snuffboxes of all sorts. I had the finest natural taste for lace and
china of any man I ever knew."

To dress well, to wear a sword with a grace, to carry away his plunder
with affected indifference, and to appear to be equally easy when he
loses his last ducat, to be agreeable to women, and to look like a
gentleman,--these are his accomplishments. In one place he rises to the
height of a grand professor in the art of gambling, and gives his
lessons with almost a noble air. "Play grandly, honourably. Be not of
course cast down at losing; but above all, be not eager at winning, as
mean souls are." And he boasts of his accomplishments with so much
eloquence as to make the reader sure that he believes in them. He is
quite pathetic over himself, and can describe with heartrending words
the evils that befall him when others use against him successfully any
of the arts which he practises himself.

The marvel of the book is not so much that the hero should evidently
think well of himself, as that the author should so tell his story as to
appear to be altogether on the hero's side. In _Catherine_, the horrors
described are most truly disgusting,--so much that the story, though
very clever, is not pleasant reading. _The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon_ are
very pleasant to read. There is nothing to shock or disgust. The style
of narrative is exactly that which might be used as to the exploits of a
man whom the author intended to represent as deserving of sympathy and
praise,--so that the reader is almost brought to sympathise. But I
should be doing an injustice to Thackeray if I were to leave an
impression that he had taught lessons tending to evil practice, such as
he supposed to have been left by _Jack Sheppard_ or _Eugene Aram_. No
one will be tempted to undertake the life of a _chevalier d'industrie_
by reading the book, or be made to think that cheating at cards is
either an agreeable or a profitable profession. The following is
excellent as a tirade in favour of gambling, coming from Redmond de
Balibari, as he came to be called during his adventures abroad, but it
will hardly persuade anyone to be a gambler;

"We always played on parole with anybody,--any person, that is, of
honour and noble lineage. We never pressed for our winnings, or declined
to receive promissory notes in lieu of gold. But woe to the man who did
not pay when the note became due! Redmond de Balibari was sure to wait
upon him with his bill, and I promise you