No writer ever lived whose method was more exact, whose industry was more constant, and whose punctuality was more marked, than those of Charles Dickens.  He never shirked labor, mental or bodily.  He rarely declined, if the object were a good one, taking the chair at a public meeting, or accepting a charitable trust.  Many widows and orphans of deceased literary men have for years been benefited by his wise trusteeship or counsel, and he spent a great portion of his time personally looking after the property of the poor whose interests were under his control.  He was, as has been intimated, one of the most industrious of men, and marvellous stories are told (not by himself) of what he has accomplished in a given time in literary and social matters.  His studies were all from nature and life, and his habits of observation were untiring.  If he contemplated writing “Hard Times,” he arranged with the master of Astley’s circus to spend many hours behind the scenes with the riders and among the horses; and if the composition of the “Tale of Two Cities” were occupying his thoughts, he could banish himself to France for two years to prepare for that great work.  Hogarth pencilled on his thumb-nail a striking face in a crowd that he wished to preserve; Dickens with his transcendent memory chronicled in his mind whatever of interest met his eye or reached his ear, any time or anywhere.  Speaking of memory one day, he said the memory of children was prodigious; it was a mistake to fancy children ever forgot anything.  When he was delineating the character of Mrs. Pipchin, he had in his mind an old lodging-house keeper in an English watering-place where he was living with his father and mother when he was but two years old.  After the book was written he sent it to his sister, who wrote back at once:  “Good heavens! what does this mean? you have painted our lodging-house keeper, and you were but two years old at that time!” Characters and incidents crowded the chambers of his brain, all ready for use when occasion required.  No subject of human interest was ever indifferent to him, and never a day went by that did not afford him some suggestion to be utilized in the future.

His favorite mode of exercise was walking; and when in America, scarcely a day passed, no matter what the weather, that he did not accomplish his eight or ten miles.  It was on these expeditions that he liked to recount to the companion of his rambles stories and incidents of his early life; and when he was in the mood, his fun and humor knew no bounds.  He would then frequently discuss the numerous characters in his delightful books, and would act out, on the road, dramatic situations, where Nickleby or Copperfield or Swiveller would play distinguished parts.  I remember he said, on one of these occasions, that during the composition of his first stories he could never entirely dismiss the characters about whom he happened to be writing; that while the “Old Curiosity Shop” was in process of composition Little Nell