There can be no doubt that Thackeray, though he had hitherto been but a contributor of anonymous pieces to periodicals,--to what is generally considered as merely the ephemeral literature of the month,--had already become effective on the tastes and morals of readers.

Affectation of finery; the vulgarity which apes good breeding but never approaches it; dishonest gambling, whether with dice or with railway shares; and that low taste for literary excitement which is gratified by mysterious murders and Old Bailey executions had already received condign punishment from Yellowplush, Titmarsh, Fitzboodle, and Ikey Solomon.

Under all those names Thackeray had plied his trade as a satirist.

Though the truths, as the reviewer said, had been merely sent undulating through the air, they had already become effective.
Thackeray had now become a personage,--one of the recognised stars of the literary heaven of the day.

It was an honour to know him; and we may well believe that the givers of dinners were proud to have him among their guests.