The lad who attempts to write his essay in Ciceronian Latin struggles to achieve a style which is not indeed common to him, but is more common than any other he has become acquainted with in that tongue.
But Thackeray in his work had always to remember his Swift, his Steele, and his Addison, and to forget at the same time the modes of expression which the day had adopted.

Whether he asked advice on the subject, I do not know.

But I feel sure that if he did he must have been counselled against it.

Let my reader think what advice he would give to any writer on such a subject.

Probably he asked no advice, and would have taken none.