in both the same energy, pluck, essential goodness of heart,
fertility of resource, abundance of animal spirits, and also an
imagination of a peculiar kind, in which wit enters as a main
ingredient. And having noted how highly vitalized were the characters
in "Pickwick," I think the first readers might also fairly be expected
to note,--and, in fact, it is clear from Dickens' preface that they
did note--how greatly the book increased in scope and power as it
proceeded. The beginning was conceived almost in a spirit of farce.
The incidents and adventures had scarcely any other object than to
create amusement. Mr. Pickwick himself appeared on the scene with
fantastic honours and the badge of absurdity, as "the man who had
traced to their source the mighty ponds of Hampstead, and agitated the
scientific world with the Theory of Tittlebats." But in all this there
is a gradual change. Mr. Pickwick is presented to us latterly as an
exceedingly sound-headed as well as sound-hearted old gentleman, whom
we should never think of associating with the sources of Hampstead
Ponds or any other folly. While in such scenes as those at the Fleet
Prison, the author is clearly endeavouring to do much more than raise
a laugh. He is sounding the deeper, more tragic chords in human
feeling.

Ah, if we add to all this--to the freshness, the "go," the good
spirits, the keen observation, the graphic painting, the humour, the
vitality of the characters, the gradual development of power--if we
add to all this that something which is in all, and greater than all,
viz., genius, and genius of a highly popular kind, then we shall have
no difficulty in understanding why everybody read "Pickwick," and how
it came to pass that its publishers made some L20,000 by a work that
they had once thought of abandoning as worthless.[12]

FOOTNOTES:

[10] See the Letters published by Chapman and Hall.

[11] It was finished in January, 1837, and not published till six
months afterwards.

[12] They acknowledged to Dickens that they had made L14,000 by the
sale of the monthly parts alone.

CHAPTER IV.

Dickens was not at all the man to rest on his oars while "Pickwick"
was giving such a magnificent impetus to the boat that contained his
fortunes. The amount of work which he accomplished in the years 1836,
1837, 1838, and 1839 is, if we consider its quality, amazing.
"Pickwick," as we have seen, was begun with the first of these years,
and its publ