The Chimes
they deal in fears and despairs, he deals in hopes and promises. Consequently (though I assert no parity with Dante!) his work is a great comedy, not a great tragedy.
Mr. Chesterton has animadverted upon this fact in his inquiry why it was that “this too easily contented Dickens, this man with cushions at his hack and (it sometimes seems) cotton wool in his ears, this happy dreamer, this vulgar optimist … alone among modern writers did really destroy some of the wrongs he hated and bring about some of the reforms he desired.” And he goes on to answer his own question in words that are beautifully illustrated in The Chimes:
“And the reason of this is one that goes deep into Dickens’s social reform, and, like every other real and desirable thing, involves a kind of mystical contradiction. If we are to save the oppressed, we must have two apparently antagonistic emotions in us at the same time. We must think the oppressed man immensely miserable, and, at the same time, intensely attractive and important. We must insist with violence upon his degradation; we must insist with the same violence upon his dignity. For if we relax by one inch the one assertion, men will say he does not need saving. And if we relax by one inch the other assertion, men will say he is not worth saving….
“Out of this perennial contradiction arises the fact that there are always two types of the reformer. The first we may call for convenience the pessimistic, the second the optimistic reformer. One dwells upon the fact that souls are being lost; the other dwells upon the fact that they are worth saving…. The
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