a magazine. Yet although it is a
magazine, it is a magazine entirely written by himself; the publishers,
in point of fact, wanted to create a kind of Dickens Miscellany, in a
much more literal sense than that in which we speak of a Bentley
Miscellany. Dickens was in no way disposed to dislike such a job; for
the more miscellaneous he was the more he enjoyed himself. And indeed
this early experiment of his bears a great deal of resemblance to those
later experiences in which he was the editor of two popular periodicals.
The editor of _Master Humphrey's Clock_ was a kind of type or precursor
of the editor of _Household Words_ and _All the Year Round_. There was
the same sense of absolute ease in an atmosphere of infinite gossip.
There was the same great advantage gained by a man of genius who wrote
best scrappily and by episodes. The omnipotence of the editor helped the
eccentricities of the author. He could excuse himself for all his own
shortcomings. He could begin a novel, get tired of it, and turn it into
a short story. He could begin a short story, get fond of it, and turn
it into a novel. Thus in the days of _Household Words_ he could begin a
big scheme of stories, such as _Somebody's Luggage_, or _Seven Poor
Travellers_, and after writing a tale or two toss the rest to his
colleagues. Thus, on the other hand, in the time of _Master Humphrey's
Clock_, he could begin one small adventure of Master Humphrey and find
himself unable to stop it. It is quite clear I think (though only from
moral evidence, which some call reading between the lines) that he
originally meant to tell many separate tales of Master Humphrey's
wanderings in London, only one of which, and that a short one, was to
have been concerned with a little girl going home. Fortunately for us
that little girl had a grandfather, and that grandfather had a curiosity
shop and also a nephew, and that nephew had an entirely irrelevant
friend whom men and angels called Richard Swiveller. Once having come
into the society of Swiveller it is not unnatural that Dickens stayed
there for a whole book. The essential point for us here, however, is
that _Master Humphrey's Clock_ was stopped by the size and energy of the
thing that had come of it. It died in childbirth.

There is, however, another circumstance which, even in ordinary public
opinion, makes this miscellany important, besides the great novel that
came out of it. I mean that the ordinary reader can remember on