a certificate of virtue. And as dubious goods or letters are passed through an oven at quarantine, sprinkled with aromatic vinegar, and then pronounced clean—many a lady whose reputation would be doubtful otherwise and liable to give infection, passes through the wholesome ordeal of the Royal Presence, and issues from it free from all taint."
In his later novels Thackeray used in greater proportion
the more artistic indirect method, although he could
more easily have plucked out his eye and cast it from
him than to have performed the same operation on his
habit of moralizing, which most frequently took the form
of a semi-whimsical but wholly homiletic exhortation to
his dear readers to make a personal application of the
lessons involved in the story.[1]
Of these later instances, one illustrates the use of literary allusion, neatly combined with the commercial.[2]
"Though, no doubt, in these matters, when Lovelace is tired
of Clarissa (or the contrary), it is best for both parties to break
at once, * * * yet our self-love, or our pity, or our sense
of decency, does not like that sudden bankruptcy. Before we
announce to the world that our firm of Lovelace and Co. can't
meet its engagements, we try to make compromises; we have
mournful meetings of partners; we delay the putting up of the
shutters, and the dreary announcement of the failure. It must
- ↑ Among countless such gems, the following is of purest ray serene: "Oh, be humble, my brother, in your prosperity! Be gentle with those who are less lucky, if not more deserving. Think, what right have you to be scornful, whose virtue is a deficiency of temptation, whose success may be a chance, whose rank may be an ancestor's accident, whose prosperity is very likely a satire." Vanity Fair, II, 43.
- ↑ Pendennis, II, 53. The introductory chapter of The Newcomes needs only to be recalled as an instance of the satirical fable. Nor is the beginning of Henry Esmond lacking in the satirical tone.
