exclusively to popular works, in which prominence is given to the religious aspects of science He enjoyed no special scientific training, and his works have no pretensions to depth of science. Like Ferguson the astronomer, he was incapable of understanding a geometrical demonstration; still his treatises contain a faithful statement of the results of science, and their wide popularity proves their adaptation to the public taste. Much of the success of his writings is due to the fact that he was one of the earliest writers to give a religious bent to the growing taste for science among the masses. As a recognition of his services in the cause of popular science, he received a small pension from the queen. The works by which he is chiefly known are—"Celestial Scenery;" "The Christian Philosopher;" "Philosophy of Religion;" "Practical Astronomy;" "Sidereal Heavens."—W. L., M.
DICKENS, CHARLES, one of the most popular and remarkable English authors of his time, was born at Landport, near Portsmouth, 7th February, 1812. His father, Mr. John Dickens, held a post in the navy pay office. At the close of the war Mr. John Dickens retired from public service on a pension, and, whilst still young, his son went to London. Acute, observant, genial, brimful of talent of the most versatile and available kind, enjoying life, and loving his fellow-creatures, young Dickens was peculiarly fitted for the life of cities, as well as for achieving success in whatever path of life he might choose to select. Left very much also to his own guidance, no counteracting influences diverted his impulses and genius, and though his father wished him to study law, no parental compulsion enforced the wish, and he plunged free and fearless into the life of a reporter for the public press. He next took an engagement on the True Sun, an ultra-liberal paper, from the staff of which he soon after retired, and became a reporter to the Morning Chronicle. Here he first appeared publicly as an author; for it was in the evening edition of this paper his "Sketches of English Life and Character" were given. The rich humour and photographic vitality of these sketches attracted immediate attention, and in 1836 they were collected and published with others which appeared in the Old Monthly Magazine, in two volumes, under the title of "Sketches by Boz;" this pseudonym being derived from his boyish years, when a younger brother, called by him Moses, from his resemblance to that character in the Vicar of Wakefield, was again miscalled Boz, by a still younger sister, whose inarticulate utterance could not farther master the name. The freshness and originality of the "Sketches by Boz," insuring their general acceptance with the public, Dickens, at the suggestion of another publisher, commenced the adventures of a party of cockney sportsmen, to be illustrated by the comic pencil of Seymour, and the inimitable "Pickwick Papers" made their appearance. The young author was now fairly afloat on the sea of literature, under the happy star of his own genius. Better and nobler things than the "Pickwick Papers" have unquestionably been written by Dickens, but nothing has delighted the public more. The range of character was of the commonest kind, but it was analyzed and drawn by the hand of a master, and with the geniality and joyousness of a large and good heart. These papers furnished an unceasing delight to the public for many months, and Dickens, no longer concealed under the childish name of Boz, stood forth as the most popular and promising author of the day. But if all were sunshine with Dickens, it was not so with his kindred illustrator Seymour, who, whilst the work was in progress, unfortunately committed suicide, and the illustrations were continued by Mr. Hablot K. Browne, under the name of Phiz. Whilst "Pickwick" was in course of publication, Mr. Dickens married the daughter of Mr. George Hogarth, the well-known musical writer.
The great success of "Pickwick" turned the eager regards of publishers upon the young author, and Dickens produced "Nicholas Nickleby," in twenty monthly numbers, which no less deserved and obtained public favour. The aim of this new work was much higher than that of its predecessor; the object being no longer mere amusement. In it Dickens commenced that onslaught on public and private abuses and oppressions which is one element of his later works. His attack in this romance on the cheap-school system was felt from one end of society to the other; and if it did not produce general reformation, it turned the eyes of the public upon the cruelties and sufferings of those seminaries of disease and death, at which it was directed. "Nicholas Nickleby" was succeeded by "Oliver Twist," published in Bentley's Miscellany, which Dickens edited for some time with great success. The field of sympathy with human suffering which Dickens had made his own in "Nicholas Nickleby," was still further opened up in this story of a parish boy; and living in the capital, in the midst of the immense misery and crime which he depicted, he drew every scene to the life. In many respects these works have a resemblance to the fictions of the modern French authors, and in some degree partake also of their strong if not exaggerated colouring; but they excel them far by their earnest purpose, by their deep pathos and tenderness, and by the human love and pity, by which they are throughout pervaded. From the date of this work Dickens was regarded as one of the reformers of the age, and became active in turning the public mind, by his speeches at public meetings and otherwise, upon many social abuses and errors which needed reform; for instance, capital punishment, of which he was ever a strong opponent. "Oliver Twist" was succeeded by "Master Humphrey's Clock," a general title for a collection of stories. In "The Old Curiosity Shop," the first of these stories, Dickens exhibited a new power of tenderness and beauty in the character of little Nell, one of the most lovely and touching pieces of poetical portraiture ever drawn. Indeed he is singularly happy in his sketches of children. Nothing more beautiful in their way than little Nell and the boy, Paul Dombey, were ever conceived. In "Barnaby Rudge," the second story of the same work, Dickens entered a new field, that of the historical romance, and with such success as his great descriptive powers could not fail to give. Despite, however, the vigorous description of the Lord George Gordon riots, and other portions in which the power of the author was exhibited undiminished, "Barnaby Rudge" strikes the reader rather as an experiment than a thorough labour of love. Dickens, now probably feeling conscious that he needed rest, and perhaps a wider and newer sphere of operation, set sail for America with his wife, and on his return in 1842, published his "American Notes for General Circulation," and the following year "Martin Chuzzlewit" was commenced in monthly numbers, in which work he naturally introduced some of his American knowledge, not more to the pleasure of the Americans than had been some of the truths in his "American Notes." In 1844 he and his family went to Italy, where they remained twelve months. On his return he undertook the arduous task of establishing a new liberal morning paper; and, accordingly, in January, 1846, assisted by a staff of distinguished literary men, he issued the first number of the Daily News, containing the first part of his "Pictures of Italy." But this was a labour unsuited to any purely literary man. He soon withdrew from the editorship, and resuming his more legitimate character, published in rapid succession, also in monthly numbers, his "Dealings with Dombey and Son," 1847-48, and in 1850 the "Personal History of David Copperfield the Younger," in which many of his own youthful experiences and early struggles are introduced. These two romances are among the best of his works, and in a purely literary point of view perhaps rank higher than those which, with equal rapidity, next succeeded, viz., "Bleak House," "Hard Times," and "Little Doritt." The latter, however, is immortalized by its caustic and most just attack on the abuses of government—its procrastination, formal routine, aristocratic nepotism. The circumlocution office, red-tapism, and the numerous family of the Tite Barnacles, will live as long as government abuses themselves. Amidst all this literary creation, Dickens, with a capacity of work which characterizes the present age, commenced in 1850 the management of a literary journal, "Household Words," which shortly became one of the most popular and successful periodicals of the day. In it appeared from his pen "A Child's History of England," since published in a collected form; also "Hard Times." Besides this long list of original works, Mr. Dickens commenced in 1843 the first of a series of Christmas stories, in which the hard realities of life and fantastic spiritual agencies are made to blend in the best style of winter evening tales. The titles of these tales are—"The Christmas Carol," 1843; "The Chimes," 1844; "The Cricket on the Hearth," 1845; "The Battle of Life," 1846; and "The Haunted Man," 1847. Some of these works furnished their accomplished author with a very novel mode of entertaining and delighting the public. He read them aloud, not only in the capital, but in many provincial towns; and his graphic style of reading and great dramatic power, always
