"Solomon is dull; but don't attack his morality. He humbly submits
that, in his poem, no man shall mistake virtue for vice, no man shall
allow a single sentiment of pity or admiration to enter his bosom for
any character in the poem, it being from beginning to end a scene of
unmixed rascality, performed by persons who never deviate into good
feeling." The intention is intelligible enough, but such a story neither
could have been written nor read,--certainly not written by Thackeray,
nor read by the ordinary reader of a first-class magazine,--had he not
been enabled to adorn it by infinite wit. Captain Brock, though a brave
man, is certainly not described as an interesting or gallant soldier;
but he is possessed of great resources. Captain Macshane, too, is a
thorough blackguard; but he is one with a dash of loyalty about him, so
that the reader can almost sympathise with him, and is tempted to say
that Ikey Solomon has not quite kept his promise.

_Catherine_ appeared in 1839 and 1840. In the latter of those years _The
Shabby Genteel_ story also came out. Then in 1841 there followed _The
History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond_, illustrated
by Samuel's cousin, Michael Angelo. But though so announced in _Fraser_,
there were no illustrations, and those attached to the story in later
editions are not taken from sketches by Thackeray. This, as far as I
know, was the first use of the name Titmarsh, and seems to indicate some
intention on the part of the author of creating a hoax as to two
personages,--one the writer and the other the illustrator. If it were so
he must soon have dropped the idea. In the last paragraph he has shaken
off his cousin Michael. The main object of the story is to expose the
villany of bubble companies, and the danger they run who venture to have
dealings with city matters which they do not understand. I cannot but
think that he altered his mind and changed his purpose while he was
writing it, actuated probably by that editorial monition as to its