d to such a requisition. I had withdrawn from Public Life--I
fondly thought forever--to pass the evening of my days in hydropathical
pursuits, and the contemplation of virtue. For which latter purpose, I
had bought a looking-glass.--But, my friends, private feeling must ever
yield to a stern sense of public duty. The Man is lost in the Invited
Guest, and I comply. Nurses, wet and dry; apothecaries; mothers-in-law;
babbies; with all the sweet (and chaste) delights of private life;
these, my countrymen, are hard to leave. But you have called me forth,
and I will come. Fellow countrymen, your friend and faithful servant,
CHARLES DICKENS."

FOOTNOTES:

[64] Printed in the _Atlantic Monthly_ shortly after his death, and
since collected, by Mr. James T. Fields of Boston, with several of later
date addressed to himself, and much correspondence having reference to
other writers, into a pleasing volume entitled _Yesterdays with
Authors_.

[65] This is mentioned in Mr. O. Driscoll's agreeable little Memoir, but
supposed to refer to Maclise's portrait of Dickens.

[66] In one of the letters to his American friend Mr. Felton there is a
glimpse of Christmas sports which had escaped my memory, and for which a
corner may be found here, inasmuch as these gambols were characteristic
of him at the pleasant old season, and were frequently renewed in future
years. "The best of it is" (31 Dec. 1842) "that Forster and I have
purchased between us the entire stock-in-trade of a conjuror, the
practice and display whereof is entrusted to me. . . . In those tricks
which require a confederate I am assisted (by reason of his
imperturbable good humour) by Stanfield, who always does his part
exactly the wrong way, to the unspeakable delight of all beholders. We
come out on a small scale to-night, at Forster's, where we see the old
year out and the new one in." _Atlantic Monthly_, July 1871.

[67] "I have heard, as you have, from Lady Blessington, for whose behoof
I have this morning penned the lines I send you herewith. But I have
only done so to excuse myself, for I have not the least idea of their
suiting her; and I hope she will send them back to you for the _Ex._" C.
D. to J. F. July 1843. The lines are quite worth preserving.

A WORD IN SEASON.

They have a superstition in the East,
That Allah, written on a piece of paper,
Is better unction than can come of priest,
Of rolling inc