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TRE LIFE AND ADVENLURES or NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. we CHARLES DICKENS, _ Lonpon: CHAPMAN AND HALL, x93, PICCADILLY. BREFACH ‘Taf story was begun*within a few months after the Publication of the cofbpleted “ Pickick Papers” ‘Therewere, then, a good many cheap Yorkshire schools in existence. ‘There are verPfew- wt wor ihe monstrous neglect of eduction in Eugland, and the Giscegard of it by the State as a means of forming govd of bad “citizens, amdfaiserable or happy men, private schools long afforded anotable example. Although any man who had proved his unfit. ness for any othgr occupttion in Ife, was free, without examination or qualfcation, fo open m school anywhere ; although pfeparation for the furfttions he undestook was required 1m the mugewa wya agusted to bring a boy into the world, or mjgbt one day assist, pethaps, to sond bien out of i jin the chemist, tht attomey, the, busgher, the baker, the _gandletclemaer the whole sound! of crafts and trades, the schOolehaster excepted ; and althdbyh school masters, us a Tacg, wgre the blockhestls and impostors wh might ., taturally be expected to spring dom such a state of things, and to flourish in it; these Yorkshire schoolmasters were'the lowest and saost rotten rotind in the whold ladder, ‘Trafferadin she avarice, indifierence, ot imbecility of parents, and the helglesmness of children ; ignorant, sordid, twutat men, 2 whom few considerate petons would bave eptrusted the hoard and lodging 6f 2 horse or * aldog ; they farmed the worthy fomerstong ofa structupe, which, PREFACE, fox* absurdity and a fnagnififent highminded dmisysailer neglect, has rarely beep Axceeded in the worl, We hear sometimes of an action for damages against the unqualified medical proMitioner, gwho ifs deformed a Broken int in pretertting, to heal it, But what of the hundreds of thousands of minds that have beon deformed for ever by the incapable pébtvfoggers who have fretnded to for them ! T make mention of ght race, as of the Zorkshire ‘choolmasters, in tle past tensg, ‘Thowgh it has not yet finally disappeared, it is Grrindling daily, A long day's ork remains to be done abdut us Jin the way pf education, Heaven knows ; bgt great improventgnis “and facilities tomards the attainment of a ghod one ive been furvighed of late years, Veannot call to mind, now, how I came to hear about Yorkspice achoola when I fins a mot yery robust child, sitting in yeglaoae neat Rochester*Castle, with a head full of Paxramman, Stear, Tom Ports, and Sanco Panza but 1 know thet my frst io pressions of them were picked up at the time,’and that'they were somehow or other connected with a suppurated abscess that some oy had come b8me with, in consequence of his Yorkshire guide, philosopher, and ftiend, having rippéd it open with am ioky pea , kSify “The impression made upon me, howergr made, never left me." wag always curious about Yorkshire schools-—fell, long BNternards and at sungy times, into the way ofhearing more about them-—at Igst, having an Sudience, regolyed to write about the@, With phat jatent 4 went down int Yorkshire before 1 began this book, in very severe Wntertime, which if preity fhithfully escribed hereig, As T wanted fdhree a schoolmaster or tro, and was forewarned thgt those gentlgnen might, in their modesty, be shy of receiving a Visit from the author of the “ Pidkwick Papers,” 1 conaulted with w professional fea who hed a Yorkahite*con- nection, and with whom'T concerted's pious fraud. Ele gave me some letters of'intepduction, in the name, ‘of may travelligg * couupanion ; they bore reference to a supposititious Kittle boy who PREFACE, iliad been left with a widowed mother, who Qjdn't know whi to jdo with fim ; 1% poor Indy hyd thought, as a mgans of thawing (the tardy compassion of her relations in his behalf, of sending ihim toa Yorkshire schoo! ; Iwas the poor lady'svriend, travelling” that way; and if che recipient &f the leiter could jaform sme pf a school in the neigubouthood, the writer would be very much obliged. . oo ot Twent to several places in that part of the cotintry where T understood the schools to be most pleatifully sprinkled, and had po cocssion to deliver a letter uptil T came to.8 coriain town ‘whigh shall by nameless. ‘The person to whom it waa addressed was not at home ; but ‘he came down at night, through the stow, to the inn where Iwas staying. Itwas after dinner, and he needed ‘little persuasion to ait down by the fire in a warm comer,qand dzk¢ his sharé of the wine that wus on the table, | Tain aftaid he is dead now. I recdilect he was 2 jovial,'rnddy, ibroad-faced man ; that we got acquainted directly ; and that we ‘galked omal’kinds ‘of subjects, except the school, which he showed A great anxiety to avoid. Wes there any large school near? I -asked him, in reference to the letter. “Oh yes,she said; “ there ‘was a pratty big’un.” “Wag it a good one?” I asked?“ Ky!” he said, “itwas as good,as anoother ; that was 2? a matther of ‘opinion ;” and’ell to looking at the fire, staring round the Zook, -and whistling a litte, On my reverting to, some other topic that ‘we,had been discussing, he recovered ,imumediately ; but, though I fried him again and dgsth, 1 never approached the*question of ithe’ school, even, fi,he were in the, middle of a laugh,-without observing that his countenanre-fell, and that he became uncom- fortable, At last, when we hnd passed a coupleyof hours or 0,4 very agfeeably, he suddenly tok up his hag and leating over thedable and looking me full in the face, said, in a Tow'voice : “Weel, Misther, we've bern vara pléasant toogsther, and arll apak’ my moind tiv'ee, Dinnot let: the weedur sesd her lattle boy to yan of our schaolmeasthtss, while thett's 4 harse to hoold