tortures, let us remember this in time. Oliver Twist. MARCH FOURTH The largest fidelity to a trust was the life-blood of the man. There are sorts of life-blood that [ 19] course more quickly, more gayly, more attractively; but there is no better sort in circulation. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. MARCH FIFTH I love all times and seasons each in its turn, and am apt, perhaps, to think the present one the best. Master Humphrey's Clock. MARCH SIXTH They asked me to be industrious and faithful and I promised to be so. Our Mutual Friend. MARCH SEVENTH "We were the sons of only a small tradesman in this country, sir; yet our father was as watchful of our good name as if he had been a king." "A precious sight more so, I hope, bearing in mind the general run of that class of crittur," said the captain. A Message from the Sea. MARCH EIGHTH I was very sorry, but there was a higher con- sideration than sense. Love was above all earthly considerations. David Copperfield. MARCH NINTH Men who look on nature and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; [ 20] but the sombre colours are reflected from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and require a clearer vision. Oliver Twist. MARCH TENTH A vast deal of judgment and a great deal of cool- ness are requisite in catching a hat. A man must not be precipitate, or he runs over it: he must not rush into the opposite extreme, or he loses it alto- gether. Pickwick Papers. MARCH ELEVENTH And O what a bright old song it is, that "O 'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round!" Our Mutual Friend. MARCH TWELFTH " I cannot have this din. Now, children, you have played at Parliament very nicely; but Parliament gets tiresome after a little while, and it's time you left off." Holiday Romance. MARCH THIRTEENTH There is one broad sky over all the world, and whether it be blue or cloudy, the same heaven be- yond it. Nicholas Nickleby. [21] MARCH FOURTEENTH Let us go down and help them, for the love of home, and that spirit of liberty which admits of honest service to honest men, and honest work for honest bread, no matter what it be. American Notes. MARCH FIFTEENTH I have more to tell of the Saxons yet, but I stop to say this now, because under the Great Alfred, all the best points of the English-Saxon character were first encouraged, and in him first shown. It has been the greatest character among the nations of the earth. Wherever the descendants of the Saxon race have gone, have sailed, or otherwise made their way, even to the remotest regions of the world, they have been patient, persevering, never to be broken in spirit, never to be turned aside from en- terprises on which they have resolved. Child's History of England. MARCH SIXTEENTH ' Most o' aw, rating 'em as so much Power, and reg'latin' 'em as if they was figures in a soom, or machines: wi'out loves and likens, wi'out memories and inclinations, wi'out souls to weary and souls to hope when aw goes quiet, draggin' on wi' 'em as if they'd nowt of the kind, and when aw goes onquiet, reproachin' 'em for their want o' sitch hu- manly feelins in their dealins wi' yo this will never do' t, sir, till God's work is onmade." Hard Times. \ 22 1 MARCH SEVENTEENTH In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. A Christmas Carol. MARCH EIGHTEENTH "The children that we were are not lost to the great knowledge of our Creator. Those innocent creatures will appear with us before Him, and plead for us. What we were in the best time of our gen- erous youth will arise and go with us too. The purest part of our lives will not desert us at the pass to which all of us here present are gliding. What we were then, will be as much in existence before Him, as what we are now." The Wreck of the Golden Mary. MARCH NINETEENTH And, oh! ye Pharisees of the nineteen hundredth year of Christian Knowledge, who soundingly ap- peal to human nature, see that it be human first. Take heed it has not been transformed, during your slumber and the sleep of generations, into the nature of the Beasts! Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. MARCH TWENTIETH When the Devil goeth about like a roaring lion, he goeth about in a shape by which few but savages and hunters are attracted. But, when he is trimmed, smoothed, and varnished according to the mode, when he is aweary of vice and aweary of virtue, used up as to brimstone and used up as to bliss; [23] then, whether he take to the serving out of red tape or to the kindling of red fire, he is the very Devil. Hard Times. MARCH TWENTY-FIRST Airiness and good spirits are always delightful, and are inseparable from notes of a cheerful trip; but they should sympathize with many things as well as see them in a lively way. It is but a word or a touch which expresses this humanity, but with- out that little embellishment of good-nature there is no such thing as humour. Letters of Charles Dickens. MARCH TWENTY-SECOND The affections are not so easily wounded as the passions, but their hurts are deeper and more last- ing. Barnaby Rudge. MARCH TWENTY-THIRD "It shook me in my habit the habit of nine- tenths of the world of believing that all was right about me, because I was used to it." Dombey and Son. MARCH TWENTY-FOURTH I have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder, and not suc- ceeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to [24] concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed. David Copperfield. MARCH TWENTY-FIFTH Whatever chance is given to a man in a prison must be given to a man in a refuge for distress. Letters of Charles Dickens. MARCH TWENTY-SIXTH "Are you a married man, sir?" inquired Sam. The barber replied that he had not that honour. "I s'pose you mean to be?" said Sam. "Well," replied the barber rubbing his hands smirkingly, "I don't know, I don't think it's very likely." "That's a bad sign," said Sam; "if you'd said you meant to be vun o' these days, I should ha' looked upon you as bein' safe. You're in a wery precarious state." Mr. Welter's Watch. MARCH TWENTY-SEVENTH Mrs. Varden entreated her to remember that one of these days she would, in all probability, have to do violence to her feelings so far as to be married; and that marriage, as she might see every day of her life (and truly she did) was a state requiring great fortitude and forbearance. Barnaby Rudge. MARCH TWENTY-EIGHTH Time IS for his advancement and improvement; for his greater worth, his greater happiness, his better life; his progress onward to that goal within its knowledge and its view, and set there, in the period when Time and He began. The Chimes. MARCH TWENTY-NINTH I think of every little trifle between me and Dora, and feel the truth, that trifles make the sum of life. David Copperfield. MARCH THIRTIETH If there is anything real in the world, it is those amazingly fine feelings and those natural obligations which must subsist between father and son. Barnaby Rudge. MARCH THIRTY-FIRST I most strongly and affectionately impress upon you the priceless value of the New Testament, and the study of that book as the one unfailing guide in life. Deeply respecting it, and bowing down be- fore the character of our Saviour, you cannot go very wrong, and will always preserve at heart a true spirit of veneration and humility. Similarly I im- press upon you the habit of saying a Christian prayer every night and morning. These things have stood by me all my life. Letters of Charles Dickens. [ 26 APRIL FIRST A JOKE 'S a joke; and even practical jests are very capital in their way, if you can only get the other party to see the fun of them. Sketches by Boz. APRIL SECOND "It's a world full of hearts, and a serious world, with all its folly." The Battle of Life. APRIL THIRD How a crust well-earned was sweeter far than a feast inherited. David Copperfidd. APRIL FOURTH I had seen and enjoyed everything that the plate recalled to me [of pottery making], and had beheld with admiration how the rotary motion which keeps this ball of ours in its place in the great scheme, with all its busy mites upon it, was necessary throughout the process, and could only be dispensed with in the fire. A Pottery Story. [ 27 ] APRIL FIFTH They were welcomed heartily, though, for riches or poverty had no influence on Mr. Pickwick. Pickwick Papers. APRIL SIXTH Whatever the defects of American Universities may be, they disseminate no prejudices; rear no bigots; dig up the buried ashes of no old super- stitions; never interpose between the people and their improvement; exclude no man because of his religious opinions; above all, in their whole course of study and instruction, recognize a world, and a broad one too, lying beyond the college walls. American Notes. APRIL SEVENTH I put a New Testament among your books for the very same reasons and with the very same hopes that made me write an easy account of it for you, when you were a little child; because it is the best book that ever was or will be known in the world, and because it teaches you the best lessons by which any human creature who tries to be truthful and faithful to duty can possibly be guided. Letters of Charles Dickens. APRIL EIGHTH Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. [28] APRIL NINTH But it was a very long time before Joe looked five years older, or Dolly either, or the locksmith either, or his wife either: for cheerfulness and content are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of youth- ful looks, depend upon it. Barnaby Rudge. APRIL TENTH You will be sensible of the oddest contrast be- tween the smooth little creature and the rough man who seems to be carved out of hard-grained wood between the delicate hand and the immense thumb and finger that can hardly feel the rigging of thread they mend between the small voice and the gruff growl and yet there is a natural propriety in the companionship: always to be noted in confidence between a child and a person who has any merit of reality and genuineness. Our English Watering-Place. APRIL ELEVENTH But Nature often enshrines gallant and noble hearts in weak bosoms oftenest, God bless her, in female breasts. The Old Curiosity Shop. APRIL TWELFTH And as true charity not only covers a multitude of sins, but includes a multitude of virtues; such as forgiveness, liberal construction, gentleness and mercy to the faults of others, and the remembrance 14. D [ 29 ] of our own imperfections and advantages, he bade us not inquire too closely into the venial errors of the poor, but finding that they were poor, first to relieve, and then endeavour at an advantage to reclaim them. Master Humphrey's Clock. APRIL THIRTEENTH " But I entreat you to bear in mind very seriously and steadily, that if I am to do you any good, it can only be with your own assistance; and that you can only render that efficiently by seeking aid from Heaven." The Mystery of Edwin Drood. APRIL FOURTEENTH I entertain a weak idea that the English people are as hard-worked as any people upon whom the sun shines. I acknowledge to this ridiculous idio- syncrasy, as a reason why I would give them a little more play. Hard Times. APRIL FIFTEENTH Everybody may sometimes be right; "but that's no rule," as the ghost of Giles Scroggins says in the ballad. The Haunted Man. APRIL SIXTEENTH "What's time," says Mrs. Snagsby/'to eternity?" "Very true, my dear," says Mr. Snagsby. "Only [30] when a person lays in victuals for tea, a person does it with a view perhaps more to time. And when a time is named for having tea, it's better to come up to it." Bleak House. APRIL SEVENTEENTH "We never see ourselves never do, and never did and I suppose we never shall." Nicholas Nickleby- APRIL EIGHTEENTH Then we gradually fell to considering how young they were, and how there must be a lapse of several years before this early love could come to anything, and how it could come to happiness only if it were real and lasting, and inspired them with a steady resolution to do their duty to each other, with con- stancy, fortitude, and perseverance: each always for the other's sake. Bleak House. APRIL NINETEENTH A gentleman, not altogether unknown as a dra- matic poet, wrote thus a year or two ago "All the World's a stage, And all the men and women merely players:" and we, tracking out his footsteps at the scarcely- worth-mentioning little distance of a few millions of leagues behind, venture to add, by way of new reading, that he meant a Pantomime, and that we are all actors in the Pantomime of Life. Sketches by Boz. APRIL TWENTIETH "Be poor among 'em, be sick among 'em, grieve among 'em for onny of the monny causes that car- ries grief to the poor man's door, and they will be tender wi' yo, gentle wi' yo, comfortable wi' yo, Chrisen wi' you. Be sure o' that, ma'am. They'd be riven to bits ere ever they 'd be different." Hard Times. APRIL TWENTY-FIRST In the exhaustless catalogue of Heaven's mercies to mankind the power we have of rinding some germs of comfort in the hardest trials must ever occupy the foremost place. Barnaby Rudge. APRIL TWENTY-SECOND Love, however, is very materially assisted by a warm and active imagination: which has a long memory and will thrive for a considerable time, on very slight and sparing food. Thus it is that it often attains its most luxuriant growth in separation and under circumstances of the utmost difficulty. Nicholas Nickleby. APRIL TWENTY-THIRD "He wos wery good to me, he wos!" Bleak House. [32] APRIL TWENTY-FOURTH If we try to do our duty by people we employ by exacting their proper service from them on the one hand, and treating them with all possible con- sistency, gentleness, and consideration on the other, we know that we do right. Letters of Charles Dickens. APRIL TWENTY-FIFTH Whatever is built by man for man's occupation, must, like natural creations, fulfil the intention of its existence, or soon perish. Our Mutual Friend. APRIL TWENTY-SIXTH Nature's own blessings are the proper goods of life. Nicholas Nickleby. APRIL TWENTY-SEVENTH Oh, Mother Nature, give thy children the true poetry of heart that hid itself in this poor Carrier's breast and we can bear to have them talking prose, and leading lives of prose. The Cricket on the Hearth. APRIL TWENTY-EIGHTH " Is it from thee the whisper comes, that this man did his duty as thou didst and as I did, through thy guidance, which has wholly saved me here on earth, and that he did no more?" The Seven Poor [33] APRIL TWENTY-NINTH "There is nothing good," cried her friend, "no, nothing innocent or good, that dies and is forgotten. Let us hold to that faith, or none." The Old Curiosity Shop. APRIL THIRTIETH "But Lor, how many matters are matters of the feeling!" Our Mutual Friend. [34] MAY MAY FIRST BUT what are the deep forests or the thundering waters or the richest landscapes that bounteous nature ever spread to charm the eyes and captivate the senses of man, compared with the recollection of the old scenes of his early youth? Magic scenes indeed; for the fairy thoughts of infancy dressed them in colours brighter than the rainbow, and al- most as fleeting; colours which are the reflection only of the sparkling sunbeams of childhood, and can never be called into existence in the dark and cloudy days of after life! Sketches by Boz. MAY SECOND "And say," added Mr. Swiveller, "say, sir, that I was wafted here on the pinions of concord; that I came to remove with the rake of friendship the seeds of mutual wiolence and heart-burning, and to sow in their place the germs of social harmony." The Old Curiosity Shop. MAY THIRD "Who turns his back upon the fallen and dis- figured of his kind; abandons them as vl! not trace and track with pitying p^es the [351 precipice by which they fell from good grasping in their fall some tufts and shreds of that lost soil, and in clinging to them still when bruised and dying in the gulf below; does wrong to Heaven and man, to time and to eternity." The Chimes. MAY FOURTH Oliver complied, marvelling where the people could be found to read such a great number of books as seemed to be written to make the world wiser, which is still a marvel to more experienced people than Oliver Twist every day of their lives. Oliver Twist. MAY FIFTH "Ah! But like the cat in the fairy-story, good Madame Dor," says Vendale, saluting her cheek, "you were a true woman. And being a true woman, the sympathy of your heart was with true love." No Thoroughfare. MAY SIXTH "When things is very bad," said Trotty; "very bad, indeed, I mean; almost at the worst; then it's 'Toby Veck, Toby Veck, job coming soon, Toby! Toby Veck, Toby Veck, job coming soon, Toby!' That way." "And it comes at last, father," said Meg, with a touch of sadness in her pleasant voice. "Always," answered the unconscious Toby. "Never fails." The Chimes. [36] MAY SEVENTH Through determined occupation and action, lies the way. Be sure of it. Letters of Charles Dickens. MAY EIGHTH Life must be held sacred among us in more ways than one sacred, not merely from the murderous weapon, or the subtle poison, or the cruel blow, but sacred from preventable diseases, distortions, and pains. The Begging-Letter Writer. MAY NINTH He only learned that the more he himself knew, in his little limited human way, the better he could distantly imagine what Omniscience might know. Our Mutual Friend. MAY TENTH Pride is one of the seven deadly sins; but it can- not be the pride of a mother in her children, for that is a compound of two cardinal virtues faith and hope. Nicholas Nickleby. MAY ELEVENTH "O man, man, man!" I says, and I went on my knees beside the bed, "if your heart is rent asunder and you are truly penitent for what you did, Our Saviour will have mercy on you yet!" Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy. [373 MAY TWELFTH "May I tell you why it seems to me a good thing for us to remember wrong that has been done to us?" "Yes." "That we may forgive it." Tiie Haunted Man. MAY THIRTEENTH Heart of London, there is a moral in thy every stroke! As I look on at thy indomitable working, which neither death, nor press of life, nor grief, nor gladness out of doors will influence one jot, I seem to hear a voice within thee which sinks into my heart, bidding me, as I elbow my way among the crowd, have some thought for the meanest wretch that passes, and, being a man, to turn away with scorn and pride from none that bear the human shape. Master Humphrey's Clock Introducing Barnaby Rudge. MAY FOURTEENTH The incompetent servant, by whomsoever em- ployed, is always against his employer. Even those borngovernors,noble and right honourable creatures, who have been the most imbecile in high places, have uniformly shown themselves the most opposed (sometimes in belying distrust, sometimes in vapid insolence) to their employer. What is in such wise true of the public master and servant, is equally true of the private master and servant all the world over. Our Mutual Friend. [38] MAY FIFTEENTH You have no idea what it is to have anybody wonderfully fond of you, unless you have been got down and rolled upon by the lonely feelings that I have mentioned as having once got the better of me. Doctor Marigold. MAY SIXTEENTH "We must meet reverses boldly, and not suffer them to frighten us, my dear. We must learn to act the play out. We must live misfortune down, Trot!" David Copper field. MAY SEVENTEENTH "Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which,if persevered in,they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change." A Christmas Carol. MAY EIGHTEENTH "Duty, Tattycoram. Begin it early, and do it well; and there is no antecedent to it, in any origin or station, that will tell against us with the Al- mighty, or with ourselves." Little Dorrit. MAY NINETEENTH "My other piece of advice, Copperfield," said Mr. Micawber, "you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, [39] result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." David Copperfield. MAY TWENTIETH There are chords in the human heart strange, varying strings which are only struck by accident; which will remain mute or senseless to appeals the most passionate and earnest, and respond at last to the slightest casual touch. The Old Curiosity Shop. MAY TWENTY-FIRST What the poor are to the poor is little known, excepting to themselves and GOD. Bleak House. MAY TWENTY-SECOND " Some architects are clever at making foundations, and some architects are clever at building on 'em when they're made." Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewtt. MAY TWENTY-THIRD A certain leanness falls upon houses not sufficiently imbued with life (as if they were nourished upon it). Our Mutual Friend. MAY TWENTY-FOURTH Not one living creature on the boat with any sense about him, but had felt the good influence of that [40] brave man in one way or another. Not one but had heard him, over and over again, give the credit to others which was due only to himself; praising this man for patience, and thanking that man for help when the patience and the help had really and truly, as to the best part of both, come only from him. The Wreck of the Golden Mary. MAY TWENTY-FIFTH The citizen on the other hand preserved the reso- lute bearing of one who was not to be frowned down or daunted, and who cared very little for any no- bility but that of worth and manhood. Master Humphrey's Clock. MAY TWENTY-SIXTH "Lookee here, Pip, at what is said to you by a true friend. Which this to you the true friend say. If you can't get to the uncommon by going straight, you'll never do it through going crooked." Great Expectations. MAY TWENTY-SEVENTH "No, sir, I do not forget. To lead a life as monot- onous as mine has been during many years, is not the way to forget. To lead a life of self-correction is not the way to forget. To be sensible of having (as we all have, every one of us, all the children of Adam!) offences to expiate and peace to make, does not justify the desire to forget. Therefore I have long dismissed it, and I neither forget nor wish to forget." Little Dorrit. [41] MAY TWENTY-EIGHTH I represented to him that whoever thoroughly discharged his duty must do well. Two Ghost Stories. MAY TWENTY-NINTH "The old girl," says Mr. Bagnet in reply, "is a thoroughly fine woman. Consequently she is like a thoroughly fine day. Gets finer as she gets on. I never saw the old girl's equal. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained!" Bleak House. MAY THIRTIETH "And do you think," said the school-master, marking the glance she had thrown around, "that an unvisited grave, a withered tree, a faded flower or two, are tokens of forgetfulness or cold neglect? Do you think there are no deeds, far away from here, in which these dead may be best remembered? Nell, Nell, there may be people busy in the world, at this instant, in whose good actions and good thoughts these very graves neglected as they look to us are the chief instruments." The Old Curiosity Shop. MAY THIRTY-FIRST "I mean a man whose hopes and aims may some- times lie (as most men's sometimes do, I daresay) above the ordinary level, but to whom the ordinary level will be high enough after all, if it should prove to be a way of usefulness and good service leading [42] to no other. All generous spirits are ambitious, I suppose; but the ambition that calmly trusts it- self to such a road, instead of spasmodically trying to fly over it, is of the kind I care for." Bleak House. [43] JUNE JUNE FIRST NO child could have surpassed Captain Cuttle in experience of everything but wind and weather; in simplicity, credulity, and generous trust- fulness. Faith, hope, and charity, shared his whole nature among them. An odd sort of romance, per- fectly unimaginative, yet perfectly unreal, and subject to no considerations of worldly prudence or practica- bility, was the only partner they had in his character. Dombey and Son. JUNE SECOND "Guppy," says Mr. Jobling, "I will not deny it. I was on the wrong side of the post. But I trusted to things coming round." That very popular trust in flat things coming round! Not in their being beaten round, or worked round, but in their "coming" round! As though a lunatic should trust in the world's "coming" triangular! Bleak House. JUNE THIRD "He saved me from ruin, made me a human creature, won me from infamy and shame. O, God, forever bless him! As He will, He will!" The Seven Poor Travellers. 14- K I 45 ] JUNE FOURTH Even the daintier gentlemen and ladies who had no idea of his secret, and who would have been startled out of more wits than they had, by the monstrous impropriety of their proposing to them, " Come and see what I see! " confessed his attraction. Where he was something real was. Little Dorrit. JUNE FIFTH We owed so much to Herbert's ever-cheerful industry and readiness, that I often wondered how I had conceived that old idea of his inaptitude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection that, perhaps, the inaptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me. Great Expectations. JUNE SIXTH Exactly in the ratio as they worked long and monotonously, the craving grew within them for some physical relief some relaxation, encouraging good humour and good spirits, and giving them a vent. Hard Times. JUNE SEVENTH Well! she was a cheerful little thing, and had a quaint, bright quietness about her that was infinitely pleasant. Surely she was the best sauce for chops ever invented. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. [46] JUNE EIGHTH "Industry," said Mr. Chester, "is the soul of business, and the keystone of prosperity." Barnaby Rudge. JUNE NINTH (Charles Dickens died, 1870) To be numbered among the household gods of one's distant countrymen, and associated with their homes and quiet pleasures; to be told that in each nook and corner of the world's great mass there lives one well-wisher who holds communion with one in the spirit, is a worthy fame indeed, and one which I would not barter for a mine of wealth. Letters of Charles Dickens. JUNE TENTH "We thought that, perhaps," said I hesitating, "it is right to begin with the obligations of home, sir; and that, perhaps, while those are overlooked and neglected, no other duties can possibly be sub- stituted for them." Bleak House. JUNE ELEVENTH The memories which peaceful country scenes call up, are not of this world, or of its thoughts or hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us to weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved, may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old enmity and hatred; but, beneath all this there lingers in the least reflective mind a vague and halt- formed consciousness of having held such feelings [47] long before in some remote and distant time, which calls up solemn thoughts of distant times to come, and bends down pride and worldliness beneath it. Oliver Twist. JUNE TWELFTH "Mr. Micawber has his faults. I do not deny that he is improvident. I do not deny that he has kept me in the dark as to his resources and his liabilities, both," she went on, looking at the wall; "but I never will desert Mr. Micawber!" David Copperfield. JUNE THIRTEENTH "Perhaps you are a little hasty in your judgment," he said. "Our judgments I am supposing a general case " "Of course," said Doyce. "Are so liable to be influenced by many con- siderations, which almost without our knowing it, are unfair, that it is necessary to keep a guard upon them." Little Dorrit. JUNE FOURTEENTH What I had to do was to turn the painful dis- cipline of my younger days to account, by going to work with a resolute and steady heart. What I had to do, was, to take my woodman's axe in my hand, and clear my way through the forest of diffi- culty, by cutting down the trees. . . . And I went on at a mighty rate, as if it could be done by walking. David Copptrfidd. [48] JUNE FIFTEENTH But memory was given us for a better purpose than this, and mine is not a torment, but a source of pleasure. To muse upon the gaiety and youth I have known, suggests to me glad scenes of harm- less mirth that may be passing now. Master Humphrey's Clock Midnight Reveries. JUNE SIXTEENTH And as mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyze the manner of its composition, so sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble shining of this earth of ours every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it. A Tale of Two Cities. JUNE SEVENTEENTH His was not a lazy trustfulness that hoped and did no more. He had been a man of sturdy action all his life, and he knew that in all things wherein he wanted help he must do his own part faithfully, and help himself. David Copperfield. JUNE EIGHTEENTH "Hear him!" cried the Captain; "Good morality! Wal'r my lad. Train up a fig-tree in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the shade on it. Overhaul the Well," said the Captain, on second thoughts, "I an't quite certain where that's to be found; but when found, make a note of." Dombey and Son. [49] JUNE NINETEENTH "My good fellow," retorted Mr. Boffin, "you have my word; and how you can have that, without my honour too, I don't know. I 've sorted a lot of dust in my time, but I never knew the two things go in separate heaps." Our Mutual Friend. JUNE TWENTIETH Harriet complied and read read the eternal book for all the weary and the heavy-laden; . . . read the ministry of Him, who through the round of human life, and all its hopes and griefs, from birth to death, from infancy to age, had sweet com- passion for, and interest in, its every scene and stage, its every suffering and sorrow. Donibey and Son. JUNE TWENTY-FIRST "You do right, child," said Miss Abbey, "to speak well of those who deserve well of you." Our Mutual Friend. JUNE TWENTY-SECOND So cheerful of spirit and guiltless of affectation as true practical Christianity ever is I read more of the New Testament in the fresh, frank face going up the village beside me, in five minutes, than I have read in anathematizing discourses (albeit put to press with enormous flourishing of trumpets), in all my life. I heard more of the Sacred Book in the cordial voice that had nothing to say about [50] its owner, than in all the would-be celestial pairs of bellows that have ever blown conceit at me. The Uncommercial Traveller. JUNE TWENTY-THIRD Power (unless it be the power of intellect or virtue) has ever the greatest attraction for the lowest natures. Our Mutual Friend. JUNE TWENTY-FOURTH In London, he had expected neither to walk on pavements of gold, nor to lie on beds of roses; if he had had any such exalted expectation, he would not have prospered. He had expected labour, and he found it, and he did it, and made the best of it. In this, his prosperity consisted. A Tale of Two Cities. JUNE TWENTY-FIFTH For years and years, he had never once crossed that threshold at his own slow pace, but with a footfall counterfeited for her ear; and never had he, when his heart was heaviest, forgotten the light tread that was to render hers so cheerful and cour- ageous! The Cricket on the Hearth. JUNE TWENTY-SIXTH "Don't speak lightly of a true heart, which is all your own, Marion," cried her sister, "even in jest." The Battle of Life. [Si] JUNE TWENTY-SEVENTH Of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves, some good is born, some gentler nature comes. In the destroyer's steps there spring up bright creations that defy his power, and his dark path becomes a way of light to Heaven. The Old Curiosity Shop. JUNE TWENTY-EIGHTH "And if it's proud to have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts," Miss Jenny struck in, flushed, "she is proud. And if it's not, she is NOT." Our Mutual Friend. JUNE TWENTY-NINTH It pleased me, that thought did; and as I never was a man to let a thought sleep (you must wake up all the whole family of thoughts you've got and burn their nightcaps, or you won't do in the Cheap Jack line), I set to work at it. Doctor Marigold. JUNE THIRTIETH "Let us be contented, and we do not want and need not care to have it [gold], though it lay shining at our feet." Barnaby Ritdge. [52] JULY JULY FIRST " / ~T*HE process of digestion, as I have been in- JL formed by anatomical friends, is one of the most wonderful works of nature. I do not know how it may be with others, but it is a great satisfaction to me to know, when regaling on my humble fare, that I am putting in motion the most beautiful machinery with which we have any acquaintance. I really feel at such times as if I was doing a public service. When I have wound myself up, if I may employ such a term," said Mr. Pecksniff with exquisite tenderness, "and know that I am Going, I feel that in the lesson afforded by the works within me, I am a Benefactor to my Kind!" Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. JULY SECOND "We count by changes and events within us. Not by years." The Battle of Life. JULY THIRD It 's of no use moving if you don't know what your move is. You had better by far keep still. Our Mutual Friend. [53] JULY FOURTH In love of home the love of country has its rise. The Old Curiosity Shop. JULY FIFTH Goswell-street was at his feet, Goswell-street was at his right hand as far as the eye could reach, Goswell-street extended on his left; and the opposite side of Goswell-street was over the way. "Such," thought Mr. Pickwick, "are the narrow views of those philosophers who, content with examining the things that lie before them, look not to the truths which are hidden beyond." Pkkwick Papers. JULY SIXTH "Daybreak had come, and the sun was rising, when she said to me how kind and considerate Mr. Copperfield had always been to her, and how he had borne with her when she doubted herself, and that a loving heart was better and stronger than wisdom, and that he was a happy man in hers." David Copperfield. JULY SEVENTH But Augustus George is a production of Nature (I cannot think otherwise), and I claim that he should be treated with some remote reference to Nature. "Births, Mrs. Meek, of a Son." JULY EIGHTH "Why, then," replied the other, "the good in this state of existence preponderates over the bad, let [54] miscalled philosophers tell us what they will. If our affections be tried, our affections are our con- solation and comfort; and memory, however sad, is the best and purest link between this world and a better." Nicholas Nickleby. JULY NINTH "Better be called ever so far out of your name, if it's done in real liking, than have it made ever so much of, and not cared about!" The Haunted Man. JULY TENTH "You gave it to yourself: you gained it for your- self. I could have done you no harm if you had done yourself none." Great Expectations. JULY ELEVENTH For howsoever bad the devil can be in fustian or smock-frock (and he can be very bad in both) he is a more designing, callous, and intolerable devil when he sticks a pin in his shirt front, calls himself a gentleman, backs a card or colour, plays a game or so of billiards, and knows a little about bills and promissory notes, than in any other form he wears. Bleak House. JULY TWELFTH "Forgotten! Oh, if the good deeds of human creatures could be traced to their source, how beauti- [5Sl ful would even death appear; for how much charity, mercy, and purified affection, would be seen to have their growth in dusty graves!" The Old Curiosity Shop. JULY THIRTEENTH "I would if I could," said he of the good-tempered face; "for I hold that in this, as in all other cases where people who are strangers to each other are thrown unexpectedly together, they should en- deavour to render themselves as pleasant, for the joint sake of the little community, as possible." Nicholas Nickleby. JULY FOURTEENTH Let us give all we can ; let us do more than ever. But let us give and do with a high purpose, not to endow the scum of the earth, to its own greater corruption, with the offals of our duty. The Begging-Letter Writer. JULY FIFTEENTH So it was he went on doing from day to day, in cheerful, painstaking, merry spirit; and saw through the sanguine complexion of Uncle Sol and Captain Cuttle; and yet entertained a thousand indistinct and visionary fancies of his own, to which theirs were work-a-day probabilities. Dombey and Son. JULY SIXTEENTH "But gentlemen, gentlemen, dealing with other men like me, begin at the right end. Give us, in [56] mercy, better homes when we 're a-lying in our cradles; give us kinder laws to bring us back when we're a-going wrong." The Chimes. JULY SEVENTEENTH But he had as most men who grow up to be great and good are generally found to have had an ex- cellent mother. Child's History of England. JULY EIGHTEENTH "He was punctual and diligent; he did what he had to do, sir," said Mrs. Blinder, unconsciously fixing Mr. Skimpole with her eye; "and it's some- thing in this world even to do that." Bleak House. JULY NINETEENTH Never to put one hand to anything on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect de- preciation of my work, whatever it was, I find, now, to have been my golden rules. David Copperfield. JULY TWENTIETH But I figure to myself (subject as before to Mr. Edwin's correction) that there can be no coolness, no lassitude, no doubt, no indifference, no half-fire and half-smoke state of mind in a real lover. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. [57] JULY TWENTY-FIRST Never fear, good people of an anxious turn of mind, that Art will consign Nature to oblivion. Set anywhere, side by side, the work of God and the work of man; and the former, even though it be a troop of Hands [workmen] of very small account, will gain in dignity from the comparison. Hard Times. JULY TWENTY-SECOND When I speak of home I speak of a place where in default of a better those I love are gathered together; and if that place were a gypsy's tent, or a barn, I should call it by the same good name not- withstanding. Nicholas Nickleby. JULY TWENTY-THIRD And the benevolent clergyman looked pleasantly on; for the happy faces which surrounded the table made the good old man feel happy too; and though the merriment was rather boisterous, still it came from the heart and not from the lips: and this is the right sort of merriment, after all. Pickurick Papers. JULY TWENTY-FOURTH If Temperance Societies could suggest an antidote against hunger and distress, or establish dispensaries for the gratuitous distribution of bottles of Lethe- water, gin-palaces would be numbered among the [58] things that were. Until then, their decrease may be despaired of. Sketches by Boz. JULY TWENTY-FIFTH That every man who seeks heaven must be born again in the good thoughts of his Maker, I sincerely believe. Letters of Charles Dickens. JULY TWENTY-SIXTH Oh! if, when we oppress and grind our fellow- creatures, we bestowed but one thought on the dark evidences of human error, which, like dense and heavy clouds are rising slowly, it is true, but not less surely to heaven, to pour their after vengeance on our heads if we heard but one instant in imagina- tion the deep testimony of dead men's voices, which no power can stifle and no pride can shut out, where would be the injury and injustice, the suffering, misery, cruelty, and wrong, that each day's life brings with it! , Oliver Twist. JULY TWENTY-SEVENTH As no man of large experience of humanity, however quietly carried it may be, can fail to be invested with an interest peculiar to the possession of such knowledge, Physician was an attractive man. Little Dorrit. JULY TWENTY-EIGHTH "A person is never known till a person is proved." Bleak House. [59] JULY TWENTY-NINTH Now, "coming out," either in acting, or singing or society, or facetiousness, or anything else, is all very well, and remarkably pleasant to the individual principally concerned, if he or she can but manage to come out with a burst, and being out, to keep out and not go in again. Sketches by Boz. JULY THIRTIETH O, what a thing it is in a time of danger and the presence of death, the shining of a face upon a face. The Wreck of the Golden Mary. JULY THIRTY-FIRST "Hope, you see, Wal'r," said the Captain, sagely, ' ' Hope. It 's that as animates you. Hope is a buoy, for which you overhaul your Little Warbler, senti- mental diwision, but Lord, my lad, like any other buoy, it only floats; it can't be steered nowhere." Dombey and Son. [60] AUGUST AUGUST FIRST " A /T OPING is not the way to grow younger, 1V1 Major." Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings. AUGUST SECOND Mr. Watkins Tottle bowed stiffly, and Mr. Gabriel Parsons led the way to the house. He was a rich sugar-baker, and mistook rudeness for honesty, and abrupt bluntness for an open and candid manner; many besides Gabriel mistake bluntness for sincerity. Sketches by Boz. AUGUST THIRD "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity , mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business." A Christmas Carol. AUGUST FOURTH "I am not industrious myself, gents both," said the head, "but I know how to appreciate that quality in others. I wish I may turn grey and ugly, if it isn't, in my opinion, next to genius, one of the very charmingest qualities of the human mind." Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. 14. F [ 6l ] AUGUST FIFTH I often thought of the resolution I had made on my birthday, to try to be industrious, contented, and true-hearted, and to do some good to some one, and win some love if I could. Bleak House. AUGUST SIXTH "Nothing!" ejaculated the captain. "Any fool or faint heart can do that, and nothing can come of nothing which was pretended to be found out, I believe, by one of them Latin critters," said the captain with the deepest disdain ; " as if Adam had n't found it out, afore ever he so much as named the beasts!" A Message from the Sea. AUGUST SEVENTH "But recollect from this time that all good things perverted to evil purposes, are worse than those that are naturally bad." Barnaby Rudge. AUGUST EIGHTH " But, if any fraud or treachery is practising against him, I hope that simple love and truth will be stronger, in the end. I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world." David Copperfietd. [62] AUGUST NINTH "I apprehend that there was some tincture of philosophy in her words, and in the prompt action with which she followed them. That action was to emerge from her unnatural solitude, and look abroad for wholesome sympathy, to bestow and to receive." Tom Tiddler's Ground. AUGUST TENTH The sands are the children's great resort. They cluster there, like ants: so busy burying their partic- ular friends, and making castles with infinite labour which the next tide overthrows, that it is curious to consider how their play, to the music of the sea, foreshadows the realities of their after lives. Our English Watering-Place. AUGUST ELEVENTH His manner was as unaffected as theirs, and his demeanour full of that heartiness which, to most people who have anything generous in their compo- sition, is peculiarly prepossessing. Nicholas Nickleby. AUGUST TWELFTH "I know that we must trust and hope, and neither doubt ourselves, nor doubt the good in one another." The Chimes. AUGUST THIRTEENTH The proverb says, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." Well, I don't know about that. I rather think you may, if you begin early in life. David Copperfield. [63] AUGUST FOURTEENTH But the great serene mirror of the river seemed as if it might have reproduced all it had ever re- flected between those placid banks, and brought nothing to the light save what was peaceful, pastoral, and blooming. Our Mutual Friend. AUGUST FIFTEENTH Being that rare sort of old girl that she receives Good to her arms without a hint that it might be Better; and catches light from any little spot of darkness near her. Bleak House. AUGUST SIXTEENTH "Repining is of no use, ma'am," said Ralph. "Of all fruitless errands, sending a tear to look after a day that is gone, is the most fruitless." Nicholas Nickleby. AUGUST SEVENTEENTH "That's right, Uncle!" cried Walter, merrily, and clapping him half a dozen times more upon the shoulder. "You cheer up me! I'll cheer up you! We'll be as gay as larks to-morrow morning, Uncle, and we'll fly as high! As to my anticipations, they are singing out of sight now." Dombey and Son. AUGUST EIGHTEENTH Oh, woman, God beloved in old Jerusalem! The best among us need deal lightly with thy faults, [64] if only for the punishment thy nature will endure in bearing heavy evidence against us on the Day of Judgment! Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. AUGUST NINETEENTH But we must not think of old times as sad times, or regard them as anything but the fathers and mothers of the present. We must all climb steadily up the mountain after the talking bird, the singing tree, and the yellow water, and must all bear in mind that the previous climbers who were scared into looking back got turned into black stone. Letters of Charles Dickens. AUGUST TWENTIETH There is an error in your calculations. I know what that is. It affects the whole machine, and failure is the consequence. You will profit by the failure, and will avoid it another time. Little Dorrit. AUGUST TWENTY-FIRST But, to us, it is not the least pleasant feature of our French watering place that a long and constant fusion of the two great nations there, has taught each to like the other, and to learn from the other, and to rise superior to the absurd prejudices that have lingered among the weak and ignorant in both countries equally. Our French Watering-Place. [6 5 ] AUGUST TWENTY-SECOND "What are we," said Mr. Pecksniff, "but coaches? Some of us are slow coaches " "Goodness, Pa!" cried Charity. "Some of us, I say," resumed her parent, with increased emphasis, "are slow coaches; some of us are fast coaches. Our passions are the horses and rampant animals, too!" "Really, Pa," cried both the daughters at once. "How very unpleasant." Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. AUGUST TWENTY-THIRD There is a soothing influence in the sight of the earth and the sky, which God put into them for our relief when He made the world in which we are all to suffer, and strive, and die. Letters of Charles Dickens. AUGUST TWENTY-FOURTH I so abhor, and from my soul detest that bad spirit, no matter by what class or sect it may be enter- tained, which would strip life of its healthful graces, rob youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck from maturity and age their pleasant ornaments, and make existence but a narrow path toward the grave, that in stiff-necked, solemn-visaged piety I recognize the worst among the enemies of Heaven and Earth, who turn the water at the marriage feasts of this poor world, not into wine but gall. American Notes. [66] AUGUST TWENTY-FIFTH "The time will come, my boy," pursues the trooper, "when this hair of your mother's will be grey, and this forehead all crossed and re-crossed with wrinkles and a fine old lady she'll be then. Take care, while you are young, that you can think in those days 'I never whitened a hair of her dear head, I never marked a sorrowful line in her face ! ' For all the many things that you can think of when you are a man, you had better have that by you, Woolwich!" Bleak House. AUGUST TWENTY-SIXTH "Perhaps it would be better only to consider whether it is right to do this; and, if it is, to do it." David Copperfield. AUGUST TWENTY-SEVENTH Oh! if those who rule the destinies of nations would but remember this if they would but think how hard it is for the very poor to have engendered in their hearts that love of home from which all domestic virtues spring when they live in dense and squalid masses where social decency is lost, or rather never found, if they would but turn aside from the wide thoroughfares and great houses, and strive to improve the wretched dwellings in by-ways where only Poverty may walk, many low roofs would point more truly to the sky than the loftiest steeple that now rears proudly up from the midst [67] of guilt, and crime, and horrible disease, to mock them by its contrast. The Old Curiosity Shop. AUGUST TWENTY-EIGHTH The stranger in the land who looks into ten thou- sand faces for some answering look and never finds it, is in cheering society as compared with him who passes ten averted faces daily, that were once the countenances of friends. Hard Times. AUGUST TWENTY-NINTH Recollections of the past and visions of the present come to bear me company; the meanest man to whom I have ever given alms appears to add his mite of peace and comfort to my stock; and when- ever the fire within me shall grow cold, to light my path upon this earth no more, I pray that it may be at such an hour as this, and when I love the world as well as I do now. Master Humphrey's Clock Midnight Reveries. AUGUST THIRTIETH Ye who have eyes and see not and have ears and hear not; ye who are as the hypocrites of sad coun- tenances, and disfigure your faces that ye may seem unto men to fast, learn healthy cheerfulness and mild contentment, from the deaf and dumb and blind! American Notes. [68] AUGUST THIRTY-FIRST We wish it could have the effect of reminding the Tulrumbles of another sphere, that puffed-up conceit is not dignity, and that snarling at the little pleasures they were once glad to enjoy, because they would rather forget the times when they were of lower station, renders them objects of contempt and ridicule. Sketches by Boz. [6 9 ] SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER FIRST BUT we know there's good in all of us, if we only knew where it was in some of us. Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy. SEPTEMBER SECOND The poor you will always have with you. Culti- vate in them, while there is yet time, the utmost graces of the fancies and affections, to adorn their lives, so much in need of ornament; or, in the day of your triumph, when romance is utterly driven out of their souls, and they and a bare existence stand face to face, Reality will take a wolfish turn and make an end of you. Hard Times. SEPTEMBER THIRD "I am quite a serious little thing now, and not teasing you. Let each of us forbear, this one time, on our own account, and on the other's!" The Mystery of Edwin Diood. SEPTEMBER FOURTH . . . seeing everything but the horses and the race. . . . The child, sitting down with the old man, close behind it, had been thinking how strange it was that horses who were such fine, honest creatures should seem to make vagabonds of all the men they drew about them. The Old Curiosity Shop. SEPTEMBER FIFTH "The combatants are very eager and very bitter in that same battle of Life." "I believe, Mr. Snitchey," said Alfred, "there are quiet victories and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acts of heroism in it even in many of its apparent lightnesses and contradictions not the less difficult to achieve, because they have no earthly chronicle or audience done every day in nooks and corners, and in little households, and in men's and women's hearts any one of which might reconcile the sternest man to such a world, and fill him with belief and hope in it, though two-fourths of its people were at war, and another fourth at law; and that's a bold word." The Battle of Life. SEPTEMBER SIXTH "Now, it wasn't," cried Bob, "for the sake of anything he might be able to do for us, so much as for his kind way, that this was quite delightful." A Christmas Carol. SEPTEMBER SEVENTH "Still in the most checkered life I firmly think there are so many little rays of sunshine to look back upon, that I do not believe any mortal (unless [72] he had put himself without the pale of hope) would deliberately drain a goblet of the waters of Lethe, if he had it in his power." Nicholas Nickleby. SEPTEMBER EIGHTH Mr. the Englishman was not particularly strong in the French language as a means of oral com- munication, though he read it very well. It is with languages as with people, when you only know them by sight, you are apt to mistake them; you must be on speaking terms before you can be said to have established an acquaintance. Somebody's Luggage. SEPTEMBER NINTH "Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means. Those that cannot are bad; and may be counted so at once, and left alone." Barnaby Rudge. SEPTEMBER TENTH "Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that. If I was very ragged and very jolly, then I should begin to feel that I had gained a point." Life and Adventures of Martin Chuszlewit. [73] SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH It is possible, however, that my favourable impres- sion of him may have been greatly influenced and strengthened, firstly, by his impressing upon his hearers that the true observance of religion was not inconsistent with a cheerful deportment and an exact discharge of the duties of their station, which, indeed, it scrupulously required of them; and secondly by his cautioning them not to set up any monopoly in Paradise and its mercies. American Notes. SEPTEMBER TWELFTH I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard-working qualities, and hope to gain its end. David Copper field. SEPTEMBER THIRTEENTH "He must not make a plaything of a treasure. Woe betide him if he does! Let him take that well to heart," said Mr. Grewgious. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. SEPTEMBER FOURTEENTH "Treachery don't come natural to beaming youth; but trust and pity, love and constancy they do, thank God!" Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy. [74] SEPTEMBER FIFTEENTH Such is hope, Heaven's own gift to struggling mortals; pervading like some subtle essence from the skies, all things both good and bad; as universal as death and more infectious than disease! Nicholas Nickleby. SEPTEMBER SIXTEENTH "Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one's life's opportunities misused!" A Christmas Carol. SEPTEMBER SEVENTEENTH "There is little wisdom in knowing that every man must be up and doing, and that all mankind are made dependent upon one another." Tom Tiddler's Ground. SEPTEMBER EIGHTEENTH My sister's bringing up had made me sensitive. In the little world in which children have their ex- istence, whosoever brings them up, I am convinced there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can be exposed to; but the child is small, and its world is small, and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high, according to scale, as a big-boned Irish hunter. Great Expectations. I 751 SEPTEMBER NINETEENTH Awake the Present! what the past has sown Be in its harvest garner'd, reap'd, and grown! Letters of Charles Dickens. Prologue to Mr. Marston's Play, " The Patrician's Daughter." SEPTEMBER TWENTIETH "Have I yet to learn that the hardest and best- borne trials are those which are never chronicled in any earthly record, and are suffered every day!" The Old Curiosity Shop. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIRST "All you've got to do," said the Captain, with the solemnity of a man who was delivering himself of one of the most precious practical tenets ever discovered by human wisdom, "is to lay your head well to the wind, and we'll fight through it!" Dombey and Son. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SECOND There are times, when, the elements being in un- usual commotion, those who are bent on daring en- terprises, or agitated by great thoughts, whether of good or evil, feel a mysterious sympathy with the tumult of nature, and are roused into correspond- ing violence. In the midst of thunder, lightning, and storm, many tremendous deeds have been com- mitted; men, self-possessed before, have given a sudden loose to passions they could no longer con- trol. The demons of wrath and despair have striven to emulate those who ride the whirlwind and direct [76] the storm; and man, lashed into madness with the roaring winds and boiling waters, has become for the time as wild and merciless as the elements them- selves. Barnaby Radge. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-THIRD "We all change, but that's with Time; Time does his work honestly, and I don't mind him. A fig for Time, sir. Use him well and he's a hearty fel- low, and scorns to have you at a disadvantage." Barnaby Rudge. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH And let us not remember Italy the less regard- fully, because in every fragment of her fallen temples, and every stone of her deserted palaces and prisons, she helps to inculcate the lesson that the wheel of Time is rolling for an end, and that the world is, in all great essentials, better, gentler, more forbearing, and more hopeful as it rolls. Pictures from Italy. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH "I think," said my Guardian, thoughtfully re- garding her, "I think it must be somewhere written that the virtues of the mothers shall, occasionally, be visited on the children, as well as the sins of the fathers." Bleak House. 14- o [ 77 1 SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH But in respect of the large Christianity of his general tone; of his renunciation of all priestly authority; of his earnest and reiterated assurance to the people that the commonest among them could work out their own salvation if they would, by simply, lovingly, and dutifully following Our Saviour, and that they needed the mediation of no erring man; in these particulars, this gentleman deserved all praise. The Uncommercial Traveller. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH Oh, ermined judge, whose duty to society is now to doom the ragged criminal to punishment and death, hadst thou never, Man, a duty to discharge in barring up the hundred open gates that wooed him to the felon's dock, and throwing but ajar the portals to a decent life? Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. SEPTEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH So easy it is, in any degree of life (as the world very often finds it), to take those cheerful natures that never assert their merit, at their own modest valuation; and to conceive a flippant liking of people for their outward oddities and eccentricities, whose innate worth, if we would look so far, might make us blush in the comparison! The Battle of Life. [78] SEPTEMBER TWENTY-NINTH "No," replied the Doctor; "of course not! Bless the bright eyes of your sex ! They never see, whether for good or bad, more than one side of any question and that is, invariably, the one that first presents itself to them." Oliver Twist. SEPTEMBER THIRTIETH In the constant effort not to be betrayed into a new phase of the besetting sin of his experience, the pursuit of selfish objects by low and small means, and to hold instead to some high principle of honour and generosity, there might have been a little merit. Little Dorrit. l79l OCTOBER OCTOBER FIRST IT is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature, that when the heart is touched and softened by some tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. Nicholas Nickleby. OCTOBER SECOND Friendless I can never be, for all mankind are my kindred, and I am on ill terms with no one member of my great family. Master Humphrey's Clock. OCTOBER THIRD While you teach in your walk of life the lessons of tenderness you have learnt in sorrow, trust me that in mine I will pursue cruelty and oppression, the enemies of all God's creatures of all codes and creeds, so long as I have the energy of thought and the power of giving it utterance. Letters of Charles Dickens. OCTOBER FOURTH "I hazard the guess that the true lover's mind is completely permeated by the beloved object of his [81 1 affections. I hazard the guess that her dear name is precious to him, cannot be heard or repeated with- out emotion, and is preserved sacred. If he has any distinguishing appellation of fondness for her, it is reserved for her and is not for common ears. A name that it would be a privilege to call her by, being alone with her own bright self, it would be a liberty, a coldness, an insensibility, almost a breach of good faith to flaunt elsewhere." The Mystery of Edwin Drood. OCTOBER FIFTH It is the drifting icebergs, drifting with any cur- rent anywhere, that wreck the ships. Hard Times. OCTOBER SIXTH For myself, I know no station in which, the oc- cupation of to-day cheerfully done and the occu- pation of to-morrow cheerfully looked to, any one of these pursuits [music and reading] is not most humanizing and laudable. I know no station which is rendered more endurable to the person in it, or more safe to those out of it, by having ignorance for its associates. I know no station which has the right to monopolize the means of mutual instruction, improvement, and rational entertainment; or which has ever continued to be a station very long after seeking to do so. American Notes. [82 ] OCTOBER SEVENTH It is well beknown to the hends of the hearth as no other nation except Britain has a idea of anythink, but above all of business. Why then should you tire yourself to prove what is already proved? The Boy at Mugby. OCTOBER EIGHTH Methought that all I looked on said to me, and that all I heard in the sea and air said to me, "Be comforted, mortal, that thy life is so short. Our preparation for what is to follow has endured and shall endure for unimaginable ages." George Silverman's Explanation. OCTOBER NINTH But he was young and did not know what strong minds are capable of under trying circumstances. How should he, indeed, when their possessors so seldom knew themselves? Oliver Twist. OCTOBER TENTH the Drama which, by-the-by, as involving a good deal of noise, appears to me to be occasionally confounded with the Drummer. Bill-sticking. OCTOBER ELEVENTH She only thanked him with a mother's prayers and blessings; thanks so rich when paid out of the [83] Heart's mint, . . . that he might have given back a large amount of change, and yet been overpaid. Dombey and Son. OCTOBER TWELFTH "There is no vengeance and no infliction of suffer- ing in His life I am sure. There can be no con- fusion in following Him, and seeking for no other footsteps, I am certain!" Little Dorrit. OCTOBER THIRTEENTH It has always been my opinion, since I first pos- sessed such a thing as an opinion, that the man who knows only one subject is next tiresome to the man who knows no subject. The Wreck of the Golden Mary. OCTOBER FOURTEENTH But, the Englishman possessed (and proved it well in his life) a courage very uncommon among us: he had not the least fear of being considered a bore, in a good, humane cause. The Uncommercial Traveller. OCTOBER FIFTEENTH I will only add to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured within me, and which I know to be the strong part of my character, if I have any [84] strength at all, that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success. David Copperfield. OCTOBER SIXTEENTH If there were no such thing as display in the world, my private opinion is, and I hope you agree with me, that we might get on a great deal better than we do, and might be infinitely more agreeable company than we are. The Battle of Life. OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH " I tell you what, Polly, my dear,"says Mr. Toodle, "being now an ingein-driver and well to do in the world, I should 'nt allow of your coming here to be made dull-like, if it warn't for favours past. And favours past, Polly, is never to be forgot. To them which is in adversity, besides, your face is a cord'l. So let's have another kiss on it, my dear. You wish no better than to do a right act, I know; and my views is, that it's right and dutiful to do this. Good night, Polly!" Dombey and Son. OCTOBER EIGHTEENTH "I only want to have everything in train, and to know that it is in train by looking after it myself." Bleak House. OCTOBER NINETEENTH "To have a Cricket on the Hearth is the luckiest thing in the world!" TIte Cricket on the Hearth. I 8 5 ] OCTOBER TWENTIETH "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough." A Christmas Carol. OCTOBER TWENTY-FIRST "You are so thoughtful, Esther," she said, "and yet so cheerful! and you do so much, so unpretend- ingly!" Bleak House. OCTOBER TWENTY-SECOND And let me linger in this place for an instant, to remark that if ever household affections and loves are graceful things, they are graceful in the poor. The ties that bind the wealthy and the proud to home may be forged on earth, but those which link the poor man to his humble hearth are of the truer metal and bear the stamp of Heaven. The Old Curiosity Shop. OCTOBER TWENTY-THIRD Yet there was a remarkable gentleness and child- ishness about these people [strollers] a special in- aptitude for any kind of sharp practice, and an untiring readiness to help and pity one another, deserving often of as much respect, and always of as much generous construction, as the every day vir- tues of any class of people in the world. Hard Times. [86] OCTOBER TWENTY-FOURTH Well, well! not much, but Tom's all. The half sovereign. He had wrapped it hastily in a piece of paper, and pinned it to the leaf. These words were scrawled in pencil on the inside: "I don't want it; indeed I should not know what to do with it, if I had it." There are some falsehoods, Tom, on which men mount, as on bright wings, towards Heaven. There are some truths, cold, bitter, taunting truths, wherein your worldly scholars are very apt and punctual, which bind men down to earth with leaden chains. Who would not rather have to fan him, in his dying hour, the lightest feather of a falsehood such as thine, than all the quills that have been plucked from the sharp porcupine, reproachful truth, since time began! Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, OCTOBER TWENTY-FIFTH "I never was in a situation, in which that ex- cellent sense, and quiet habit of method and use- fulness, which anybody must observe in you who has the happiness of being a quarter of an hour in your society, was more needed." Bleak House. OCTOBER TWENTY-SIXTH "It is not merely, my pet," said I, "that we lose money and comfort, and even temper sometimes, by not learning to be more careful; but that we incur the serious responsibility of spoiling every one who [87] comes into our service, or has any dealings with us. I begin to be afraid that the fault is not entirely on one side, but that these people all turn out ill because we don't turn out very well ourselves." David Copperfield. OCTOBER TWENTY-SEVENTH Bright and blest the morning that should rise on such a night: for men, delayed no more by stumbling blocks of their own making, which are but specks of dust on the path between them and eternity, would then apply themselves, like creatures of one common origin, owing one duty to the Father of one family, and tending to one common end to make the world a better place! Dombey and Son. OCTOBER TWENTY-EIGHTH Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of shed- ding tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. Great Expectations. OCTOBER TWENTY-NINTH "Even the worldly goods of which we have just disposed," said Mr. Pecksniff, glancing round the table when he had finished, "even cream, sugar, tea, toast, ham " "And eggs," suggested Charity in a low voice. "And eggs," said Mr. Pecksniff, "even they have their moral. See how they come and go! Every pleasure is transitory. We can't even eat long." Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlcwit. [88] OCTOBER THIRTIETH "Was he I don't know how to shape the ques- tion," murmured my Guardian "industrious?" "Was Neckett?" said the boy. "Yes, wery much so. He was never tired of watching. He'd set upon a post at a street corner eight or ten hours at a stretch, if he undertook to do it." "He might have done worse," I heard my Guard- ian soliloquize. "He might have undertaken to do it, and not done it." Bleak House. OCTOBER THIRTY-FIRST And how truly he had said that there were vic- tories gained every day, in struggling hearts, to which these fields of battle were as nothing. The Battle of Life. [89] NOVEMBER NOVEMBER FIRST IN the love of virtue and hatred of vice, in the detestation of cruelty and encouragement of gentleness and mercy, all men who endeavour to be acceptable to their Creator in any way, may freely agree. There are more roads to Heaven, I am in- clined to think, than any sect believes; but there can be none which have not these flowers garnishing the way. Letters of Charles Dickens. NOVEMBER SECOND Miss Mills replied, on general principles, that the Cottage of content was better than the Palace of cold splendour, and that where love was, all was. David Copperfield. NOVEMBER THIRD Is it not enough to be fellow-creatures, born yesterday, suffering and striving to-day, dying to- morrow? By our common humanity, my brothers and sisters, by our common capacities for pain and pleasure, by our common laughter and our common tears, by our common aspiration to reach something better than ourselves, by our common tendency to believe in something good, and invest whatever we love and whatever we lose with some qualities that are superior to our own failings and weaknesses as we know them in our own poor hearts by these. The Uncommercial Traveller. NOVEMBER FOURTH All other swindlers upon earth, are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself. Great Expectations. NOVEMBER FIFTH "It was as true," said Mr. Barkis, "as turnips is. It was as true," said Mr. Barkis, nodding his nightcap, which was his only means of emphasis, "as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them." David Copperfield. NOVEMBER SIXTH There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require in their vocation scarcely less excite- ment than the votaries of pleasure in theirs; and hence it is that diseased sympathy and compassion are every day expended on out-of-the-way objects, when only too many demands upon the legitimate exercise of the same virtues in a healthy state, are constantly within the sight and hearing of the most unobservant person alive. Nicholas Nickleby. [92] NOVEMBER SEVENTH But what would have been duty without that was still duty with it or Walter thought so and duty must be done. Dombey and Son. NOVEMBER EIGHTH You hold your life on the condition that to the last you shall struggle hard for it. Little Dorrit. NOVEMBER NINTH "You are a gentleman; and I know what a gentle- man is, and what a gentleman is capable of. A gentleman can bear a shock, when it must come, boldly and steadily. A gentleman can make up his mind to stand up against almost any blow." Bleak House. NOVEMBER TENTH "Ah!" replied Tim, "talk of the country, indeed! What do you think of this, now, for a day a London day eh?" "It's a little clearer out of town," said Nicholas. "Clearer!" echoed Tim Linkinwater. "You should see it from my bedroom window." Nicholas Nickleby. NOVEMBER ELEVENTH And old Truth's message, perchance, may be: "Believe in thy kind, whate'er the degree, Be it King on his throne or serf on his knee, While our Lord showers light in his bounty free, On the rock and the vale, on sand and the sea." A Message from the Sea. 14- H [ 93 ] NOVEMBER TWELFTH "Mr. Slug has remarked, as an additional in- stance of the extreme ingenuity of the steam engine as applied to purposes of navigation, that, in what- ever part of a vessel a passenger's berth may be situated, the machinery always appears to be ex- actly under his pillow. He intends stating this very beautiful, though simple discovery to the as- sociation." The Mudfog Association. NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH The ways of the world are the ways of the world varying according to different parts of it. Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy. NOVEMBER FOURTEENTH "Virtue's its own reward. So's jollity." Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlemi. NOVEMBER FIFTEENTH They most cheerfully do their duty to all of us who are employed here, and we try to do ours to them. Indeed they do much more than their duty to us, for they are wonderfully mindful of us in many ways. Our Mutual Friend. NOVEMBER SIXTEENTH No; the great magician who majestically works out the appointed order of the Creator, never re- verses his transformations. A Tale of Two Cities. [94] NOVEMBER SEVENTEENTH Wherever religion is resorted to, as a strong drink, and as an escape from the dull, monotonous round of home, those of its ministers who pepper the high- est will be the surest to please. American Notes. NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH "No, indeed, cousin John," said Ada, "I am sure I could not I am sure I would not think any ill of Richard, if the whole world did. I could, and I would, think better of him then, than at any other time!" Bleak House. NOVEMBER NINETEENTH He wears a quantity of iron-gray hair which shades his face and gives it rather a worn appear- ance; but we consider him quite a young fellow notwithstanding, and if a youthful spirit surviving the roughest contact with the world confers upon its possessor any title to be considered young then he is a mere child. Master Humphrey's Clock. NOVEMBER TWENTIETH It would be well, there can be no doubt, for the American people as a whole, if they loved the Real less and the Ideal somewhat more. It would be well, if there were greater encouragement to light- ness of heart and gaiety, and a wider cultivation of [9Sl what is beautiful without being eminently and directly useful. American Notes. NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIRST But it was home. And though home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest con- juration. Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. NOVEMBER TWENTY-SECOND If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more! Hard Times. NOVEMBER TWENTY-THIRD " When one is in a difficulty or at a loss, one never knows in what direction a way out may chance to open. It is a business principle of mine, in such a case, not to close up any direction, but to keep an eye on every direction that may present itself." The Mystery of Edwin Drood. NOVEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH "There's something good in all weathers. If it don't happen to be good for my work to-day, it's good for some other man's to-day, and will come around to me to-morrow. We must all live." Tom Tiddler's Ground. [96] NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH We are alchemists who would extract the essence of perpetual youth from dust and ashes, tempt coy Truth in many light and airy forms from the bottom of her well, and discover one crumb of comfort or one grain of good in the commonest and least re- garded matter that passes through our crucible. Master Humphrey's Clock. NOVEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH "He could 'nt hardly believe yet that I was going to do better though I know he'd try to but a mother she always believes what's good, Sir; at least I know my mother does, God bless her!" Dombey and Son. NOVEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH "There might be some credk in being jolly with a wife, 'specially if the children had the measles and that, and was very fractious indeed." Life and Adventures of Martin ChuzzlewiL NOVEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH "I may regard my profession from a point of view which teaches me that its first duty is toward those who are in necessity and tribulation, who are deso- late and oppressed." The Mystery of Edwin Drood. NOVEMBER TWENTY-NINTH It occurred to me several times that we should have got on better, if we had not been quite. SQ [97] genteel. We were so exceedingly genteel that our scope was quite limited. David Copperfidd. NOVEMBER THIRTIETH "The secret of this matter is, that it ain't so much that a person goes into Society, as that Society goes into a person." Going into Society. 198] DECEMBER FIRST ''"pHAT I truly devoted myself to it with my JL strongest earnestness, and bestowed upon it every energy of my soul, I have already said. If the books I have written be of any worth, they will supply the rest. I shall otherwise have written to poor purpose, and the rest will be of interest to no one. David Copperfield. DECEMBER SECOND Oh, late-remembered, much-forgotten, mouth- ing, braggart duty, always owed, and seldom paid in any other coin than punishment and wrath, when will mankind begin to know thee? When will men acknowledge thee in thy neglected cradle, and thy stunted youth, and not begin their recognition hi thy sinful manhood and thy desolate old age? Life and Adventures of Martin Ckuzzlewit. DECEMBER THIRD Perhaps one of the highest uses of their having been there, was, that there might be left behind that blessed air of tranquillity which pervaded Minor Canon Corner, and that serenely romantic state of mind productive for the most part of pity and t99l forbearance which is engendered by a sorrowful story that is all told, or a pathetic play that is played out. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. DECEMBER FOURTH Misfortune can never have fallen upon such a man but for some good purpose; and when I see its traces in his gentle nature and his earnest feeling, I am the less disposed to murmur at such trials as I may have undergone myself. Master Humphrey's Clock. DECEMBER FIFTH Dr. Strong's was an excellent school; ... It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honour and good faith of the boys, and an avowed intention to rely on their possession of those qualities unless they proved themselves unworthy of it, which worked wonders. David Copperfield. DECEMBER SIXTH A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a little patronage more so. Sketches by Boz. DECEMBER SEVENTH "They would all live together and all be happy! And so they were, and so it never ended!" "And was there no quarrelling?" asked my re- spected friend, as Jenny sat upon her lap and hugged her. "No! Nobody ever quarrelled." "And did the money never melt away?" "No! Nobody could ever spend it all." " And did none of them ever grow older? " "No! Nobody ever grew older after that." "And did none of them ever die?" "O, no, no, no, Gran!" exclaimed our dear boy, laying his cheek upon her breast, and drawing her closer to him. "Nobody ever died." "Ah, Major, Major!" says my respected friend, smiling benignly upon me, "this beats our stories. Let us end with the Boy's story, Major, for the Boy's story is the best that is ever told!" Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings. DECEMBER EIGHTH When my fire is bright and high, and a warm blush mantles in the walls and ceiling of this ancient room, when everything is in a ruddy, genial glow, and there are voices in the crackling flame, and smiles in its flashing light, other smiles and other voices congregate around me, invading, with their pleasant harmony, the silence of the time. Master Humphrey's Clock Midnight Reveries. DECEMBER NINTH "There can be no disparity in marriage like un- suitability of mind and purpose." , David Copperfield. [101 ] DECEMBER TENTH Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport on earth in the night season, and melt away in the first beam of the sun, which lights grim care and stern reality on their daily pilgrimage through the world. Nicholas Nickleby. DECEMBER ELEVENTH It is a common remark, confirmed by history and experience, that great men rise with the cir- cumstances in which they are placed. Mr. Welter's Watch. DECEMBER TWELFTH I really felt ashamed to take advantage of the in- genuousness or grateful feeling of the child, for the purpose of gratifying my curiosity. I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us. As I had felt pleased at first, by her confidence, I determined to deserve it, and to do credit to the nature which had prompted her to repose it in me. The Old Curiosity Shop. DECEMBER THIRTEENTH "What never ran smooth yet, can hardly be ex- pected to change its character for us; so we must take it as we find it, and fashion it in the very best shape we can, by patience and good-humour." Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. [ 102 ] DECEMBER FOURTEENTH "Because, sir, the way I look at it is, that we are all drawing on to the bottom of the hill, whatever age we are, on account of time never standing still for a single moment. So let us always do a kind- ness, and be over-rejoiced. To be sure!" David Copperfield. i i DECEMBER FIFTEENTH I encouraged her and praised her with all my heart. For I conscientiously believed, dancing-master's wife though she was, and dancing-mistress though in her limited ambition she aspired to be, she had struck out a natural, wholesome, loving course of industry and perseverance that was quite as good as a Mission. Bleak House. DECEMBER SIXTEENTH And he said, "I am. My age is falling from me like a garment, and I move towards the star as a child. And, O, my Father, now I thank thee that it has so often opened, to receive those dear ones who await me." A Child's Dream of a Star. DECEMBER SEVENTEENTH " Unchanging Love and Truth will carry us through all!" Mrs. Lirrifer's Legacy. [ 103 ] DECEMBER EIGHTEENTH And as true charity not only covers a multitude of sins, but includes a multitude of virtues, such as forgiveness, liberal construction, gentleness and mercy to the faults of others, and the remembrance of our own imperfections and advantages, he bade us not inquire too closely into the venial errors of the poor, but rinding that they were poor, first to relieve and then endeavour at an advantage to reclaim them. Master Humphrey's Clock. DECEMBER NINETEENTH "Lord, keep my memory green!" The Haunted Man. DECEMBER TWENTIETH The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was rich. In alms-house, hospital, and jail, in misery's every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast the door and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts. A Christmas Carol. DECEMBER TWENTY-FIRST Who can be insensible to the outpourings of good feeling, and the honest interchange of affectionate attachments which abound at this season of the year? [ 104 1 A Christmas family-party! We know nothing in nature more delightful! There seems a magic in the very name of Christmas. All is kindness and benevolence! Would that Christmas lasted the whole year through, and that the prejudices and passions which deform our better nature, were never called into action among those to whom they should ever be strangers! Sketches by Boz. DECEMBER TWENTY-SECOND "But I am sure I have always thought of Christ- mas time, when it has come round apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." A Christmas Carol. DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD Christmas time! The man must be misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened by the recurrence of Christmas. Sketches by Boz. [105] DECEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH I urged to the good lady that this was Christmas eve; that Christmas comes but once a year, which is unhappily too true, for when it begins to stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very different place. The Seven Poor Travellers. DECEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH And it was said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! A Christmas Carol. DECEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH As to the dinner, it's perfectly delightful nothing goes wrong, and everybody is in the best of spirits, and disposed to please and be pleased. . . . And thus the evening passes in a strain of rational good- will and cheerfulness, doing more to awaken the sympathies of every member of the party in behalf of his neighbour, and to perpetuate their good feeling during the ensuing year, than all the homilies that have ever been written, by all the divines that have ever lived. Sketches by Boz. DECEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH Then, as Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, [ 106] wrong and trouble in the world around us, should be active with us, not less than our own experiences, for all good, he laid his hand upon the boy, and, silently calling Him to witness who laid His hand on children in old time, rebuking in the majesty of his prophetic knowledge, those who kept them from Him, vowed to protect him, teach him, and reclaim him. The Haunted Man. DECEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH Going through the woods, the softness of my tread upon the mossy ground and among the brown leaves enhanced the Christmas sacredness by which I felt surrounded. As the whitened stems environed me, I thought how the Founder of the time had never raised His benignant hand, save to bless and heal, except in the case of one unconscious tree. The Seven Poor Travellers. DECEMBER TWENTY-NINTH After a while they played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself. A Christmas Carol. DECEMBER THIRTIETH Had Trotty dreamed? Or, are his joys and sor- rows, and the actors in them, but a dream; himself a dream; the teller of this tale a dreamer, waking but now? If it be so, O listener, dear to him in [ 107 1 all his visions, try to bear in mind the stern realities from which these shadows come; and in your sphere none is too wide, and none too limited for such an end endeavour to correct, improve, and soften them. So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you! So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our brethren or sister- hood debarred their rightful share hi what our great Creator formed them to enjoy. The Chimes. DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST We have scarcely written the last word of the previous sentence, when the first stroke of twelve peals from the neighbouring churches. Sketches by Boz. May the blessing of God await thee. May the sun of glory shine around thy bed; and may the gates of plenty, honour, and happiness be ever open to thee. The Uticommercial Traveller. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH.