Thackeray's affection for assumed names was more intermittent, though I doubt whether he used his own name altogether till it appeared on the title-page of _Vanity Fair_.

About this time began his connection with _Punch_, in which much of his best work appeared.

Looking back at our old friend as he used to come out from week to week at this time, we can hardly boast that we used to recognise how good the literary pabulum was that was then given for our consumption.

We have to admit that the ordinary reader, as the ordinary picture-seer, requires to be guided by a name.

We are moved to absolute admiration by a Raphael or a Hobbema, but hardly till we have learned the name of the painter, or, at any rate, the manner of his painting.