I will make no comparison between two such rivals, who were so distinctly different from each, and each of whom, within so very short a period, has come to stand on a pedestal so high,--the two exalted to so equal a vocation.

And if Dickens showed the best of his power early in life, so did Thackeray the best of his intellect.

In no display of mental force did he rise above _Barry Lyndon_.

I hardly know how the teller of a narrative shall hope to mount in simply intellectual faculty above the effort there made.

In what then was the difference?
Why was Dickens already a great man when Thackeray was still a literary Bohemian?
The answer is to be found not in the extent or in the nature of the genius of either man, but in the condition of mind,--which indeed may be read plainly in their works by those who have eyes to see.