"Edith told me of her idea," he said, "and I thought it an excellent one.

I had a little curiosity what writer you would first turn to.

Ah, Dickens! You admired him, then! That is where we moderns agree with you.

Judged by our standards, he overtops all the writers of his age, not because his literary genius was highest, but because his great heart beat for the poor, because he made the cause of the victims of society his own, and devoted his pen to exposing its cruelties and shams.

No man of his time did so much as he to turn men's minds to the wrong and wretchedness of the old order of things, and open their eyes to the necessity of the great change that was coming, although he himself did not clearly foresee it.".