It has been said that by reason of writing so much about snobs that Thackeray came to see snobbishness where there was none.  But certain it is he laid a smart but kindly finger on many a small-minded prejudice.  Several times in this book you have heard of sizars and commoners, stupid distinctions which are happily now done away with.  Perhaps you would like to know what Thackeray thought of them.  For although it is not a very good illustration of real snobbishness, it is interesting to read in connection with the lives of many great writer.

“If you consider, dear reader, what profound snobbishness the University System produced, you will allow that it is time to attack some of those feudal Middle-age superstitions.  If you go down for five shillings to look at the ‘College Youths,’ you may see one sneaking down the court without a tassel to his cap; another with a gold or silver fringe to his velvet trencher; a third lad with a master’s gown and hat, walking at ease over the sacred College grass-plats, which common men must not tread on.

“He may do it because he is a nobleman.  Because a lad is a lord, the University gives him a degree at the end of two years which another is seven in acquiring.  Because he is a lord, he has no call to go through an examination. . . .

“The lads with gold and silver lace are sons of rich gentlemen, and called Fellow Commoners; they are privileged to feed better than the pensioners, and to have wine with their victuals, which the latter can only get in their rooms.

“The unlucky boys who have no tassels to their caps, are called sizars—­servitors at Oxford—­(a very pretty and gentlemanlike title).  A distinction is made in their clothes because they are poor; for which reason they wear a badge of poverty, and are not allowed to take their meals with their fellow students.”

But the same pen that wrote sharply and satirically about snobs, wrote loving letters in big round hand to his dear daughters, who were living far away in Paris.  For either child he used a different hand, so that each might know at once to whom the letter was addressed.  Here is part of one to his “dearest Nanny.”  “How glad I am that it is a black puss and not a black nuss you have got!  I thought you did not know how to spell nurse, and had spelt it en-you-double-ess; but I see the spelling gets better as the letters grow longer:  they cannot be too long for me.  Laura must be a very good-natured girl.  I hope my dear Nanny is so too, not merely to her school mistress and friends, but to everybody—­to her servants and her nurses.  I would sooner have you gentle and humble-minded than ever so clever.  Who was born on Christmas Day?  Somebody Who was so great, that all the world worships Him; and so good that all the world loves Him; and so gentle and humble that He never spoke an unkind word.  And there is a little sermon and a great deal of love and affection from papa."*