my
own tragedy, my own verses.... I daresay I wrote satirical articles....
I daresay I made a gaby of myself to the world. Pray, my good friend,
hast thou never done likewise? If thou hast never been a fool, be sure
thou wilt never be a wise man." Thackeray was quite aware of his early
weaknesses, and in the maturity of life knew well that he had not been
precociously wise. He delighted so to tell his friends, and he delighted
also to tell the public, not meaning that any but an inner circle should
know that he was speaking of himself. But the story now is plain to all
who can read.[1]

It was thus that he lost his money; and then, not having prospered very
well with his drawing lessons in Paris or elsewhere, he was fain to take
up literature as a profession. It is a business which has its
allurements. It requires no capital, no special education, no training,
and may be taken up at any time without a moment's delay. If a man can
command a table, a chair, pen, paper, and ink, he can commence his trade
as literary man. It is thus that aspirants generally do commence it. A
man may or may not have another employment to back him, or means of his
own; or,--as was the case with Thackeray, when, after his first
misadventure, he had to look about him for the means of living,--he may
have nothing but his intellect and his friends. But the idea comes to
the man that as he has the pen and ink, and time on his hand, why
should he not write and make money?

It is an idea that comes to very many men and women, old as well as
young,--to many thousands who at last are crushed by it, of whom the
world knows nothing. A man can make the attempt though he has not a coat
fit to go out into the street with; or a woman, though she be almost in
rags. There is no apprenticeship wanted. Indeed there is no room for
such apprenticeship. It is an art which no one teaches; there is no
professor who, in a dozen lessons, even pretends to show the aspirant
how to write a book or an article. If you would be a watchmaker, you
must learn; or a lawyer, a cook, or even a housemaid. Before you can
clean a horse you must go into the stable, and begin at the beginning.
Even the cab-driving tiro must sit for awhile on the box, and learn
something of the streets, before he can ply for a fare. But the literary
beginner rushes at once at the top rung of his ladder;--as though a
youth, having made up his mind to be a clergyman, should demand, without
preliminary