Hi, I'm wondering if anyone knows the primary source of the following quote by Charles Dickens: An idea, like a ghost (according to the common notion of ghosts), must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. A book from 1875 by Samuel Austin Allibone entitled Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay attributed this quote to Dickens, just as many other books and websites have done, but I've been unable to find a primary source.
Did Dickens in fact write/say this, and if so, where? I would like to be able to uncover a primary source, if at all possible. Is Dickens actually the author of this line? And if not he, then who? I'm hoping someone here would have some additional clues.