JONATHAN SWIFT
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY
THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY
I. WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY?
II. SITE OF A UNIVERSITY
III. UNIVERSITY LIFE AT ATHENS
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
THE STUDY OF POETRY
MATTHEW ARNOLD
SESAME AND LILIES
LECTURE I--SESAME: OF KINGS' TREASURIES
LECTURE II--LILIES: OF QUEENS' GARDENS
JOHN RUSKIN
JOHN MILTON
WALTER BAGEHOT
SCIENCE AND CULTURE
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
RACE AND LANGUAGE
EDWARD AUGUSTUS FREEMAN
TRUTH OF INTERCOURSE
SAMUEL PEPYS
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
ON THE ELEVATION OF THE LABORING CLASSES
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
THE POETIC PRINCIPLE
EDGAR ALLAN POE
WALKING
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
DEMOCRACY
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
_INTRODUCTORY NOTE_
_William Makepeace Thackeray, one of the greatest of English novelists,
was born at Calcutta, India, on July 18, 1811, where his father held an
administrative position. He was sent to England at six for his
education, which he received at the Charterhouse and Cambridge, after
which he began, but did not prosecute, the study of law. Having lost
his means, in part by gambling, he made up his mind to earn his living
as an artist, and went to Paris to study. He had some natural gift for
drawing, which he had already employed in caricature, but, though he
made interesting and amusing illustrations for his books, he never
acquired any marked technical skill._
_He now turned to literature, and, on the strength of an appointment as
Paris correspondent of a short-lived radical newspaper, he married. On
the failure of the newspaper he took to miscellaneous journalism and
the reviewing of books and pictures, his most important work appearing
in "Fraser's Magazine" and "Punch." In 1840 his wife's mind became
clouded, and, though she never recovered, she lived on till 1894._
_Success came to Thackeray very slowly. "Catherine," "The Great
Hoggarty Diamond," "Barry Lyndon," and several volumes of travel had
failed to gain much attention before the "Snob Papers," issued in
"Punch" in 1846, brought him fame. In the January of the next year
"Vanity Fair" began to appear in monthly numbers, and by the time it
was finished Thackeray had taken his place in the front rank of his
profession. "Pendennis" followed in 1850, and sustained the prestige
he had won._
_The next year he began lecturing, and delivered in London the lectures
on the "English Humourists," which he repeated the following winter in
America with much success. "Esmond" had appeared on the eve of his
setting sail, and revealed his style at its highest point of
perfection, and a tenderer if less powerful touch than "Vanity Fair"
had displayed. In 1855 "The Newcomes" appeared, and was followed by a
second trip to America, when he lectured on the "Four Georges." After
an unsuccessful attempt to enter Parliament, the novelist resumed his
writing with "The Virginians" (1857-59), in which he availed himself of
his American experiences._
_In the January of 1860 the "Cornhill Magazine" was founded, with
Thackeray as first editor, and launched on a distinguished 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._