Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/18

vi VI DEDICATION.

belialf of Englisli literature, and of those wlio devote tlienisclvcs to the most precarious of all pursuits, I do but imperfect justice to my own strong feelings on the subject, if I do no service to you.

These few sentences would have comprised all I should have had to say, if I had only known you in your public character. On the score of private feeling, let me add one word more.

Accept the dedication of this book, my dear Sir, as a mark of my warmest regard and esteem — as a memorial of the most gratifying friendship I have ever contracted, and of some of the pleasantest hours I have ever spent — as a token of my fervent admiration of every fine quality of your head and heart — a.s an assurance of the truth and sin- cerity with which I shall ever be,

!My dear Sir,

]Most faithfully and sincerely yours,

CHARLES DICKENS.

48, Doughty Street,

September 27, 1037.