Works of Charles Dickens - Charles Dickens [6819]
FOOTNOTES
{1} Its name and address at length, with other full particulars, all editorially struck out.
{2} The remainder of this complimentary sentence editorially struck out.
{3} The remainder of this complimentary parenthesis editorially struck out.
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Speeches: Literary And Social
Contents: Speech: Edinburgh, June 25, 1841 | Speech: January, 1842 | Speech: February 1842 | Speech: February 7, 1842 | Speech: New York, February 18, 1842 | The Literature Of America | Speech: Manchester, October 5, 1843 | Speech: Liverpool, February 26, 1844 | Speech: Birmingham, February 28, 1844 | Speech: Gardeners And Gardening. London, June 14, 1852 | Speech: Birmingham, January 6, 1853 | Speech: London, April 30, 1853 | Speech: London, May 1, 1853 | Speech: Birmingham, December 30, 1853 | Speech: Commercial Travellers. London, December 30, 1854 | Speech: Administrative Reform. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane | Speech: Sheffield, December 22, 1855 | Speech: London, February 9, 1858 | Speech: Edinburgh, March, 26, 1858 | Speech: London, March 29, 1858 | Speech: London, April 29, 1858 | Speech: London, May 1, 1858 | Speech: London, July 21, 1858 | Speech: Manchester, December 3, 1858 | Speech: Coventry, December 4, 1858 | Speech: London, March 29, 1862 | Speech: London, May 20, 1862 | Speech: London, May 11, 1864 | Speech: London, May 9, 1865 | Speech: Newspaper Press Fund.--london, May 20, 1865 | Speech: Knebworth, July 29, 1865 | Speech: London, February 14, 1866 | Speech: London, March 28, 1866 | Speech: London, May 7, 1866 | Speech: London, June 5, 1867 | Speech: London, September 17, 1867 | Speech: London, November 2, 1867 | Speech: Boston, April 8, 1868 | Speech: New York, April 18, 1863 | Speech: New York, April 20, 1868 | Speech: Liverpool, April 10, 1869 | Speech: The Oxford And Harvard Boat Race. Sydenham, August 30 | Speech: Birmingham, September 27, 1869 | Speech: Birmingham, January 6, 1870 | Speech: London, April 6, 1846. {20} | Speech: Leeds, December 1, 1847 | Speech: Glasgow, December 28, 1847 | Speech: London, April 14, 1851 | Speech: The Royal Literary Fund. London, March 12, 1856 | Speech: London, November 5, 1857 | Speech: London, May 8, 1858 | Speech: The Farewell Reading. St. James's Hall, March 15, 1870 | Speech: The Newsvendors' Institution, London, April 5, 1870 | Speech: Macready. London, March 1, 1851 | Speech: Sanitary Reform. London, May 10, 1851 | Speech: Gardening. London, June 9, 1851 | Speech: The Royal Academy Dinner. London, May 2, 1870
SPEECH: EDINBURGH, JUNE 25, 1841.
[At a public dinner, given in honour of Mr. Dickens, and presided over by the late Professor Wilson, the Chairman having proposed his health in a long and eloquent speech, Mr. Dickens returned thanks as follows:-]
If I felt your warm and generous welcome less, I should be better able to thank you. If I could have listened as you have listened to the glowing language of your distinguished Chairman, and if I could have heard as you heard the "thoughts that breathe and words that burn," which he has uttered, it would have gone hard but I should have caught some portion of his enthusiasm, and kindled at his example. But every word which fell from his lips, and every demonstration of sympathy and approbation with which you received his eloquent expressions, renders me unable to respond to his kindness, and leaves me at last all heart and no lips, yearning to respond as I would do to your cordial greeting--possessing, heaven knows, the will, and desiring only to find the way.
The way to your good opinion, favour, and support, has been to me very pleasing--a path strewn with flowers and cheered with sunshine. I feel as if I stood amongst old friends, whom I had intimately known and highly valued. I feel as if the deaths of the fictitious creatures, in which you have been kind enough to express an interest, had endeared us to each other as real afflictions deepen friendships in actual life; I feel as if they had been real persons, whose fortunes we had pursued together in inseparable connexion, and that I had never