s of this universal sentiment,
we cannot but be struck by the power which mind exercises over mind,
even while we are individually separated by time, space, and other
conditions of our present being. Why should we not welcome him as a
friend? Have we not walked with him in every scene of varied life? Have
we not together investigated, with Mr. Pickwick, the theory of
Tittlebats? Have we not ridden together to the "Markis of Granby" with
old Weller on the box, and his son Samivel on the dickey? Have we not
been rook-shooting with Mr. Winkle, and courting with Mr. Tupman? Have
we not played cribbage with "the Marchioness," and quaffed the rosy with
Dick Swiveller? Tell us not of animal magnetism! We, and thousands of
our countrymen, have for years been eating and talking, riding and
walking, dancing and sliding, drinking and sleeping, with our
distinguished guest, and he never knew of the existence of one of us. Is
it wonderful that we are delighted to see him, and to return in a
measure his unbounded hospitalities? Boz a stranger! Well may we again
exclaim, with Sir John Falstaff, "D'ye think we didn't know ye?--We knew
ye as well as Him that made ye."

But a jovial fellow is not always the dearest friend; and, although the
pleasure of his society would always recommend the progenitor of Dick
Swiveller, "the perpetual grand of the glorious Appollers," in a scene
like this, yet the respect of grave doctors and of fair ladies proves
that there are higher qualities than those of a pleasant companion to
recommend and attach them to our distinguished guest. What is the charm
that unites so many suffrages? It is that in the lightest hours, and in
the most degraded scenes which he has portrayed, there has been a
reforming object and a moral tone, not formally thrust into the canvas,
but infused into the spirit of the picture, with those natural touches
whose contemplation never tires.

With what a power of delineation have the abuses of his institutions
been portrayed! How have the poor-house, the jail, the police courts of
justice, passed before his magic mirror, and displayed to us the petty
tyranny of the low-minded official, from the magnificent Mr. Bumble, and
the hard-hearted Mr. Roker, to the authoritative Justice Fang, the
positive Judge Starleigh! And as we contemplate them, how strongly have
we realized the time-worn evils of some of the systems they revealed to
our eyesight, sharpened to detect the deficiencies and