tures suffer noticeably from this tendency; in the Newcomes it is at times almost offensive. Fortunately in his greatest single production, Esmond, the artist triumphs, and the voice of the preacher is not so loud. Perhaps this is one reason why we rate Esmond above his other books. Thackeray's religious belief* cannot be stated in terms of exact dogma, for he could not state it that way himself; but taking his life as a whole, we see that he believed in God, and tried to keep His commandments. *For a striking letter he wrote about this, see Introduction to Works, Biog. Edition, VII, xxxiv and xxxv. THE ENGLISH HUMOURISTS. Thackeray sailed for America on October 30, 1852. He landed at Boston, after a very long and rough passage, and left shortly for New York. In the New York Tribune for November 17, we find the following editorial comment: "Mr. THACKERAY arrived from Boston by the express day train yesterday. His first lecture will be given on Friday evening; and we advise those who mean to hear it to secure seats to-day. We think there will be few unsold to-morrow. The Tribune for November 19 contained the following advertisement, which gave for the first time the full program with the separate dates: Je Mercantile Library Association.—The Board of Direction have the pleasure to announce that Mr. THACKERAY will deliver his course of Six Lectures, at Rev. Mr. Chapin's, (late Rev. Mr. Bellows's) Church, No. 543 Broadway, near Prince -st., on MONDAY and FRIDAY EVENINGS of each week, commencing at 8 o'clock. Friday, Nov. 19-Swift. Monday, Nov. 22-Congreve and Addison. Friday, Nov. 26-Steele and the Times of Queen Anne. Friday, Dec. 3-Hogarth, Smollett and Fielding. Course Tickets to members, $2; to non-members, $3. A limited number of single Admission Tickets can be had at the Library Rooms, or (unless previously disposed of) at the Door. WILLARD L. FELT, Ch'n. JAMES D. SMITH, JOHN F. HALSTED, Lecture Com. The course had to be repeated in New York, because of the impossibility of accommodating all who wished to hear the lecturer. The lectures accordingly began their second round before the first was completed. They were given again in the same church on the evenings of Dec. 1, 7, 10, 13, 15, and 17. Then Thackeray went to Boston, giving the opening lecture on Tuesday evening, Dec. 21, and continuing on Fridays and Tuesdays. There seems to have been some jealousy between New York and Boston as to which city he would visit first. This difficulty was partly solved by his landing at Boston and opening his course of lectures at New York, returning to Boston after his metropolitan success.* Whether Boston felt at all chagrined by the lectures beginning at the other city or not is difficult to ascertain. The New York Tribune gave full and glowing accounts, extracts from which are printed below; while the Boston Advertiser's reports were confined to three or four sentences. * In Melville's Life, I, 291, 292, it is stated that the lectures were first given in Boston, and the exact dates of his New York lectures are erroneously given for the Boston series. Mr. Melville has the facts completely twisted. He says Thackeray remained in New York for a week, then went to Boston, gave his course twice, and then returned to New York to lecture. If we simply substitute "Boston" for "New York," and vice versa, we have the real facts. These were, however, favourable in every respect; and we know that the lectures were entirely successful in Boston. Thackeray lectured also in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Charleston, and Savannah, covering the Atlantic seaboard fairly well, and getting to know intimately persons of the most bitter opposition in political beliefs. The Civil War was therefore interesting to Thackeray in a way that few Englishmen found it. 66 It is possible that Thackeray did not at first intend the Lectures to be published at all; and he certainly determined not to print them until they had first achieved their principal object, namely, to enable him to save up sufficient money to provide for his children. Before he left Washington for the South, his Lectures on the English Humourists were announced by Messrs. Harper in the list of their forthcoming publications. A gentleman, who was conversing with him, asked if the volume would be published before he had finished his tour. 'Bless you, no,' the great man replied. 'Do you think I'd rip open my goose?' But when that reason no longer existed [1853] they were published with notes by James Hannay, simultaneously in England and America, but without illustrations, though Thackeray had actually sketched Steele and Dr. Johnson and Boswell before the idea was abandoned." (Melville's Life of Thackeray, II, 4.) The lectures were published in London on the fourth of June, 1853, price ten shillings and sixpence. As this original edition seems to be hard to find, a photographic reproduction of the title page slightly reduced, follows. |