Excerpt from Selected Essays on Literary Subjects I have heard, on what seems credible authority, that an eminent scholar, who, at the present moment, occupies the Chair of English Literature at one of our Universities, began a lecture on the same subject as that on which I have the honour of addressing you to-night with these memorable words: "Strictly speaking, Charles Dickens had no humour." cannot promise you any observations of so startling and arresting a kind as that; I shall confine myself to a much humbler, more ordinary, and more natural effort. You must pardon the egotism of a lively gratitude if the word "I" occurs oftener in the course of my speech than I could wish, for I can truly say that Charles Dickens has been to me, though I never knew him, nor even saw him, one of the very best friends that life has afforded, and best in the darkest hours. In that respect, I can only bracket him with Sir Walter Scott, there being this difference between the two cases, that Scott was to all of us an historical character, whereas some of us lived contemporaneously with part of Charles Dickens' life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.