Captain Shindy, the Snob, does not tell us so plainly what is not a gentleman as does Colonel Newcome what is.
Nevertheless the ludicrous has, with Thackeray, been very powerful, and very delightful.
In trying to describe what is done by literature of this class, it is especially necessary to remember that different readers are affected in a different way.

That which is one man's meat is another man's poison.
In the sublime, when the really grand has been reached, it is the reader's own fault if he be not touched.

We know that many are indifferent to the soliloquies of Hamlet, but we do not hesitate to declare to ourselves that they are so because they lack the power of appreciating grand language.

We do not scruple to attribute to those who are indifferent some inferiority of intelligence.

And in regard to the realistic, when the truth of a well-told story or life-like character does not come home, we think that then, too, there is deficiency in the critical ability.