Introduction
that which Toby only dreams is quite as vividly presented as that which actually happens to him, and he who pretends that it would take a very brave man to present these things as having actually happened while any coward might present them as dreams has surely forgotten that he is dealing, not with life, but with a work of fiction. Finally, it may be urged, the exigencies of his plan and purpose compelled Dickens to use the method he chose. the theme of the story was the restoration of Toby’s faith in himself and his class. Following as it did in the wake of A Christmas Carol, supernatural machinery was absolutely necessary. Toby, like Scrooge, sees in a dream the dark road whither he is tending: he wakens with relief and turns his feet in another direction.
Dickens probably did believe that something like that actually could be effected in human experience. Though he had not read Twice-Born Men, he was not so sophisticated—or is it unsophisticated?—as to imagine that no human being had ever experienced an efficacious change of heart. And it is here, I believe, that we touch the difference between Dickens and many of the modern realists. It was not that he saw evil less clearly than they do, certainly not that they are more courageous than he was, but rather (to employ, as I must, words which very inadequately express my meaning) that, unlike many of the moderns, Dickens was still a man of faith. And by this I do not mean faith in God merely (though that is involved in it) but faith in humanity and in the world’s destiny. Consequently, wherexxix
