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.