nguished career.
Most of his later work was published in its pages, but "Lovel the
Widower" and the "Adventures of Philip" have not taken a place beside
his greater work. In the essays constituting the "Roundabout Papers,"
however, he appeared at his easiest and most charming. After a little
more than two years he resigned the editorship; and on December 23,
1863, he died._

_Thackeray's greatest distinction is, of course, as a novelist, and an
estimate of his work in this field is not in place here. But as an
essayist he is also great. The lectures on the "English Humourists,"
of which the following paper on "Swift" was the first, were the fruit
of an intimate knowledge of the time of Queen Anne, and a warm sympathy
with its spirit. And here, as in all his mature work, Thackeray is the
master of a style that for ease, suppleness, and range of effect has
seldom been equaled in English._

JONATHAN SWIFT[1]

BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

In treating of the English humourists of the past age, it is of the men
and of their lives, rather than of their books, that I ask permission to
speak to you; and in doing so, you are aware that I cannot hope to
entertain you with a merely humourous or facetious story. Harlequin
without his mask is known to present a very sober countenance, and was
himself, the story goes, the melancholy patient whom the Doctor advised
to go and see Harlequin--a man full of cares and perplexities like the
rest of us, whose Self must always be serious to him, under whatever mask
or disguise or uniform he presents it to the public. And as all of you
here must needs be grave when you think of your own past and present, you
will not look to find, in the histories of those whose lives and feelings
I am going to try and describe to you, a story that is otherwise than
serious, and of ten very sad. If Humour only meant laughter, you would
scarcely feel more interest about humourous 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 humourous 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
opp