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THE FLOWING BOWL
not, be on the wane. The close student of these
novels will discover that all which is good, and
honest, and upright, and charitable is honoured
in their pages, whilst meanness, deceit, hypocrisy,
and cant are lashed with no uncertain hand.
" The greatest of all gifts is Charity," is the
lesson taught by Charles Dickens, who shevved
at the same time that it is quite possible to enjoy
the good things of life without making a beast
of oneself.
And he it was who clothed Christ
mas in that warm, sumptuous robe of joviality and
hospitality which makes all who keep that festival
in the proper spirit forget for the time that a
quarter's rent falls due on the same day.
Dickens's drunkards are few and far between
—and in this category I do not include such as
Sydney Carton, the members of the Pickwick
Club, and David Copperfield, on the occasion
of his first dinner-party. Nobody has a right to
call the man who makes merry with his friends,
now and then, a sot ; and a careful study of
Dickens shows that the real inebriates, the
" habituals " described in his works, had all more
or less rascality in their composition not even
excepting Dick Swiveller, who, however, became
a reformed character towards the close of the
book.
_
As for the drinks themselves, it is especially
worthy of note that there is no mention whatever
made of whisky in these works ; a fact which
justifies everything which I have written in a
former chapter as to the neglect with which this
undoubtedly estimable and wholesome fortifier
was treated by society, until within the last few