ing; that he was apt, as he has
said himself, to build up temples in his mind not always makeable with
hands; that in the results he had rarely anything but disappointment;
and that of all notions to connect with him the most preposterous would
be that which directly reversed these relations, and depicted him as
receiving from any artist the inspiration he was always vainly striving
to give. An assertion of this kind was contradicted in my first volume;
but it has since been repeated so explicitly, that to prevent any
possible misconstruction from a silence I would fain have persisted in,
the distasteful subject is again reluctantly introduced.

It originated with a literary friend of the excellent artist by whom
_Oliver Twist_ was illustrated from month to month, during the earlier
part of its monthly issue. This gentleman stated, in a paper written and
published in America, that Mr. Cruikshank, by executing the plates
before opportunity was afforded him of seeing the letter press, had
suggested to the writer the finest effects in his story; and to this,
opposing my clear recollection of all the time the tale was in progress,
it became my duty to say that within my own personal knowledge the
alleged fact was not true. "Dickens," the artist is reported an saying
to his admirer, "ferreted out that bundle of drawings, and when he came
to the one which represents Fagin in the cell, he silently studied it
for half an hour, and told me he was tempted to change the whole plot of
his story. . . . I consented to let him write up to my designs; and that
was the way in which Fagin, Sikes, and Nancy were created." Happily I
was able to add the complete refutation of this folly by producing a
letter of Dickens written at the time, which proved incontestably that
the closing illustrations, including the two specially named in support
of the preposterous charge, Sikes and his Dog, and Fagin in his Cell,
had not even been seen by Dickens until his finished book was on the eve
of appearance. As however the distinguished artist, notwithstanding the
refreshment of his memory by this letter, has permitted himself again to
endorse the statement of his friend, I can only again print, on the same
page which contains the strange language used by him, the words with
which Dickens himself repels its imputation on his memory. To some it
may be more satisfactory if I print the latter in fac-simile; and so
leave for ever a charge in itself so incre