teen years after Fielding, eight
years after Sterne, and who has been moved up, I presume, simply from
caprice. From the birth of the first to the death of the last, was a
period of nearly a hundred years. They were never absolutely all alive
together; but it was nearly so, Addison and Prior having died before
Smollett was born. Whether we should accept as humorists the full
catalogue, may be a question; though we shall hardly wish to eliminate
any one from such a dozen of names. Pope we should hardly define as a
humorist, were we to be seeking for a definition specially fit for him,
though we shall certainly not deny the gift of humour to the author of
_The Rape of the Lock_, or to the translator of any portion of _The
Odyssey_. Nor should we have included Fielding or Smollett, in spite of
Parson Adams and Tabitha Bramble, unless anxious to fill a good company.
That Hogarth was specially a humorist no one will deny; but in speaking
of humorists we should have presumed, unless otherwise notified, that
humorists in letters only had been intended. As Thackeray explains
clearly what he means by a humorist, I may as well here repeat the
passage: "If humour only meant laughter, you would scarcely feel more
interest about humorous writers than about the private life of poor
Harlequin just mentioned, who possesses in common with these the power
of making you laugh. But the men regarding whose lives and stories your
kind presence here shows that you have curiosity and sympathy, appeal to
a great number of our other faculties, besides our mere sense of
ridicule. The humorous writer professes to awaken and direct your love,
your pity, your kindness,--your scorn for untruth, pretension,
imposture,--your tenderness for the weak, the poor, the oppressed, the
unhappy. To the best of his means and ability he comments on all the
ordinary actions and passions of life almost. He takes upon himself to
be the week-day preacher, so to speak. Accordingly, as he finds, and
speaks, and feels the truth best, we regard him, esteem him,--sometimes
love him. And as his business is to mark other people's lives and
peculiarities, we moralise upon _his_ life when he is gone,--and
yesterday's preacher becomes the text for to-day's sermon."

Having thus explained his purpose, Thackeray begins his task, and puts
Swift in his front rank as a humorist. The picture given of this great
man has very manifestly the look of truth, and if true, is terrible
inde