who paid for their seats, were satisfied with their
bargain,--as they were also in the case of Dickens; and I venture to say
that in becoming publicly a reader, neither did Dickens or Thackeray
"alter his position as a writer," and "that it was a change to be
justified," though the success of the old calling had in no degree
waned. What Thackeray did enabled him to leave a comfortable income for
his children, and one earned honestly, with the full approval of the
world around him.

Having saturated his mind with the literature of Queen Anne's time,--not
probably in the first instance as a preparation for _Esmond_, but in
such a way as to induce him to create an Esmond,--he took the authors
whom he knew so well as the subject for his first series of lectures. He
wrote _The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century_ in 1851, while
he must have been at work on _Esmond_, and first delivered the course at
Willis's Rooms in that year. He afterwards went with these through many
of our provincial towns, and then carried them to the United States,
where he delivered them to large audiences in the winter of 1852 and
1853. Some few words as to the merits of the composition I will
endeavour to say in another place. I myself never heard him lecture, and
can therefore give no opinion of the performance. That which I have
heard from others has been very various. It is, I think, certain that he
had none of those wonderful gifts of elocution which made it a pleasure
to listen to Dickens, whatever he read or whatever he said; nor had he
that power of application by using which his rival taught himself with
accuracy the exact effect to be given to every word. The rendering of a
piece by Dickens was composed as an oratorio is composed, and was then
studied by heart as music is studied. And the piece was all given by
memory, without any looking at the notes or words. There was nothing of
this with Thackeray. But the thing read was in itself of great interest
to educated people. The words were given clearly, with sufficient
intonation for easy understanding, so that they who were willing to hear
something from him felt on hearing that they had received full value for
their money. At any rate, the lectures were successful. The money was
made,--and was kept.

He came from his first trip to America to his new house in Onslow
Square, and then published _The Newcomes_. This, too, was one of his
great works, as to which I shall have to speak h