at humanity.  He was driven to the satirical task by the scenes about him.  There must be the moralist in the satirist if satire is to strike.  The stroke is weakened and art violated when he comes to the front.  But he will always be pressing forward, and Thackeray restrained him as much as could be done, in the manner of a good-humoured constable.  Thackeray may have appeared cynical to the devout by keeping him from a station in the pulpit among congregations of the many convicted sinners.  That the moralist would have occupied it and thundered had he presented us with the Fourth of the Georges we see when we read of his rejecting the solicitations of so seductive a personage for the satiric rod.

Himself one of the manliest, the kindliest of human creatures, it was the love of his art that exposed him to misinterpretation.  He did stout service in his day.  If the bad manners he scourged are now lessened to some degree we pay a debt in remembering that we owe much to him, and if what appears incurable remains with us, a continued reading of his works will at least help to combat it.

A PAUSE IN THE STRIFE—­1886

Our ‘Eriniad,’ or ballad epic of the enfranchisement of the sister island is closing its first fytte for the singer, and with such result as those Englishmen who have some knowledge of their fellows foresaw.  There are sufficient reasons why the Tories should always be able to keep together, but let them have the credit of cohesiveness and subordination to control.  Though working for their own ends, they won the esteem of their allies, which will count for them in the struggles to follow.  Their leaders appear to have seen what has not been distinctly perceptible to the opposite party—­that the break up of the Liberals means the defection of the old Whigs in permanence, heralding the establishment of a powerful force against Radicalism, with a capital cry to the country.  They have tactical astuteness.  If they seem rather too proud of their victory, it is merely because, as becomes them, they do not look ahead.  To rejoice in the gaining of a day, without having clear views of the morrow, is puerile enough.  Any Tory victory, it may be said, is little more than a pause in the strife, unless when the Radical game is played ’to dish the Whigs,’ and the Tories are now fast bound down by their incorporation of the latter to abstain from the violent springs and right-about-facings of the Derby-Disraeli period.  They are so heavily weighted by the new combination that their Jack-in-the-box, Lord Randolph, will have to stand like an ordinary sentinel on duty, and take the measurement of his natural size.  They must, on the supposition of their entry into office, even to satisfy their own constituents, produce a scheme.  Their majority in the House will command it.