less heavily and carefully than they are barred within; that the
universal diffusion of common means of decency and health is as much the right
of the poorest of the poor, as it is indispensable to the safety of the rich,
and of the State, that a few petty boards and bodies - less than drops in the
great ocean of humanity, which roars around them - are not for ever to let loose
Fever and Consumption on God's creatures at their will, or always to keep their
jobbing little fiddles going, for a Dance of Death.

                                   Chapter I

 

                               The Pickwickians.

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling
brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of
the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal
of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the
editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers,
as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice
discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided
to him has been conducted.
    »May 12, 1827. Joseph Smiggers, Esq., P.V.P.M.P.C.,1 presiding. The
following resolutions unanimously agreed to: -
    That this Association has heard read, with feelings of unmingled
satisfaction, and unqualified approval, the paper communicated by Samuel
Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C.,2 entitled Speculations on the Source of the
Hampstead Ponds, with some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats; and that
this Association does hereby return its warmest thanks to the said Samuel
Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C., for the same.
    That while this Association is deeply sensible of the advantages which must
accrue to the cause of science from the production to which they have just
adverted, - no less than from the unwearied researches of Samuel Pickwick, Esq.,
G.C.M.P.C., in Hornsey, Highgate, Brixton, and Camberwell, - they cannot but
entertain a lively sense of the inestimable benefits which must inevitably
result from carrying the speculations of that learned man into a wider field,
from extending his travels, and consequently enlarging his sphere of
observation, to the advancement of knowledge, and the diffusion of learning.
    That, with the view just mentioned, this Association has taken into its
serious consideration a proposal, emanating from the aforesaid Samuel Pickwick,
Esq., G.C.M.P.C., and three