e commencement of the Newcomes in which we have
conversations between a fox, an owl, a wolf in sheep's clothing, and a
donkey in a lion's skin, and such incongruities as would have shocked
Aristophanes. His Christmas books depend mostly on the broad caricatures
with which they are embellished, and upon a large supply of rough
joking.

Thackeray wrote a work named the "English Humorists," but he omits in it
all mention of the humour by which his authors were immortalized.
Certainly the ordinary habits and little foibles of great men are more
entertaining to the general public than inquiries into the nature of
their talent, which would only interest those fond of study and
investigation.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Dickens--Sympathy with the Poor--Vulgarity--Geniality--Mrs.
Gamp--Mixture of Pathos and Humour--Lever and Dickens
compared--Dickens' power of Description--General Remarks.

We shall be paying Hood no undue compliment if we couple his name with
that of Dickens as betokening the approach of milder and gentler
sentiments. They were themselves the chief pioneers of the better way.
Hitherto the poor and uneducated had been regarded with a certain amount
of contempt; their language and stupidity had formed fertile subjects
for the coarse ridicule of the humorist. But now a change was in
progress; broader views were gaining ground, and a time was coming when
men, notwithstanding the accidents of birth and fortune, should feel
mutual sympathy, and

"brothers be for a' that."

With Dickens the poor man was not a mere clown or blockhead; but beneath
his "hodden gray" often carried good feeling, intelligence, and wit. He
was rather humorous than ludicrous, and had some dignity of character.
Since his time, consideration for the poor has greatly increased; we see
it in the large charitable gifts, which are always increasing--in the
interest taken in schools and hospitals. Probably the respectable and
quiet character of the labouring classes has contributed to raise them
in the estimation of the richer part of the community.

A large portion of English humour is now employed upon so-called
vulgarity. The modification of feeling with regard to the humbler
classes has caused changes in the signification of this word. Originally
derived from "vulgus," the crowd, it meant that roughness of language
and manner which is found among the less educated. It did not properly
imply anything culpable, but had a bad sense giv