Ahab did not like Micaiah, because he never prophesied good concerning
him, but evil; probably he liked the sycophant son of Chenaannah
better; yet might Ahab have escaped a bloody death, had he but
stopped his ears to flattery, and opened them to faithful counsel.

There is a man in our own days whose words are not framed to tickle
delicate ears: who, to my thinking, comes before the great ones
of society, much as the son of Imlah came before the throned Kings
of Judah and Israel; and who speaks truth as deep, with a power
as prophet-like and as vital -- a mien as dauntless and as daring.
Is the satirist of "Vanity Fair" admired in high places? I cannot
tell; but I think if some of those amongst whom he hurls the Greek
fire of his sarcasm, and over whom he flashes the levin-brand
of his denunciation, were to take his warnings in time -- they or
their seed might yet escape a fatal Rimoth-Gilead.

Why have I alluded to this man? I have alluded to him, Reader,
because I think I see in him an intellect profounder and more unique
than his contemporaries have yet recognised; because I regard him
as the first social regenerator of the day -- as the very master
of that working corps who would restore to rectitude the warped
system of things; because I think no commentator on his writings
has yet found the comparison that suits him, the terms which rightly
characterise his talent. They say he is like Fielding: they talk
of his wit, humour, comic powers. He resembles Fielding as an eagle
does a vulture: Fielding could stoop on carrion, but Thackeray
never does. His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both
bear the same relation to his serious genius that the mere lambent
sheet-lightning playing under the edge of the summer-cloud does to
the electric death-spark hid in its womb. Finally, I have alluded