Why I love Dickens

From his “Appendix,” “The Old Curiosity Shop” by Charles Dickens:

“I spend many hours of every day in solitude and study, have no friends or change of friends, but these; only see them at stated periods and am supposed to be of a retired spirit by the very nature and object of our association.

“We are men of secluded habits with something of a cloud upon our early fortunes, whose enthusiasm, nevertheless, has not cooled with age, whose spirit of romance is not yet quenched, who are content to ramble through the world in a pleasant dream rather than ever awaken again to its harsh realities.

“We are alchemists who would extract the essence of perpetual youth from dust and ashes, tempt coy truth in many light and airy forms from the bottom of her well, and discover one crumb of comfort or one grain of good in the commonest and least regarded matter that passes through our crucible.

“Spirits of past times, creatures of our imagination and people of today are alike the objects of our seeking. And, unlike the objects of search with most philosophers, we can ensure their coming at our command.”