W1L,IAAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 



BY REV. CHAS. J. STAPI.es. 



A Eecture DeivIverkd Before Section E. of the 



Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences 



January 15, 1901. 



A well-worn subject is not, therefore, uninteresting. The 

 fact that it is well worn and has been treated many times by 

 many men of many minds only goes to prove its fascination. 

 This writing about writing is rather poor business ; and yet if 

 we can forget what has been written about Thackeray and look 

 at his work with our own eyes we may gain a fresh point of 

 view that may not be without its value. It may set others to 

 looking, too ; it may bring out some unexpected lines and feat- 

 ures. But yet our criticism will be false and futile if it repre- 

 sent but a personal whim, the vagary of one who strives to see 

 something no one ever saw before. Mere personal taste counts 

 little ; we must justify our ways, at least to ourselves. What 

 shall be our standard of what is best in literature when we think 

 of work like Thackeray's, wide-reaching, large in amount, in- 

 tensely individual ? Without trying to settle such a tremen- 

 dous question let us dodge it with what the scientists call a 

 " working hypothesis." Suppose we say that all literature pos- 

 sesses the qualities of substance and the qualifies of form. One 

 is the thought, the other the expression ; one concerns the mind 

 and feeling piit into any work, the other the way and manner 

 in which the subject is treated, its art and language. In the 

 best literature we find a certain quality of its substance we may 

 call zest, earnestness, or power ; the presence of a compelling 



