…conversation. We have an interesting example of this recorded by Emerson when he came to England and had a talk with Dickens. Emerson records a conversation in which he and Dickens discussed the relative chastity of English and American young men. And…

…by Emerson when he came to England and had a talk with Dickens. Emerson records a conversation in which he and Dickens discussed the relative chastity of English and American young men. And Emerson asserted that practically all American young men of his…

…Emerson asserted that practically all American young men of his period, I don't know if it's still true, were remarkably chaste. And Dickens, on the other hand, insisted that most English young men were not. And he added that if his own son were unduly…

…be disturbed as thinking it was a sign of ill health. Needless to say, nothing of this kind ever got into any of Dickens' novels. And this is a strange and distressing fact to find that it was necessary for the greatest novelist of the period simply…