Virtue in Rags and Patches
Charles Dickens explains to the young men of Boston MA what it is that motivates him to write.
1842
Charles Dickens explains to the young men of Boston MA what it is that motivates him to write.
1842
In February 1842, Charles Dickens gave a speech in Boston, Massachusetts, before such literary greats as George Bancroft, Washington Allston and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In reply to the Chairman’s toast, Dickens shared with the company of some two hundred guests his thoughts on what drove him to write.
THE objects and purposes I have had in view are very plain and simple, and may be easily told. I have always had, and always shall have, an earnest and true desire to contribute, as far as in me lies, to the common stock of healthful cheerfulness and enjoyment.
I have always had, and always shall have, an invincible repugnance to that mole-eyed philosophy which loves the darkness, and winks and scowls in the light. I believe that Virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches, as she does in purple and fine linen. I believe that she and every beautiful object in external nature, claims some sympathy in the breast of the poorest man who breaks his scanty loaf of daily bread. I believe that she goes barefoot as well as shod. I believe that she dwells rather oftener in alleys and by-ways than she does in courts and palaces, and that it is good, and pleasant, and profitable to track her out, and follow her.