without order, management, or system than Mrs. Pocket's. Servants and children indulged in unending turmoil and conflict. Dickens added a grim humour to the picture by saying: Mr. Pocket was out lecturing; for he was a most delightful lecturer on domestic economy, and his treatises on the management of children and servants were considered the very best text-books on those themes. But Mrs. Pocket was at home and was in a little difficulty, on account of the baby's having been accommodated with a needle-case to keep him quiet during the unaccountable absence (with a relative in the Foot Guards) of Millers. And more needles were missing than it could be regarded as quite wholesome for a patient of such tender years either to apply externally or to take as a tonic. Mrs. Pocket continued to read her one book about the dignities of the titled aristocracy, and prescribed "Bed" as a sovereign remedy for baby. Dickens believed a mother should find her highest joy and most sacred duty in training her own children. Mrs. Pocket was a type to be avoided. The description of the dinner at Mr. Pocket's, after which the six children were brought in, and Mrs. Pocket attempted to mind the baby, is one of the raciest bits of Dickens's humour. One observation in connection with the dinner is worth studying. After dinner the children were introduced, and Mrs. Coiler made admiring comments on their eyes, noses, and legs-a sagacious way of improving their minds. How few yet clearly understand this profound criticism of bad training! How many children are still made vain and frivolous by having their attention directed especially to their physical attributes and their dress, rather than to the things that would yield them much greater immediate happiness and a much truer basis for future development! In his last book, Edwin Drood, Dickens showed that he still hated the tyranny that dwarfs and distorts the souls of children. Neville Landless described his own training to his tutor, who had won his confidence as it had never been won before. 66 'We lived with a stepfather there. Our mother died there, when we were little children. We have had a wretched existence. She made him our guardian, and he was a miserly wretch who grudged us food to eat and clothes to wear. "This stepfather of ours was a cruel brute as well as a grinding one. It was well he died when he did, or I might have killed him." Mr. Crisparkle stopped short in the moonlight and looked at his hopeful pupil in consternation. 66 "I surprise you, sir?" he said, with a quick change to a submissive manner. "You shock me; unspeakably shock me.” The pupil hung his head for a little while, as they walked on, and then said: "You never saw him beat your sister. I have seen him beat mine, more than once or twice, and I never forgot it. "I have had, sir, from my earliest remembrance, to suppress a deadly and bitter hatred. This has made me secret and revengeful. I have been always tyrannically held down by the strong hand. This has driven me, in my weakness, to the resource of being false and mean. I have been stinted of education, liberty, money, dress, the very necessaries of life, the commonest pleasures of childhood, the commonest possessions of youth. This has caused me to be utterly wanting in I do not know what emotions, or remembrances, or good instincts-I have not even a name for the thing, you see-that you have had to work upon in other young men to whom you have been accustomed." Hatred instead of love; product, a secret and revengeful character. 66 Tyrannically held down by a strong hand"; product, falseness and meanness. "Stinted of education, liberty, money, dress, the very necessaries of life, the commonest pleasures of childhood, the commonest possessions of youth"; product, a manhood utterly barren in true emotions, or pleasant memories, or good instincts. No other writer has described so many phases of bad training as Dickens. CHAPTER XII. GOOD TRAINING. Pic DICKENS wrote much less about good training than about bad training. It was the part of a true philosopher and a profound student of human nature to do so. tures of wrong treatment of children accomplished a double purpose. They made men hate the wrong, and made them more clearly conscious of the right than pictures of the right alone could have done. Descriptions of ideal conditions can not make as deep impressions as descriptions of utterly bad conditions in the present stage of human evolution. His revelation of cruel tyranny, of will breaking, of cramming, of dwarfing of individuality, of distorting of imagination, of harshness, of lack of sympathy, of evil in a hundred hideous forms, made men more conscious of their corresponding opposites than attempts to reveal these opposites by direct effort could have done; and in addition it stirred in human hearts everywhere the determination to remove or remedy the wrong. Little Nell's grandfather gave her a good training. Omitting poverty and loneliness, and some strange companionships, she had a training calculated to make her the supremely pure and attractive child she was. Her grandfather loved her passionately; he had never been unkind to her, he had taught her carefully in the virtues that are learned by the unselfish performance of duty; she had the opportunity for simple, loving service, and she was trained to have profound reverence for and true faith in God. Her grandfather left her alone every night, yet she was never afraid. Dickens describes their usual parting in the evening. Then she ran to the old man, who folded her in his arms and bade God bless her. 66 "Sleep soundly, Nell," he said in a low voice, ' and angels guard thy bed! Do not forget thy prayers, my sweet." 66 'No, indeed," answered the child fervently, "they make me feel so happy! " 66 That's well; I know they do; they should," said the old man. 66 Bless thee a hundred times! Early in the morning I shall be home." "You'll not ring twice," returned the child. wakes me, even in the middle of a dream." "The bell The Toodle family is painted in direct contrast to the Dombey family in the relationship of parents to children. Mrs. Toodle came to nurse Paul Dombey when his mother died. Mr. Toodle himself came too, and Mr. Dombey called him in to speak to him. He was a strong, loose, round-shouldered, shuffling, shaggy fellow, on whom his clothes sat negligently; with a good deal of hair and whisker, deepened in its natural tint, perhaps, by smoke and coal-dust; hard knotty hands; and a square forehead, as coarse in grain as the bark of an oak. A thorough contrast in all respects to Mr. Dombey, who was one of those close-shaved, close-cut moneyed gentlemen who are glossy and crisp like new bank notes, and who seem to be artificially braced and tightened as by the stimulating action of golden shower baths. "You have a son, I believe?" said Mr. Dombey. 66 "Four on 'em, sir. Four hims and a her. All alive! " Why, it's as much as you can afford to keep them!" said Mr. Dombey. "I couldn't hardly afford but one thing in the world less, sir." "I could make shift to chalk a little bit, I think, if I was put to it," said Toodle, after some reflection. "And yet," said Mr. Dombey, "you are two or three and thirty, I suppose?" 66 Thereabout, I suppose, sir," answered Toodle, after more reflection. 66 66 Then why don't you learn?" asked Mr. Dombey. So I'm agoing to, sir. One of my little boys is agoing to learn me, when he's old enough, and been to school himself." What a beautiful picture of the true relationship that should exist between a mother and her children is given in the reception to Mrs. Toodle when she went home to visit her family! 66 'Why, Polly!" cried her sister. "You! what a turn you have given me! who'd have thought it! come along in, Polly! How well you do look, to be sure! The children will go half wild to see you, Polly, that they will." That they did, if one might judge from the noise they made, and the way in which they dashed at Polly and dragged her to a low chair in the chimney corner, where her own honest apple face became immediately the centre of a bunch of smaller pippins, all laying their rosy cheeks close to it, and all evidently the growth of the same tree. As to Polly, she was full as noisy and vehement as the children; and it was not until she was quite out of breath, and her hair was hanging all about her flushed face, and her new christening attire was very much dishevelled, that any pause took place in the confusion. Even then, the smallest Toodle but one remained in her lap, holding on tight with both arms round her neck; while the smallest Toodle but two mounted on the back of the chair, and made desperate efforts, with one leg in the air, to kiss her round the corner. Unfortunately the eldest Toodle, nicknamed Biler, was sent to the grinders' school by Mr. Dombey, and he was so badly treated that he played truant and got into bad company; but his mother clung to him and treated him kindly, and hoped for him still. Mr. Carker went home with Biler to satisfy himself in regard to his family. "This fellow," said Mr. Carker to Polly, giving him a gentle shake, "is your son, eh, ma'am?" 66 66 Yes, sir," sobbed Polly, with a courtesy; yes, sir." |