Probably no one but an English writer, writing of an English subject, would refer in Dickens’s off-hand manner to Dunstan, the English statesman and archbishop who accomplished so much for religion that he came to be known as Saint Dunstan.
One of the most characteristically English touches in the two paragraphs is the reference to the carol sung by the boy at Scrooge’s keyhole. Other countries have Christmas carols, but the custom of singing them before people’s houses is peculiarly common in England. The carol of which the first two lines are quoted is perhaps the one most frequently sung.
These instances will give some idea of what is meant by local color, and of the methods used in securing it. It will be an interesting study to find other words and phrases in the remainder of the story which strengthen our feeling of the “Englishness” of A Christmas Carol.
Journeys Through Bookland furnishes an abundance of good stories of fine descriptive power. A few of the best are the following:
| Volume II, | page 405. | The King of the Golden River. |
| Volume IV, | page 174. | Incident of the French Camp. |
| Volume IV, | page 322. | The Attack on the Castle. |
| Volume VI, | page 173. | Sohrab and Rustum. |
D and E. The Lesson and the Author’s Purpose
The stories of the present day are many of them written with the avowed purpose of mere entertainment. The author is satisfied if his work sells, and cares nothing for the lesson he may teach, although by means of false views of life he may do ineffaceable harm to the minds of his readers. Many of the popular magazines and other periodicals, not even excepting some of those published especially for children, are full of light reading which vitiates the taste and may even undermine character by its seductive influence. In the effort to be entertaining the recent writers for children have only too frequently sacrificed strength and virility to a fascinating brilliancy that seizes the imagination of youthful readers and gives no material for subsequent growth. The earlier writers, those who produced the great classics which still are the most inspiring things in our language, were actuated by nobler motives. To them literature was not a trade, but a high calling, to which the writer came as a priest approaches his altar. Such a writer held a high purpose and kept it in view, often giving hours of thought and the best of his genius to work that the modern story writer neglects entirely or passes over with hasty evasion.
The purpose of the author is always a subject of interesting inquiry, and whenever it appears a serious one it is worthy our careful study. The novel is often the medium of conveying the results of deep study into human character, and a few of the greatest stories have been epoch-making in their effect upon the human race.
As the fiction which children read has a profound influence in the formation of character, it should always be examined with greatest care to see that the author’s purpose is a laudable one and that he carries it out in such a way that the lesson is wholesome and salutary. Some stories may be entertaining merely—they are for the play-spells of the imagination; others should be instructive—they are for hours of study and reflection; a third class should be invigorating and inspiring, full of good lessons of high moral import—they are for times of stress, or the still hours when character is made.