IRLF 
 
 B 3 Sbl fiflfl 
 
STUDIES OF IRVING 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 
 GEORGE PALMER PUTNAM 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 182 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 1880 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 1880 
 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
1<J 33 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING : An Essay. By Charles Dudley Warner. 
 Prepared in January, 1880, as an Introduction to the " Geoffrey 
 Crayon " edition of Irving's Works 7 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING : His LIFE, CHARACTER, AND GENIUS. By 
 William Cullen Bryant. A Discourse delivered before the New 
 York Historical Society, April 3, 1860 77 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING : PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. By his Publisher, 
 George P. Putnam. Written for the Atlantic Monthly, Novem 
 ber, I860.. . 131 
 
WASHINGTON" IRVING 
 
 A 
 BIOGRAPHICAL A1STD CEITICAL STUDY 
 
 PREPARED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE " GEOFFREY CRAYON " 
 EDITION OF HIS WORKS 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER 
 
WASHINGTON IKVUTGL 
 
 T seems to be proper that a new and notewor 
 thy edition of the works of "Washington Irving 
 should be prefaced by a slight sketch of the 
 author's life, and some estimate of his position as a man 
 of letters. As the admirable " Life and Letters," edited 
 by his nephew, Mr. Pierre M. Irving, will form a part of 
 this edition, it is unnecessary here to indulge in many 
 biographical details ; and in the space allotted to me I 
 shall use them only to aid in the estimate that I wish 
 to make of the author. 
 
 The twenty years that have elapsed since Irving's 
 death do not at all represent the space that separates 
 our age from his. We seem to have lived a century 
 since the war of the rebellion came to shake and scat 
 ter forever our fatuous dream of security and immunity. 
 In two decades we have had the social and political 
 transformation and growth of a hundred years. And in 
 no aspect of our national life is the transition so marked 
 as it is in our literature, in our mental attitude towards 
 
 7 
 
8 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 the facts of our own life and the world foreign to us. 
 This change has not been produced alone by our internal 
 evolution; but this has conspired with outward influ 
 ences to break our sense of separateness as a people, to 
 abate our self-consciousness, and to give our literary ex 
 pression more freedom, vigor, and a more cosmopolitan 
 tone. The day of experiment may be said to be over; 
 the day of emancipation has come ; and in some of the 
 great departments of scholarship, however it may be in 
 literature, America looks no longer to England but to 
 Germany only for its rivals. Irving, in fact, died just on 
 the eve of a new era, an era to which the most active sur 
 vivors of that preceding it experience infinite difficulty 
 in adjusting themselves, one to which it is safe to say Ir 
 ving would have remained an uncomprehending stranger. 
 But this period, expanded as it is into more than a 
 generation of experience by its radical transitions, does 
 not, after all, measure our distance from Irving. He 
 lived far into an age of doubt, with whose spirit, except 
 in the most superficial way of material contact and en 
 joyment, he was not in sympathy. There is nothing in 
 his biography or his letters to show that during the 
 seventeen years of his residence abroad, and the time of 
 his most fertile mental activity, he apprehended the stir 
 in aspiration and thinking that what may be called the 
 " new learning" was introducing into England from Ger 
 many the first breaking up of the insularness of the 
 English mind the light of which in the face of Carlyle 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 9 
 
 soon drew the curious young Emerson across the Atlantic 
 to see. 
 
 Already when he returned to the United States in 
 1832, our most famous and most lauded and loved man 
 of letters, the dawn of change had declared itself here to a 
 sensitive observation. There never was a more sensitive 
 observer born in America than Irving, and that he did 
 not perceive this new effluence, or, if he did perceive it, 
 that he was unaffected by it, must be set down to the 
 fact that he was in his literary constitution the man of 
 another era ; and I should also add the minor fact, that 
 his surroundings were in a commercial metropolis, where 
 wealth and fashion, and family traditions based upon suc 
 cess in politics and trade rather than upon moral and lit 
 erary elements, conspired to make him insensible to what 
 was stirring in New England. If Irving had been born 
 and had lived in Boston, his career would have been very 
 different from what it was for he was exceedingly im 
 pressionable to the nearest influences but I doubt if it 
 would have been so serviceable to the world. But Irving 
 held himself measurably aloof from the age in which 
 he lived in other respects. I mention this, not by way of 
 criticism for of the right of the literary artist to take 
 the position of a calm observer merely, I shall have 
 something to say further on but only as accounting in 
 part for his distance away from us, the separation of his 
 writings from the feverish and unrestful conditions of 
 our own generation. 
 
10 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 Of the era of the Emancipation Act and the Reform Bill 
 in England, and of the anti-slavery agitation in America 
 an era in which were germinating everywhere the pow 
 erful forces of which our time has reaped the fruits in 
 revolutions Irving was almost a passive spectator. This 
 abstention was not from insensibility, it was certainly 
 not from cold-heartedness he looked at slavery, for in 
 stance, exactly as Washington regarded it, it was not 
 from want of patriotism, for in that respect he was an 
 American of the Americans, and it was not from want of 
 sympathy with what he called "the great cause of the 
 world ; " but he obeyed an instinct of his nature in keep 
 ing his literature free from what seemed to him tempo 
 rary excitements. I think he had in mind always the pro 
 duction of something that should be as good for one age 
 as for another, and, whether he succeeded or not, in this 
 he rightly apprehended the true function of literature. 
 His books are separated from us, then, by the absence in 
 them of what the newspapers call " living issues." The 
 next generation, if it recovers the leisurely frame of mind 
 which we have lost, will find in them no note of the re 
 formatory, religious and philosophical ferment, doubt and 
 chaos of his day. If I want at any moment to transport 
 myself into a calm and restful time, I can do it by taking 
 up Irving. And yet, before one can do this with enjoy 
 ment, he must discharge himself of the hurry which has 
 seized upon us all ; and to bespeak such a calm mental 
 state now, is something like promising to New York the 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. H 
 
 tranquillity of Egypt when it shall have set up the Alex 
 andrian obelisk amidst surroundings that are the most 
 incongruous that could be devised for it. 
 
 I am not now wishing to set up any comparison be 
 tween the literature of Irving and that of his successors, 
 but only to note the fact that he produced literature in 
 the strict sense in which I use the word ; literature being 
 not merely a report of the feeling and sentiment of a time 
 though it may be that in substance but having cer 
 tain other qualities of form and style which make it an 
 enduring thing in the world, and without which it falls 
 into the category of De Quincey's literature of knowledge 
 and not of power. 
 
 We are certainly far enough away from Irving to take 
 an impartial view of his literary rank, a view that would 
 have been impossible twenty-five years ago, when we 
 were under the glamour of his immense success. Never 
 did an author reign with more unquestioned sway than 
 he did for about fifty years. There was only here and 
 there a dissentient from the general approbation John 
 Neal, whose slashing criticism was often not without real 
 insight, so that some of it has come to be accepted as 
 just, and Edgar A. Poe, whose judgment of his contem 
 poraries is always open to the suspicion of petty personal 
 feeling. There was other criticism, there were excep 
 tions to this or that performance, but it was all from the 
 background of a universal recognition of Irving's high 
 place and popularity. No other literary man in America 
 
12 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 was so generally admired and loved, and probably no 
 other so widely and permanently influenced the diffused 
 literary tastes of his countrymen. Much of this was due 
 to his opportunity ; he appeared at the very beginning of 
 our formative period, and he gave it its direction and 
 tone for many years ; and it is very fortunate that this 
 plastic condition was operated on by an influence so pure 
 and salutary. His example and his early success abroad 
 gave a stimulus to literary production in this country, 
 the value of which we are likely to underestimate at this 
 moment ; but his greater service was the making of books 
 that were capable of exercising a refining and civilizing 
 power, and yet had in them the elements that made them 
 acceptable to almost everybody, high and low, who could 
 read. I am aware that the quality of a book has little 
 relation to its popularity at a given time even the con 
 temporary judgment of critics is as often at fault as that 
 of the masses ; I am only insisting that Irving's literature 
 had an immense and wholesome influence in this coun 
 try for fifty years. 
 
 Irving's career is a kind of bridge connecting two eras, 
 on which as we walk backward we have a distinct view of 
 amazing social and literary changes. He died in 1859, and 
 his birth was almost coeval with that of the Republic. 
 
 He first saw the light it was on the 3d of April, 1783 
 only a few months before General "Washington entered 
 New York upon its evacuation by the British troops. 
 The New York of now and of then is an epitome of our 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 13 
 
 national transformation. There are citizens who remem 
 ber the quaint, dormer-windowed brick house, with a 
 Dutch physiognomy, in William Street, where Irving 
 grew up. It was not pulled down till 1849. At the 
 time of his birth New York was a little town of about 
 23,000 inhabitants, with the characteristics of a village. 
 Its low and picturesque houses were grouped about the 
 Battery, which was the fashionable quarter, on strag 
 gling streets, that were said to have been laid out by the 
 indolent Dutch on cow-paths ; shade trees abounded, and 
 the military science of the militia captains on training 
 days was in nothing more conspicuous than in getting 
 their valiant companies around the water-pumps which 
 stood in the middle of the highway, and disorganized the 
 array as much as the taverns on the line of march, 
 though for a different reason. The town was in a sorry 
 condition ; it had been half destroyed by fire during the 
 Revolution, and trade did not exist except in the clumsy 
 boats that brought vegetables from Jersey and the isl 
 ands. The inhabitants were half Dutch and half Eng 
 lish, and the social demarkation was maintained, al 
 though the English influence predominated. Enterprise 
 almost immediately sprang up on the advent of peace, 
 and the city began its unchecked career. From the be 
 ginning almost, and in contrast to all other American 
 towns, it is noticeable that the people had city aspira 
 tions, and began to put on a metropolitan air before 
 they were out of village conditions. 
 
14 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 Society was organized differently from that of Boston 
 or Philadelphia; it was more cosmopolitan, less neigh 
 borly; the New Yorker was known everywhere by cer 
 tain assumptions. The commercial and trading spirit 
 ruled; there were country gentlemen whose influence 
 was not small in New York, but the city aristocracy were 
 the trading class ; the atmosphere was the reverse of 
 intellectual; what literary culture existed was simply a 
 liking for old English books, and some formal acquaint 
 ance with the classics, which had little vivifying effect. 
 There are small traces of the scientific spirit which 
 Franklin had planted in Philadelphia, or of the theolog 
 ical activity which prevailed in New England ; there was 
 a good substratum of old-fashioned orthodoxy and moral 
 ity, but society was on the whole free, convivial, pleasure- 
 loving; and the gay, somewhat mercurial character of 
 the people has been transmitted to their descendants. 
 This society was not incapable of taking up literature as 
 a fashion ; and it was the good fortune of Irving to make 
 literature rather the fashion. 
 
 Irving's father was a merchant who had settled in New 
 York in 1763, and been successful until his business was 
 broken up by the war. He was born on Shapinshay, one 
 of the Orkney Islands, of a notable family, whose fortunes 
 had decayed, which traced its descent from William de 
 Irwyn, the armor-bearer of Kobert Bruce. His mother, 
 Sarah Sanders, was a native of Falmouth, England, and 
 the granddaughter of a curate. William Irving, who had 
 
CHARLE8 DUDLEY WARNER. 15 
 
 taken to the sea for a living, met the beautiful girl when 
 he was a petty officer on a packet plying between Fal- 
 mouth and New York, and two years after their mar 
 riage he quit the sea and made their home in the capital 
 of the New World. Those who think the genius of a 
 large family is apt to be one of the latest comers in it, 
 find their theory confirmed in the case of "Washington 
 Irving ; he was the eighth son and the youngest of eleven 
 children. The whole family was as remarkable for talent 
 as it was for amiability, integrity, and strong family affec 
 tion, which had in it something of the Scotch clannish- 
 ness. The father was a stanch Whig during the war 
 and suffered for his principles, and his wife was a sort 
 of ministering angel to the patriot prisoners confined in 
 the city. 
 
 It was from his mother that Irving inherited his gay 
 humor, his love of society, and probably his tendency to 
 letters. She was a woman of fine intellectual grain; a 
 nature full of tenderness, and abundant good sense. In 
 his father flowed a pure strain of Covenanter blood ; in 
 business he was the soul of probity ; in religion he was 
 severe and godly ; and in his household strict and exact 
 ing in demanding conformity to his religious creed and 
 practice ; although he had tenderness in his nature, it 
 lay far below the surface ; in his scheme of life there was 
 no room for triviality or amusement ; and he endeavored 
 to bring up his children in the fear of God and the sense 
 of the sinfulness of pleasure. His severe and gloomy 
 
16 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 rectitude would have made his home intolerable to the 
 children if it had not been moderated to them by the 
 tenderness and sympathy of their mother ; although she 
 conformed in worship to her husband, she did not share 
 his harsh views, and always retained in her heart the 
 leniencies of her Episcopalian training. Indeed the chil 
 dren were repelled from the religion of their father. 
 Ultimately all, except one, became members of the Epis 
 copal Church. Washington, without asserting his inde 
 pendence outwardly, and while still attending the. Sunday 
 services and submitting to his father's drill in the Cate 
 chism, at an early age made good his escape by slyly 
 stepping into Trinity Church and receiving the rite of 
 confirmation. 
 
 It was the mother's idea to name the boy after the 
 victorious leader of the Revolution, and I think the name 
 had an appreciable influence upon his career and the 
 future currency of his work ; and the lad may also have 
 been impressed by the fact of a personal contact with the 
 great man. It was on the occasion of Washington's resi 
 dence in the city as President that the boy's nurse fol 
 lowed the popular hero into a shop one day, and pre 
 sented his little namesake ; and that Washington laid his 
 hand in blessing on the head of his future biographer. 
 
 The lad was in no sense a prodigy ; he was simply an 
 affectionate, merry, frolicsome, handsome boy, with a 
 spice of mischief, whose pranks gave his tender but 
 admiring mother some uneasiness; she would exclaim, 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 17 
 
 "Oh, Washington! if you were only good ! " He was not 
 studious, but he was fond of reading, and early developed 
 the " scribbling " propensity in the composition of verses 
 and plays ; at school he used to write compositions for 
 boys who would do his sums in arithmetic. His educa 
 tion was conducted under several indifferent teachers, and 
 was without thoroughness. From his last master he got 
 a little Latin, and about the same time he took some les 
 sons in music, and, unknown to his father, in the per 
 nicious art of dancing. He had read, of such books as 
 fell in his way, those that fed his imagination, Pilgrim's 
 Progress, the story of Sinbad, a translation of Orlando 
 Furioso, and voyages and travels. We gather from his 
 memoir that he was a lovely, idle, active-minded, sensi 
 tive boy, without application, longing to go somewhere on 
 a pilgrimage, a dreamer of dreams. His schooling ended 
 when he was sixteen ; it is evident that he did not follow 
 his brothers in Columbia College because he had no 
 sort of tendency toward discipline and application. Be 
 cause he must have some career, and he developed nei 
 ther inclination for college nor for business, he was put 
 into a law office. But law he never seriously studied. 
 The career of ambition at that time was politics, and 
 that was best entered through the law. Irving was not 
 robust ; there was in the family circumstances no press 
 ing need of his earning a living, and he was left to drift 
 along in vague expectation of what might turn up. 
 What happened was that the boy dipped into litera- 
 
18 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 ture in a hap-hazard manner while seated amid the law 
 books, assimilating no doubt eagerly what suited his 
 purpose, and cultivated his equally strong taste for 
 society. He had a great love of music, and he early ac 
 quired a taste for the theatre. His first indulgence in 
 this prohibited amusement was in company with a boy 
 somewhat his senior, named James K. Paulding, whose 
 sister was the wife of Washington's brother William. 
 When once the delight was tasted, the boy repeated it as 
 often as possible, and as the theatre was near his home, 
 he learned how to sandwich the nine o'clock family pray 
 ers between the chief play and the after-piece ; that is, 
 he stole home from the theatre in time for the devotion, 
 then pretended to go to bed, but escaped out of his bed 
 room window down the roof, and was soon again in his 
 seat, an excited spectator of the mimic world. New York 
 had enjoyed a regular theatre since 1750, but its quality 
 we can infer from Irving's no doubt very good descrip 
 tion of it in the " Jonathan Oldstyle " letters, and from 
 his recommendation : " To the actors less etiquette, less 
 fustian, less buckram. To the orchestra new music, 
 and more of it. To the pit patience, clean benches, and 
 umbrellas. To the boxes less affectation, less noise, 
 less coxcombs. To the gallery less grog, and better 
 constables ; and, To the whole house, inside and out 
 a total reformation." 
 
 The lad's delicate health would partly account for his 
 disinclination to any routine pursuit or severe study. 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 19 
 
 Before lie was seventeen symptoms of pulmonary disease 
 developed, and travel and sojourn in the country were 
 tried. We find him hunting in the Sleepy Hollow region, 
 and making journeys up the Hudson, and to the Mohawk, 
 where he had a married sister residing. There was at 
 that time delightful society in Albany and Schenectady, 
 which was attractive to the young man, and made as 
 decided an impression on him as the scenery of the 
 Hudson, which he was the first to celebrate. The 
 charms of natural scenery seldom get any popular recog 
 nition except through a literary culture. 
 
 In 1802 Irving became a clerk in the law office of 
 Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and formed the family intimacy 
 which had such an influence upon his career. The office, 
 however, did not confine him ; he renewed his travels, and 
 with Mr. Hoffman made the then difficult woods journey 
 to Ogdensburg, and as far as Montreal, enduring some 
 of the pleasures of roughing it, and making acquaintance 
 with the Eed Man, who was not attractive to him, but 
 whose unjust treatment by our government aroused his 
 indignation not many years after. It was while he was 
 a law clerk, and when he was nineteen years old, that 
 he wrote for the Chronicle, a newspaper established by his 
 brother Peter, a series of articles on the theatres and 
 the manners of the town, signed "Jonathan Oldstyle." 
 These attracted a great deal of local attention, and pro 
 cured for Irving the acquaintance of Charles Brockden 
 Brown, and an offer from him of employment on a liter- 
 
20 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 ary periodical. That these juvenile imitations of English 
 essays were copied and quoted and applauded shows the 
 extreme literary dearth of the time, and the eagerness to 
 get out of the conventional style of newspaper writing. 
 The papers were saucy and readable, and not without wit, 
 and they contain a passage or two of manly sensibility, 
 notably one in which the boy exhibits his chivalry to 
 wards women by making an indignant protest against 
 the heartless way in which maiden ladies are commonly 
 spoken of. Slight as these papers were, and worthless as 
 they are now, except as a landmark of the author's devel 
 opment, we have to note of them that they were popular, 
 that they had a certain personal flavor that attracted at 
 tention and gave pleasure, and that this must be said of 
 nearly every thing that Irving wrote thereafter. What 
 ever critics may say of his writings, they had from the 
 first this quality that gained them instant recognition and 
 made them enjoyed. 
 
 We see now that the boy had the artistic tempera 
 ment ; his love of the picturesque and the adventurous in 
 books, his fondness for music and the theatre, and his 
 idle, dreaming way, which begat little hope of him in his 
 father's eyes, declare this. When he went to Europe 
 and came in contact with an old civilization, with a soci 
 ety ordered by etiquette and refinement and luxury, he 
 was not a stranger to it, and he entered into all the 
 amenities of life, into the enjoyment of art and music and 
 historical associations, like one native and born thereto. 
 
CHAELES DUDLEY WARNER. 21 
 
 All this has a close connection with the tone of his litera 
 ture and with its quality. Considering his surroundings 
 in a commercial and not artistic and not very intellectual 
 city, in a land staring new and fighting for its position, 
 which got its literature, and to some extent its manners, 
 second-hand from England, this absence of what it is 
 now fashionable to call " provincialism " in young Irving 
 is very remarkable. And when I couple with this the 
 fact that he was always, boy and man, an ardent patriot, 
 an ingrained American, and never in art an affected cog 
 noscente, nor in manner the least bit the " snob," I see 
 why he was able to contribute to the elevation of the 
 taste of his countrymen and to their culture in what is 
 best in the old civilizations, and at the same time to re 
 tain their affection. But it must be said that up to the 
 time Irving went abroad the second time, his chief ambi 
 tion seemed to be to shine as a man of society, and he 
 had the appearance of valuing his achievements with the 
 pen only as a means to social distinction. 
 
 That Irving had an inborn bent to literature, and that 
 he was in fact good for nothing else, we can see now, but 
 his circumstances offered no inducement for the career he 
 finally adopted. So far as we know, there was but one 
 man in America who had adopted literature as a profes 
 sion Charles Brockden Brown, whose strange romances 
 had little popular recognition. American literature did 
 not exist. The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 
 which deserves a very high place in it, was not published 
 
22 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 thanks to his degenerate son till 1817. The best 
 writing of the past two centuries a period fertile in poli 
 tical essays on the science of government had been 
 done in America, and of controversial theology and po 
 lemical verse there was no lack ; but Irving was the first 
 to enter the field of literature, the first to awaken his 
 countrymen to a consciousness of their capacities in this 
 direction, and to announce to the world that America 
 proposed to take a hand in it. That his first effort (the 
 " Salmagundi ") was an imitation is not surprising, and 
 that he did not absolutely break with the old is no doubt 
 one reason why he obtained so quick foreign recognition. 
 This country at first would seem to be quite barren of 
 food for the imagination of such a writer as Irving, who 
 was always a backward-looking man, whose mind dwelt 
 more willingly in traditions than in the present. Ours 
 is the only nation that has no folk-lore no misty past ; 
 the sun shines plainly on our first beginnings. However 
 morally sublime, they are visibly prosaic. Our best ef 
 forts to put the Bed Man, our only prehistoric posses 
 sion, in a romantic light are sad failures in the main. 
 Irving (in the Knickerbocker and the Hudson Biver leg 
 ends) remedied for the region in which he lived some 
 thing of this defect in romance and tradition, and his 
 achievement is unique in modern times ; it amounted to 
 a creation, and it is performed with a simplicity that 
 makes the result all the more surprising. And it is also 
 to be noted that although permanent, and almost as well 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 23 
 
 based in the popular mind as veritable history, the ele 
 ments of it are humorous, and have little of the common 
 seriousness of the myth. 
 
 In 1804, when Irving came of age, he was in such dan 
 ger of a speedy departure from this world by the door of 
 consumption, that his brothers determined to try the ef 
 fect of a sea voyage, and sent him to Europe. He was 
 abroad almost two years, and the journey restored his 
 health. It was not fruitful in a literary way. He wrote 
 many charming letters, however, in which we discover 
 his perfect accommodation to the society, art, and luxury 
 he enjoyed. His journey lay through France, and by way 
 of Genoa to Sicily, and thence to Rome. It was a time 
 of disturbance and insecurity of travel ; Napoleon's spies 
 followed and detained him in France ; the vessel in which 
 he went to Sicily was overhauled by pirates ; he had to 
 dodge the cruisers in a fruit boat to get across to Naples. 
 In Eome he was so seduced by the climate, the conge 
 nial antiquity, the art, and the charm of the company of 
 Washington Allston, with whom he there contracted a 
 life-long friendship, that he was upon the point of em 
 bracing the profession of a painter. He had a good eye 
 for color, and in Allston's stimulating society the art no 
 doubt seemed easy, but he reflected that inclination is 
 not genius, and went on his idle way. He passed several 
 months in Paris, which was more to his taste than any 
 other foreign city, studying French and diligently fre 
 quenting the theatres and the opera, and made a short 
 
24 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 sojourn in London. This was not an energetic pilgrim 
 age, and lie disappointed his brothers in not travelling 
 more, and taking more advantage of his opportunities. 
 But he was not to be forced out of his humor. His letters 
 of the period abound in faithful and vivid descriptions of 
 what interested him in scenery and historical remains ; 
 but what interested him especially was society, and he 
 had the entry and was a favorite in the best whenever he 
 chose to seek it. Society, indeed, was his natural ele 
 ment ; he began in it early, and perhaps no other author 
 of his repute was more immersed in it than he was, as he 
 somewhere remarks, for the better part of half a century. 
 And yet he was formed for intimate friendships, and bet 
 ter than society he liked the quiet intercourse of the do 
 mestic circle. Had his longing for happiness in that been 
 gratified by marriage, we can only speculate upon the 
 effect on his literary career. His literature might have 
 lacked a certain element of sentiment and longing which 
 contributed greatly to its popularity. 
 
 Upon his return, without any settled plans, and cer 
 tainly with no expectation of a literary life, he pulled 
 together enough legal information to pass a lenient ex 
 amination, and was admitted to the bar. Having accom 
 plished this, he gave himself up to such pleasures as the 
 town afforded. He was " champion of the tea-parties," a 
 gallant in any city he visited, and had a large social ac 
 quaintance in New York, Albany, Philadelphia, and Bal 
 timore. He was one of a set of young fellows in New 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 25 
 
 York who united some literary taste with convivial habits, 
 and posed for " sad dogs." They made much of cheap 
 feasts at city porter-houses, and something mysterious of 
 revelries at Cockloft Hall, an old mansion on the Pas- 
 saic, described in " Salmagundi." There wasn't much 
 harm done in the end, for all these terrible roysterers had 
 shelters in sweet homes, and the constant company of 
 pure and lovely women who united discretion with wit 
 and engaging manners. The habit of the day was free 
 and unconventional we infer, and prudery was probably 
 not a necessary sign or protection of innocence in either 
 sex; the conversation even of gentlemen was garnished 
 with strange oaths ; at the suppers there was hard, con 
 scientious drinking and much bacchanalian singing, and 
 it was considered better for a man to go under the table 
 from the effects of the compulsory bumper than to de 
 cline it. 
 
 Irving tried a little local politics at this time as a 
 stepping-stone to an appointment ; but his experience in 
 the Sixth Ward disgusted him, and his feeble solicitation 
 at Albany got him no office; indeed he couldn't run 
 with the hungry pack of office-seekers, and he speedily 
 gave up the idea of saving his country on a government 
 salary. 
 
 Irving' s private letters of this period show a little 
 affectation of knowing the world, a callowness, in short, 
 which is absent from his European correspondence, and 
 shows, may be, that he had fallen back into the so-called 
 
26 WASHINGTON IR VING. 
 
 " provincial " conditions. But among them are some to a 
 belle of the time, Miss Mary Farlie, " the fascinating Far- 
 lie," the " Sophia Sparke " of the "Salmagundi," which 
 reveal the man, as he then was, his devotion to the calls 
 of fashion and the rounds of tea-party life in whatever 
 city he chanced to be, his pleasure in the little flutter of 
 coquetry with which the serious enjoyments of life are 
 prefaced, but also his fine, pure nature and his chivalrous 
 admiration of woman. I cannot quote at length, but there 
 is a passage in a letter to Miss Farlie from Richmond, 
 where he was attending the trial of Aaron Burr, in which 
 he defends the sex from unworthy motives in its sympa 
 thy for the fallen man, and declares that it results from 
 the merciful and heaven-born disposition implanted in 
 the female bosom, which ever inclines in favor of the ac 
 cused and the unfortunate, and he adds, " I love your sex 
 ten times better than ever." If he idealized the sex, it 
 must be said that his conduct towards women always 
 conformed to his romantic ideal. 
 
 Irving was now twenty-four years old. He had adopted 
 no business, for his dallying with the law cannot be seri 
 ously considered. He was not a student, and his outfit 
 for life, such as it was, had been gained from contact 
 with society and not from books. His first literary ven 
 ture was about to be tried, and perhaps the sort of edu 
 cation he had gained contributed not a little to the 
 freshness and vigor of this first effort, and made him 
 apprehend the channel by which the popular ear could 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 27 
 
 be reached. In January, 1807, "Washington, his brother 
 William, and James K. Paulding issued the first number 
 of the " Salmagundi." Never did a modest little duo 
 decimo sheet of a few pages make more stir in a com 
 munity. Its declared purpose was " simply to instruct 
 the young, reform the old, correct the town, and castigate 
 the age." It had in it an air of society condescending to 
 literature. In manner it was an imitation of the " Spec 
 tator " and the " Citizen of the World ; " but it showed so 
 much original humor, was so buoyantly written, so auda 
 cious, affected such an indifference to praise or profit, was 
 so complacently superior, and so knowing concerning the 
 " whim-whams " of the town, that it was a great success 
 from the start. It seemed, notwithstanding its imitation, 
 the most original and lively of all native productions, and 
 as such was copied and imitated in other cities. After 
 the lapse of seventy-five years, a good deal of the humor 
 seems overdone and antiquated, a good deal of it is 
 puerile and dreary fun ; but I find it on the whole amus 
 ing reading, and worth while as a study of manners at 
 the beginning of this century. After running for twenty 
 numbers it suddenly stopped, in the full career of suc 
 cess, with the whimsical indifference to the public its 
 writers had always pretended. The authors made little 
 out of it except reputation, and quit it on a disagreement 
 with the publisher, just when Irving was kindling up to the 
 work. He himself in later years did not value his share 
 in it ; but the critics have discovered in these free and 
 
28 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 irresponsible essays, the germs and suggestions of nearly 
 everything he did afterwards, and some critics think por 
 tions of this juvenile performance equal to anything he 
 produced later in life ; his judgment is, however, right 
 about it, its chief value lies in the "everything he did 
 afterwards." 
 
 By this clever experiment Irving discovered and tried 
 his powers, and his career was determined by it, although 
 he was himself unconscious that his calling was fixed. 
 He was still the inmate of a law office, and a young man 
 about town, and the applause of the widening social circle 
 in which he moved was probably the result of " Salma 
 gundi," which he most prized. He had already extended 
 his acquaintance to Washington and Eichmond, and found 
 more or less attractions in every city where beauty and 
 wit had leisure for that sort of social skirmishing in 
 which he delighted. Knee-breeches had not yet gone 
 out of vogue, and fashionable life still retained those 
 ornaments who had a more than local reputation as 
 " beaux " and "belles." In Irving's devotion to the oppo 
 site sex there was a touch of the old-time gallantry. Per 
 sonally he must have awakened a reciprocal admiration. 
 His biographer, with a characteristic family reticence 
 of personal details, has given no personal description 
 of our author. But a drawing by Vanderlyn in Paris in 
 1805, and a portrait by Jarvis in 1809, present him to us 
 in the fresh bloom of manly beauty. The face has an air 
 of distinction and gentle breeding ; the refined lines, the 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 29 
 
 poetic chin, the sensitive mouth, the shapely nose, the 
 large dreamy eyes, the intellectual forehead, and the 
 clustering brown locks are our ideal of the writer of the 
 "Sketch-Book" and the "Pilgrim in Spain." A relation, 
 who saw much of our author in his latter years, writes 
 me : " He had dark gray eyes, a handsome straight nose, 
 which might perhaps be called large ; a broad, high, full 
 forehead, and a small mouth. I should call him of me 
 dium height, about five feet eight and one half to nine 
 inches, and inclined to be a trifle stout. There was no 
 peculiarity about his voice ; but it was pleasant, and had 
 a good intonation. His smile was exceedingly genial, 
 lightening up his whole face, and rendering it very at 
 tractive ; while if he were about to say anything humor 
 ous, it would beam forth from his eyes even before the 
 words were spoken. As a young man, his face was ex 
 ceedingly handsome, and his head was well covered with 
 dark hair ; but from my earliest recollections of him, he 
 wore neither whiskers nor moustache, but a dark brown 
 wig, which, although it made him look younger, concealed 
 a beautifully shaped head." 
 
 It was some months after the discontinuance of "Sal 
 magundi" that the work was projected which was to 
 give our author fame. It grew out of a literary freak. 
 In connection with his brother Peter, who had considera 
 ble literary talent and a severer taste than Washington at 
 the time, he began a mock history, in burlesque of " A 
 Picture of New York," by Dr. Samuel Mitchell, just pub- 
 
30 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 lished, and intended as a travesty on that and other con 
 temporary pedantic lore. This joint composition accounts 
 for the chief fault of the Knickerbocker ; the book was 
 well advanced and consisted of a mass of erudite and 
 rather juvenile nonsense, when Peter was called by his 
 business to Europe, and Irving was left to finish the work. 
 In his hands the conception changed; he limited the 
 scope of the history to the period of the Dutch governors, 
 for the sake of epic unity, and compressed the mass of 
 affected learning into five introductory chapters. He sub 
 sequently wished that he had reduced it to one chapter ; 
 a further improvement would have been to throw away 
 that one. In his humorous fancy the time of the Dutch 
 rule became the poetic age of the city ; this conception 
 expanded into a unique portraiture of race and character, 
 and " The History of New York, by Diedrich Knicker 
 bocker," was finished substantially as we have it now. 
 This was in 1809, when Irving was twenty-six years old. 
 
 But before this humorous creation was completed, the 
 author endured the terrible bereavement which was to 
 color his whole life. He had formed a deep and tender 
 passion for Matilda Hoffman, the second daughter of Jo- 
 siah Ogden Hoffman, in whose family he had long been 
 on a footing of the most perfect intimacy ; and his ardent 
 love was fully reciprocated. Irving was restlessly cast 
 ing about for some assured means of livelihood, which 
 would enable him to marry, perhaps his distrust of a 
 literary career was connected with this desire, when, 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 31 
 
 almost without warning, Miss Hoffman died, in the eigh 
 teenth year of her age. "Without being a dazzling beauty, 
 she was lovely in person and mind, with most engaging 
 manners, a refined sensibility, and a delicate and playful 
 humor. The loss was a crushing blow to Irving, from 
 the effects of which he never recovered, although time 
 softened the bitterness of his grief into a tender and 
 sacred memory. He could never bear any allusion to 
 her, even from his most intimate friends. After his 
 death, in a private repository, of which he always kept 
 the key, was found a lovely miniature, a braid of fair 
 hair, and a strip of paper on which was written, in his 
 own hand, " Matilda Hoffman ; " and with these treasures 
 were several pages of a memorandum, in ink long since 
 faded. He kept through life her Bible and her Prayer 
 Book ; they were placed nightly under his pillow in the 
 first days of anguish that followed her loss, and ever 
 after they were the inseparable companions of all his 
 wanderings. This memorandum, it subsequently ap 
 peared, was a copy of a letter addressed to Mrs. Foster, 
 a married lady, in which the story of his early love was 
 related as a reason why he had never married. It was in 
 1823, while he sojourned in Dresden, that he became inti 
 mate with an English family residing there, named Fos 
 ter, and conceived for the daughter, Miss Emily Foster, a 
 deep attachment. The Fosters believed that this would 
 have resulted in marriage if the lady's affections had not 
 been preoccupied. Irving's biographer thinks otherwise, 
 
32 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 and gives reasons for believing that he could not at that 
 time have entertained a project of matrimony. It is not 
 for us to question his judgment, with his full knowledge 
 of the circumstances ; yet it is evident that Irving was 
 very seriously impressed and very much unsettled until 
 he drove away the impression by hard work with his 
 pen ; and it would be nothing new in human nature and 
 experience if he had, for the time, yielded to the attrac 
 tions of loveliness and a most congenial companionship, 
 and had returned again to an exclusive devotion to the 
 image of the early loved and lost. That bereavement cast 
 a cloud over his otherwise gay disposition which was 
 never altogether dissipated, and gave an abiding tinge 
 of melancholy to his life. Its effect upon his literature is 
 not less discernible ; it appears here and there in cer 
 tain half-tones of tenderness. I think its sentiment per 
 vades the "Sketch-Book;" a touching passage in Eural 
 Funerals is colored by this memory ; and we recognize 
 the note in a passage in St. Mark's Eve in "Brace- 
 bridge Hall," beginning, " I have loved as I never again 
 shall love in this world I have been loved as I never 
 again shall be loved." The two months after this event 
 Irving spent in retirement; but solitude was as insup 
 portable as society, and the author, who never for long 
 nursed a grief in idle repining, sought relief in the com 
 pletion of his book. He felt himself that the spirit was 
 taken out of it, and never looked back to its composition 
 with pleasure. The loving eyes that he expected to see 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 33 
 
 dance with, sympathetic merriment in its perusal would 
 never see its pages. 
 
 The History, which was first printed in Philadelphia, 
 to avoid a premature disclosure of its character, was her 
 alded by a series of preparatory advertisements, intended 
 to awaken interest in a genuine historical work. Informa 
 tion was desired of a small, elderly gentleman, dressed in 
 an old black coat and cocked hat, who had disappeared 
 from his lodgings in the city. After a few days it was 
 announced that this person had left behind a curious 
 manuscript, which his landlord would be obliged to sell 
 if the old gentleman did not return and settle for his 
 board and lodging. This advertising device was so suc 
 cessful that one of the city authorities came to consult 
 Irving' s brother on the propriety of offering a reward for 
 the missing Diedrich. The announcement of the book 
 was that of a grave history of the colony and city under 
 the Dutch government, and the author carried his whim 
 so far as to dedicate it to the New York Historical Soci 
 ety, a liberty which a little nettled the grave antiquarians 
 of that body. Great was the astonishment of those who 
 sat down to a perusal of it as a veritable history to find, 
 instead, a whimsical and lightly satirical portrait of their 
 ancestors. Such a piece of irreverence shocked and con 
 founded them. His friend Mrs. Hoffman wrote him at 
 Philadelphia, on its first appearance : " Your good friend 
 the old lady [the mother of Josiah Ogden Hoffman] came 
 home in a great stew this evening. Such a scandalous 
 
34 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 story had got about town a book had come out, called a 
 History of New York ; nothing but a satire and ridicule 
 of the old Dutch people and they said you was the au 
 thor ; but from this foul slander, I'll venture to say, she 
 has defended you. She was quite in a heat about it." 
 So were others. Some of Irving's best friends, old ladies 
 of Albany and Schenectady, were deeply offended, and 
 vowed the author should never be received again in soci 
 ety; so deep and lasting was the irritation that Mr. 
 Gulian C. Verplanck, Irving's friend, in an address before 
 the Historical Society as late as 1818, while compliment 
 ing the author, criticised the book as a " coarse cari 
 cature." But Irving's amiable grace soon dissipated 
 most of the social clouds, and even the Dutch critics, 
 when they had comprehended the abounding and unmali- 
 cious humor of the composition, forgave the author, and 
 enjoyed it with the rest of the world. They did not then 
 know that Irving was issuing to them almost the only 
 patent of nobility that has been given in this country. 
 Outside the Dutch families the History was hailed with 
 universal delight, as the most witty and original produc 
 tion from any American pen. The first foreign author to 
 recognize its peculiar merit was Walter Scott, who read 
 it aloud in his family, till their sides were sore with 
 laughing, he asserts, and who saw in it a close resem 
 blance to Dean Swift, and indications of powers that re 
 minded him of Sterne. 
 The book is, however, an original creation, and has no 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 35 
 
 forerunner in English literature. In spontaneity and 
 joyous vigor it must be assigned a place among the pro 
 ductions of the springtime of national literatures. Of its 
 humor one is tempted to use the words grotesque and 
 gigantic, but we must add youthful. It is a masterpiece, 
 and I think Irving's masterpiece, though not in style ; a 
 very little of the mock-heroic usually wearies, and nothing 
 but genius of the first order in humor could carry off a 
 volume of it. The creation may be described as an event 
 rather than a book. No other American conception has 
 so entered into the popular mind. The whimsicality has 
 a certain historical solidity. The Knickerbocker legend 
 is something more than a legend, something more than a 
 tradition, it is the creation of a caste, a society, it fixed 
 upon the metropolis of the New "World an ineffaceable 
 character, a sort of romantic illusion. No other author 
 of modern times has performed any such feat as this. It 
 has assumed such proportions and importance, that it 
 almost passes beyond the bounds of a literary creation. 
 Millions of people who accept the Knickerbocker as 
 sumption as a verity, and use the name for a thousand 
 purposes, never read the History; just as millions of 
 people are on familiar terms with Gulliver who never 
 read a line of Swift, and count Don Quixote a part of 
 their mental furniture without knowing the name of Cer 
 vantes. This popular diffusion stamps the work as one 
 of the few masterpieces of humor, and makes almost 
 impertinent a literary criticism of the book. It may be 
 
36 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 said, however, that its effect upon the modern reader is 
 marred by the surplusage of the introductory matter, the 
 elephantine fun of which is no longer funny, and that in 
 places the breadth of the humor was better suited to a 
 former age than it is to this. But whatever may be said 
 of the juvenile expansion of its style, I take it that no one 
 would care to undertake to mend it, or to disturb in any 
 way the richest piece of native humor that the country 
 has produced. 
 
 In Irving's preface to the revised edition of the His 
 tory published in 1848, he speaks of its aim : " It was to 
 embody the conditions of our city in an amusing form ; 
 to illustrate its local humors, customs, and peculiarities ; 
 to clothe home scenes and places and familiar names 
 with those imaginative and whimsical associations so 
 seldom met with in our country, but which live like 
 charms and spells about the cities of the old world, bind 
 ing the heart of the native inhabitant to his home." The 
 effect, however, was far beyond this, and the work made 
 itself felt for a long time in the literary production of 
 the city. There grew up in time, with the addition of 
 other influences, what was known as the " Knickerbocker 
 School," which had its type in the Knickerbocker Maga 
 zine. These other influences were not altogether local. 
 There broke out some time before the century was half 
 completed a sentimental development, a sort of literary 
 measles, which pervaded all the light literature, and even 
 the newspapers. Amidst some genuine pathos and fine 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 37 
 
 writing, there prevailed this rash of sentimentality, a 
 mawkish and lachrymose tone in verse and prose lines 
 to dead babies, mewlings over old letters and blighted 
 hopes, the dead, dead past, and the like which continued 
 more or less woe among us till the modern " humorist " 
 scoffed it out of existence. This sentimental outbreak 
 was intimately connected with the great moral and re 
 form agitations of the time, by some sort of affinity that 
 it would be interesting to trace. Another element came 
 in to make the Knickerbocker School; it was a light 
 thing, and I do not like to insist too much on it ; it may 
 be described as " society " literature, and Mr. N. P. Willis 
 was its hierophant. This very clever man, who was the 
 most dexterous phrase-maker of his day, and had a cer 
 tain grace in his verbal touch it had in it the art of tying 
 a cravat with careless and killing ease imparted to the 
 sweetest sentiment an air of persiflage, and whipped up 
 emotions into an agreeable syllabub, which had the flavor 
 and permanence of an ice confection taken between dances 
 at a ball. Irving, as we have seen, was a man of society, 
 and he was able to make even society accept his litera 
 ture, but it was by no such process as this. The Knick 
 erbocker School was affected in its wit and vivacity as it 
 was in its sentiment ; it was unfruitful, and insincere, if 
 that is not too severe a word to use towards a coterie 
 whose chief sin was mutual admiration of mediocrity. I 
 mention it here in connection with Irving, because the 
 whole thing has been more or less directly laid to his 
 
38 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 charge. A cynical sort of criticism, which swings a shil- 
 lalah with a hilarious pleasure, merely for ' delight in 
 smashing, and finds nothing in life really amusing except 
 "earnestness," has included Irving in its otherwise not 
 too-sweeping estimate of this " School." But I can find 
 no warrant for the sentimental gush of his followers in 
 his manly sentiment ; they had neither his simple, whole 
 some humor, nor his transparent style, nor his high pur 
 pose as an artist. Irving abounded in sentiment, but his 
 artistic sense of "good form" to borrow a modern 
 phrase kept him on the safe side almost always in its 
 expression. Besides, I am disposed to stick for the value 
 to the world of sentiment in literature such sentiment 
 as Irving' s and to doubt whether we have gained any 
 thing by becoming ashamed of our emotions. 
 
 The favorable reception of the History far exceeded 
 Irving's expectations. He found himself at once famous. 
 Wherever he went he was the centre of attraction. For 
 a time this distinction gratified and amused him, but the 
 moment the excitement was over he fell into a despon 
 dency, and tried in vain to keep up his spirits. He is 
 very frank about his feelings at this time ; he admits that 
 he made an effort to form other attachments, but, he 
 says, " my heart would not hold on, it would continually 
 recur to what it had lost." But for this dejection it 
 would be strange, after his extraordinary success, that he 
 should still have hesitated to adopt literature as his pro 
 fession. But for two years, and with leisure, he did 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 39 
 
 nothing. He had even hope of political preferment in a 
 small way ; and he entered into a mercantile partnership 
 with his brothers, which was to involve little work for 
 him, and such share of the profits as should assure him 
 support and leave him free to follow his literary bent. 
 Yet he seems to have been mainly intent upon society 
 and the amusement of the passing hour, and, without the 
 spur of necessity to his literary capacity, he yielded to 
 the temptations of indolence, and settled into the un 
 promising position of a gentleman of leisure. 
 
 The peril to trade involved in the war of 1812 gave 
 him forebodings, and aroused him to some effort. He 
 accepted the editorship of a periodical called Select Re 
 views, afterwards changed to the Analectic Magazine, for 
 which he wrote several sketches, some of which were in 
 troduced into the " Sketch-Book," and several reviews and 
 naval biographies. But the slight editorial care required 
 was irksome to a man who had an unconquerable repug 
 nance to all periodical labor. The business of his firm, 
 and of other New York importing merchants, sent him 
 often to Washington to look after their interests. These 
 visits greatly extended his acquaintance with the lead 
 ing men of the country, and, as usual, brought him into 
 the thick of gayety and fashion. His political leanings 
 did not prevent an intimacy with the President's family, 
 and Mrs. Madison and he were sworn friends. 
 
 Although a Federalist and an admirer of England, his 
 sympathies were all with his country in the war of 1812, 
 
40 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 and he took active service on the military staff of Gov 
 ernor Tompkins. The sudden ending of the war defeated 
 his intention of entering the regular army ; and in 1815 
 he made a visit to his brother Peter, his business part 
 ner, in England, intending only a brief sojourn. He re 
 mained abroad seventeen years. 
 
 The first part of Irving' s five years' residence in Eng 
 land was spent in the harassments of business, in a vain 
 effort to extricate the affairs of his firm from the difficul 
 ties into which the fluctuations of trade had cast it. His 
 brother Peter was an invalid, and Irving set himself 
 to learn the mysteries of bookkeeping, and undertook 
 all the uncongenial drudgery of the Liverpool counting- 
 house. The struggle was prolonged through two years, 
 when the brothers were compelled to seek relief in bank 
 ruptcy. This was a sore trial, and he felt the humilia 
 tion of it more on others' account than his own ; the ruin 
 of such a family connection in business, and of so many 
 honorable hopes, stung him chiefly on Peter's account ; to 
 him escape from uncongenial employment was a great re 
 lief, and he was quite willing, even eager, to assume the 
 responsibilities it involved. These responsibilities, I 
 may say in a word, were practically the support of several 
 of his relations by his pen. Up to this time he had fig 
 ured as the ornamental genius of the family, and he had 
 accepted the aid his brothers lovingly extended to him 
 in full brotherly confidence. There was a delightful ab 
 sence of any feeling of obligation or dependence on either 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNEE. 41 
 
 side. Now the relations were changed, but there was no 
 change of feeling. A common purse was not a fiction in 
 this case, and there is nothing more admirable than the 
 care Irving took, when he began to earn money with his 
 pen, that his brother Peter should feel that somehow he 
 conferred a favor by sharing it. During the temporary 
 periods of Peter's returning health, various futile busi 
 ness projects were set on foot for which Washington 
 furnished the capital, and which had at least the ef 
 fect of amusing his brother. I may say here that this 
 loving duty, which Irving undertook with regard to his 
 relations, formed a great part of the pleasure of his life ; 
 Peter was supported in comfort wherever he chose to re 
 side, and on Irving' s return to America, Sunny side be 
 came in effect the home of the whole " clan." It was a 
 family of marked gifts and capacities, the brothers all 
 had enviable literary talent, and the sisters were women 
 of culture, solid character, and many graces ; but perhaps 
 the greatest gift of all was that of affection and unselfish 
 nobility of spirit. 
 
 Irving's sister Sarah (Mrs. Van Wart) was living with 
 her husband and family in Birmingham, and he there 
 found a home and refuge in the midst of his cares. He 
 was far from robust, and was at times incapacitated for 
 any sort of work. A tormenting cutaneous malady, which 
 showed itself in his ankles, made walking impossible, and 
 irritated him out of the mood of composition. All his 
 life afterwards he was assailed by this, laid up for months 
 
42 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 at times, driven to easy travel for distraction, and sent in 
 search of the healing of medical springs. This malady 
 was cheerfully and heroically borne, but it accounts for 
 much of Irving's occasional depression, and to some ex 
 tent for his long fits of literary inactivity. I have no 
 doubt that a physician would attribute much of the 
 loitering and wavering in his pursuits to his early ill 
 health and this later malady. 
 
 During the time of his business perplexities Irving had 
 made several excursions in England, Wales, and Scot 
 land, the fruits of which were to appear afterwards, and 
 he had obtained that knowledge of the English people, 
 and sympathy with what was admirable in English life, 
 which made acceptable to them what he wrote, even 
 when he criticised. He also had formed acquaintance 
 and friendship with many of the prominent English au 
 thors of the day, and was insured a certain amount of 
 literary encouragement. 
 
 In August, 1818, Irving went up to London and cast 
 himself upon the fortune of his pen. It was a bold step ; 
 it exhibits a modest confidence in his own abilities, and 
 in connection with his family responsibilities the good 
 fibre of the man. Thereafter he was not to be turned 
 from his career. He discountenanced efforts at home to 
 obtain for him a diplomatic appointment, and to the 
 chagrin and mortification of his brothers, who evidently 
 had no confidence in literature as a profession, he de 
 clined an offered situation in the Navy Department at 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 43 
 
 Washington. The spirit in which he set about his work 
 was that expressed in a letter to his brother William 
 in 1811 : " Whatever I may write in future, I am deter 
 mined upon one thing to dismiss from my mind all 
 party prejudice and feeling as much as possible, and 
 to endeavor to contemplate every subject with a candid 
 and good-natured eye." 
 
 This was the time of the "Sketch-Book." The story of 
 its brilliant success has been often told. It was an inter 
 national event, and we cannot now do justice to the book 
 without recalling the circumstances in which it appeared 
 and the motive that dictated it. The first number was 
 published in America, in May, 1819, when the author was 
 thirty-six years old. It contained only The Voyage, Ros- 
 coe, The Wife, and Eip Van Winkle. The second instal 
 ment contained Eural Life in England, The Broken 
 Heart, English Writers on America, and The Art of Book- 
 making. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow did not appear 
 till the sixth instalment, and the whole was completed 
 in America in September, 1820. It had not been origi 
 nally the author's intention to publish it in England ; but 
 the news of its success in America came over, the num 
 bers began to be reprinted without authority, and Irving 
 was obliged to protect himself. He took the material to 
 Mr. John Murray, whose liberality with authors was pro 
 verbial ; but Murray civilly declined it, and Irving under 
 took the publication at his own risk. To this he was 
 encouraged by Scott, who predicted his success. The 
 
44 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 book sold in England as it sold in America. It is an old 
 story, and it used to be told with national pride, how Mr. 
 Murray was very speedily glad to have the honor and 
 profit of publishing the books of the American author, 
 and perhaps no publisher's note of declination was ever 
 read with more pleasure than Murray's after his change 
 of attitude. 
 
 Of course Mr. Murray made a mistake ; he did not cor 
 rectly foresee what the public would like and buy. But 
 looking at the material offered him from the publish 
 er's point of view, and remembering that the book least 
 likely to sell is a series of sketches by an author of no 
 established reputation in the community where it is of 
 fered, his rejection does not seem strange. Nay, looking 
 at the book now, when circumstances have altered, I am 
 not sure but a publisher would come to the same con 
 clusion. 
 
 Irving wrote the book with a distinct object. The two 
 countries had not recovered from the irritation of the 
 late war. The comments of English travellers and news 
 papers had contributed to keep alive and deepen the 
 alienation. In fact the Americans had been so estranged 
 from England since the rupture of the colonial period, 
 that they were ignorant of the country, and its traditions 
 had lost their hold on them. The spirit in which Ameri 
 cans regarded England was misrepresented and misun 
 derstood, and there was a good deal of bad blood that was 
 the result only of ignorance and prejudice. Irving set 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 45 
 
 himself to remove this, so far as his own countrymen were 
 concerned, by a sympathetic description of what was at 
 tractive in Englishmen, their country, ways, and customs ; 
 and perhaps no book ever so revived a faded and roman 
 tic interest in an old home as did the "Sketch-Book." 
 It was one of the great mollifying and civilizing influ 
 ences of the age, so far as the two kindred peoples were 
 concerned. It created an affectionate interest in England, 
 even in the breasts of those who still disliked the mingled 
 hauteur and condescension of the Islanders. Naturally 
 its effect was not so marked in England, but it was ac 
 cepted as a graceful overture of friendship, and the au 
 thor himself was taken to the English heart. His plea for 
 good neighborship was not misunderstood either as any 
 concession of American independence or any currying of 
 favor. One of the earliest papers, that On English Writ 
 ers on America, is a plain telling of disagreeable truths, 
 without apology ; but I do not read that it caused any ir 
 ritation. The sympathetic spirit seen in the author en 
 abled John Bull to accept fair criticism without offence. 
 One cannot speak too warmly of the charming spirit of 
 this book, nor of its delightful style; the loveliness of 
 the country, the venerable places of pilgrimage, the tra 
 ditions, were so described that even to-day the senti 
 mental pilgrim can find no better expression of his feel 
 ing than in these descriptions ; and yet the book, having 
 accomplished its mission in its generation, is nearly a 
 book of the past, and as we turn its pleasant pages we 
 
46 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 wonder a little at tlie sensation they once made in all the 
 English reading world. The book opened to the author 
 all doors of literature and fashion in the kingdom, it won 
 him the friendship of the men and women most conspicu 
 ous in letters and politics and society. When, shortly 
 after it was published, he ran over to Paris, where his re 
 putation preceded him, word came that the "Sketch-Book" 
 was making a great fame for him in England. Jeffrey, 
 in the Edinburgh Revieiv, paid it a most flattering tribute, 
 and even the savage Quarterly, which had a character to 
 sustain for railing at every thing, praised it. A rumor 
 attributed it to Scott ; at least, it was said, he must have 
 revised it and given to it its exquisite style. " Geoffrey 
 Crayon is the most fashionable fellow of the day," wrote 
 the painter Leslie. Lord Byron, in a letter to Murray, 
 underscored his admiration of the author; and subse 
 quently said to an American, "His Crayon I know it 
 by heart, at least there is not a passage that I cannot re 
 fer to immediately ; " and afterwards he wrote to Moore, 
 his " writings are my delight." There seemed to be, as 
 one wrote, " a kind of conspiracy to hoist him over the 
 heads of his contemporaries." Perhaps the best barome 
 ter of his popularity was the mounting enthusiasm of his 
 publisher, which was solidly expressed. And this cap 
 ture of the English reading world was made at the mo 
 ment when Scott and Byron were its idols. 
 
 Yet I am not quite sure but we would look upon the 
 " Sketch-Book " as a tradition, full of a certain tender inter- 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 47 
 
 est yet, and not quite consigned to the company of those 
 " Annuals " and " Keepsakes " of the period, which pre 
 serve to us in their binding of watered silk a sweet aroma 
 of good society and literary self-conscious sentiment, but 
 for two papers, the Rip Yan Winkle and The Legend 
 of Sleepy Hollow. "We turn the leaves of the other essays 
 uncertain whether the slight pleasure we experience is 
 not a recollection of a pleasure we once had in them ; but 
 with these two it is quite otherwise. We know them by 
 heart, but they have the charm for us that a fairy tale 
 has for a child the hundredth time it is told. It is the 
 indefinable charm of the genuine folk-lore. And how 
 simple Eip Yan Winkle is. A less artist would have 
 dressed it up and overloaded it with a thousand fanciful 
 elaborations, such as the imagination of each of us likes 
 to supply. How true it seems, and how old. In fact it 
 is old. And yet the original setting, the exquisite adapta 
 tion of the legend to its locality make it a new creation. 
 It has the same dignity of antiquity as the Legend of the 
 Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, or of the Moslem youths, at 
 tended by the wise dog Ketmehr, who went to sleep in the 
 cave above Damascus. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 
 has hardly the same quality, but it is nearly as sure of 
 immortality. It is, like the other, a permanent invention 
 and the property of mankind, and, like the loom of Pe 
 nelope, has passed beyond the perils of a literary tenure. 
 It is a slightly hard and cruel story it is almost the 
 only instance in a story where Irving is remorseless to- 
 
48 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 wards a character ; and I cannot but think that it would 
 be vastly better if the author had displayed a little touch 
 of pity for Ichabod Crane, had endowed him with some 
 little shade of pathos. The figure, unfortunately, must 
 stand as it is cut out, in all its angular unloveliness, with 
 out relief, a simple compound of ugliness and greed, and 
 so remorselessly dealt with that the reader almost in 
 stinctively supplies for him that pity which the author de 
 nied. His very ungainliness pleads for him at last, and we 
 believe that even a Connecticut schoolmaster must have 
 had some of the feelings of a man. He is very real, as 
 real as Don Quixote ; and what a contrast ! the more ridic 
 ulous the Knight of La Mancha is, the more we love him. 
 
 These two short tales, inventions, fancies how slight 
 they are ! not perhaps worth the serious attention of the 
 ponderous critic, who makes a reputation every day, and 
 every day destroys two, and would make one for himself 
 if he had leisure to spare for such a trifle these two 
 little airy figments out of the fancy of an idle man, I am 
 inclined to say, have as much power of living on in the 
 popular mind as any thing done, said, or written in this 
 century. And the amazing thing about them is that they 
 are "local," and under a strong suspicion of being "pro 
 vincial," having sprung out of a virgin soil never sown 
 with tradition nor watered by age and custom. 
 
 "Bracebridge Hall" was published in England and 
 America in May, 1822. Before its appearance Irving had 
 been getting the better of his malady, and found himself 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 49 
 
 involved in all the whirl of a London season. The new 
 book gave great satisfaction, and the author was nearly 
 killed with kindness. To say that he was the fashion, is 
 fully to express the demands upon his time and strength. 
 He was sought by everybody. His writings won for him 
 the entry to the highest social circles in the kingdom, 
 where he was welcome as a friend and not as the curi 
 osity of a day, and his footing was equally good with his 
 brethren of the quill. To mention his companions would 
 be to name most of the literary lights of the time, and 
 his relations with many of them were those of the most 
 cordial friendship. "Bracebridge Hall" is not a book to 
 make a man's reputation, but it is one to extend it and 
 increase the liking for him. It avoids some of the weak 
 nesses of the " Sketch-Book," and in it his style attains 
 perhaps the perfection of ease and finish. The slight 
 fiction of the assembly in a great country house of many 
 wedding guests enables the author to depict English 
 character and customs, and to give his readers a num 
 ber of charming stories. One of these is a characteristic 
 Dutch story of his own country, Dolph Heyliner. But 
 the little sketch of the Stout Gentleman, a mere trifle of 
 restrained humor and unsatisfied curiosity, exhibits best 
 the author's art and his dainty grace. And I must not 
 omit mention of the Spectre Ship of the Hudson, in 
 which we have in a few pages one of the most fascinat 
 ing of all the Knickerbocker legends. 
 The following year was spent in travel and residence 
 
50 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 in Germany, a year made unproductive by the author's 
 illness, and in which occurred the Dresden episode of 
 which I have spoken. In the delightful society of the 
 Saxon capital at that time, and in the antiquated little 
 court of Frederick Augustus and Queen Amalia good, 
 prim, simple potentates, such as Thackeray liked to 
 create for the entertainment of children Irving passed 
 a pleasant winter, and if, at the end of it, he tore himself 
 away from the society of the Fosters with a heartache, 
 and went back to Paris with a feeling of being again cast 
 upon the world, he was not long idle. With the Moores 
 and other congenial society to stimulate him, he soon set 
 about another book, and "The Tales of a Traveller" 
 appeared in London in August, 1824 In the opinion of 
 Irving, with which the best critics agreed, Hallam among 
 them, it contained some of his best writing. Its style is 
 criticised as over-refined and labored, and I am conscious 
 now and then of a wish that the melody were broken 
 occasionally by a discord. But it was not a labored 
 composition; it was in fact written rapidly, tossed off 
 page after page in the heat of a composing fury, which 
 surrounded the author with thickly falling manuscript. 
 Up to this time Irving could never harness himself to 
 stated hours of composition, and he often waited months 
 for the literary impulse in a kind of fever of teeming 
 ideas and incapacity of expression. But when he once 
 set to work he wrote with great fluency, and produced in 
 a short time an incredible amount of manuscript. This 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 51 
 
 book has for me a delightful spontaneity, as if the author 
 enjoyed the production of every story. Its variety is 
 surprising : the author is equally at home with the 
 Italian banditti, Captain Kidd, and the poor-devil au 
 thors of London. We have Moore's authority for saying 
 that the literary dinner described in the second part has 
 a personal foundation, and he gives the names of the 
 Longmans as ,the publishers, one of whom was the 
 business partner who let nothing distract him from the 
 carving, while the other was the laughing partner who 
 attended to the jokes. It is a whimsical picture, belong 
 ing, rather, if it belongs to any period, to the age of 
 Addison than to that of Scott. In his story of Buck- 
 thorne, Irving made his nearest approach to a novel. 
 Whether he could have written a novel of the first class 
 is matter of conjecture, that he could have made an en 
 tertaining long story is evident; he had the power of 
 projecting a character, he had the essential charm of 
 narration, and of sprightly dialogue, unfailing delicacy of 
 humor, and the story-teller's art of delay in exciting in 
 terest (this appears even in his historical compositions) ; 
 but whether he had the robust passion needed for a great 
 fiction may be doubted. However this may be, "The 
 Tales of a Traveller " is one of the few thoroughly enter 
 taining collections of short stories in the language, in 
 which the art of turning a good short story is rare. The 
 reader who has leisure may take up this volume sure of 
 enjoyment. 
 
52 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 But the volume lacked novelty to the readers of its 
 predecessors, and criticism began to demand a new role 
 in the favorite. It was this expressed dissatisfaction 
 that turned Irving's mind to graver themes. He recurred 
 to a previous intention of writing the life of Washing 
 ton, and he composed a number of semi-political es 
 says, which were never published. At this moment of 
 eagerness to do something, and of doubt, a project was 
 offered which kindled all his imagination. This was a 
 Life of Columbus. Mr. Alexander H. Everett, who was 
 minister to Spain, proposed to him a translation of M. 
 Navarrete's " Voyages of Columbus," which was just ap 
 pearing, compiled from the diary of Bishop Las Casas, 
 the journals of the great navigator, and other historical 
 documents. Mr. Irving hastened to Madrid in February, 
 1826. He there found that the publication of M. Navar- 
 rete was not a history, but rather the materials for one ; 
 that the libraries of the capital offered him a mass of un 
 used matter, and he changed his plan and began at once 
 his "History of Columbus." At this he labored with 
 great zeal, and with more continuous industry than he 
 had ever before given to any work. He had come upon 
 a rich mine. His studies constantly opened new themes 
 for his pen, and his fancy kindled with projects that 
 would last him a lifetime. A part of his suite of works 
 illustrating the domination of the Moors in Spain was 
 executed ; but the Conquest of Mexico, and the History 
 of the Moors and Montezuma, were destined never to be 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 53 
 
 written. He was constantly turned aside from the Colum 
 bus to compose monographs upon some exciting episode, 
 which he unearthed, and this, with his anxiety to secure 
 historical accuracy, delayed the publication of his greater 
 work till February, 1828. It was shortly followed by the 
 " Companions of Columbus," and later by an abridgment 
 of the Columbus, which he presented to Mr. Murray, his 
 liberal publisher ; a gift which was the source of great 
 profit to the latter. 
 
 Irving's residence in Spain was prolonged till Septem 
 ber, 1829. His life there is a romance in itself. He 
 formed both with the Spaniards and with resident foreign 
 ers the most delightful friendships, and he entered into 
 the romance and picturesqueness of land and people with 
 all the zest of an ardent and susceptible nature. Spain 
 has never given her hospitality to an observer in such full 
 sympathy with her past, or one more open to the charms 
 of her present. It needed the sun of Granada, the tra 
 ditions and customs of a gentle and spirited race linger 
 ing in Andalusia, the aroma of the musty chronicles of 
 love and valor in the old libraries, to develop the oriental 
 quality of his imagination. 
 
 It was the most fruitful period of his life, and, with the 
 exception of the earliest, of the most consequence to 
 literature. I have not the space here to attempt any 
 analysis of the poetic "Alhambra," or of "The Conquest 
 of Granada" (which in his old age the author thought his 
 best work ) ; nor is it necessary. The Conquest appeared 
 
54 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 under the guise of the chronicle of a friar of the period, 
 and its spirit is that of a contemporary record. It is to 
 a large extent legendary, but authority for all it contains 
 exists in the musty annals of Spain. It is in fact a com 
 position of that border-land between legend and history ; 
 in its main facts it rests on the best evidence, its color is 
 true to the floating splendor of an age when drama was 
 acted in reality, and it may be taken as a sufficiently true 
 history of a romantic period. Mr. Prescott says of it, in 
 the introduction to his "Ferdinand and Isabella:" " The 
 reader who will take the trouble to compare his chronicle 
 with the present more prosaic and literal narration, will 
 see how little he has been seduced from historic accuracy 
 by the poetical aspect of his subject." The "Alhambra" 
 is a prose-poem, to which the world is indebted for a great 
 part of its interest in the most luxurious of all the pal 
 aces of the Moorish kings. With the splendor and grace 
 of the Saracenic domination Irving was thoroughly fasci 
 nated, and we owe to him the opening of one of the most 
 charming realms of which our imagination is free. Per 
 haps the value of such a realm to American readers, 
 engrossed for the most part in disenchanting material 
 struggles, is not taken sufficient account of. 
 
 Irving had doubted the reception of his first grave at 
 tempt; but the Columbus had an immediate and con 
 tinued success. It procured for the author a different, if 
 not higher, recognition than he had yet received the 
 highest degree from the University of Oxford, and the 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 55 
 
 royal gold medal from the Society of Literature. Time 
 has vindicated the substantial accuracy of the history. 
 It was contrasted at the time with Robertson's more 
 literal account of Columbus, and one wishes that some of 
 its rhetorical expressiveness were chastened, and that it 
 were somewhat condensed, but not at the expense of the 
 glow of enthusiastic appreciation which is proper to the 
 narrative. Irving understood the value, in a history, of 
 vivid individual portraiture, and he was by his sympathy 
 enabled to conceive the character of Columbus in all its 
 grand outlines. He presents it in a masterly manner, not 
 anywhere in brilliant and glittering " word painting," but 
 as an expanding conception in the story, which at last 
 looms up in the mind of the reader in gigantic propor 
 tions. A simple hero, a magnificent dreamer, a conse 
 crated life ending in the tragedy which is inexorably ap 
 pointed to every son of man who is to be enshrined in 
 the hearts of mankind. 
 
 Towards the close of his residence in Spain the author 
 received the appointment of Secretary of Legation to the 
 American mission in London. He felt a reluctance to 
 undertake the routine of the office, and he had a longing 
 to return home. But when he had been prevailed on to 
 accept it, and was once more launched upon the exciting 
 London society, he found the situation agreeable. Dur 
 ing this stay in England he received all the honors that 
 society could give him, he renewed his old friendships, 
 and visited places of note; one of these was Newstead 
 
56 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 Abbey, where lie was for some time a guest, and to which 
 his pen gave for American readers that romantic interest 
 which almost always attaches to whatever he describes. 
 
 His diplomatic position was resigned in September, 
 1831, but it was not till May, 1832, that the author saw 
 again the land which had been so long pulling at his 
 heart-strings. Mingled with his love of home had grown 
 some doubts of the feelings of his countrymen for him. 
 These were dissipated by the spontaneous outburst of 
 affection that greeted him in America. The whole coun 
 try was proud of him, and felt how much it had been hon 
 ored in his person. New York gave him the most bril 
 liant dinner she had ever given; other cities solicited 
 the honor of entertaining him marks of good- will which 
 the diffidence of the author compelled him to decline. 
 He was entirely wanting in the dinner-table heroism. 
 
 Irving was now past middle life, having returned in his 
 fiftieth year, yet neither his long residence abroad, nor his 
 extensive commerce with society, nor his age, made him 
 in the least Hose. On the contrary, his enthusiasm is de 
 lightful to see. He marvelled at the progress made in sev 
 enteen years, the expansion of the country, the accumu 
 lation of wealth, the evidences of refinement, the growth 
 of literature. His pride in what he saw was equal to his 
 curiosity. He at once undertook a comprehensive tour 
 through the South and West, and into the then almost 
 unexplored Southwest, on the Arkansas river. The im 
 mediate result of this excursion beyond civilization was 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 57 
 
 " A Tour on the Prairies," in which he gives a color to a 
 rather prosaic adventure, simply by his charm of narra 
 tion. It remains to-day as pleasing an account of a West 
 ern hunting expedition as we have. "What is noteworthy 
 in it, however, is that Irving's mind was able to kindle to 
 this phase of life as readily as to the romance of Spain. 
 Out of this taste of frontier life grew other readable 
 books, "Astoria" and "Captain Bonneville," pieces of 
 book-making, in the first of which he was assisted by 
 his nephew Pierre. 
 
 Not only was his enthusiasm fresh, but the flow of lit 
 erary productiveness was in full tide ; if experience had 
 chastened his humor, it had not abated the freedom of 
 his fancy nor chilled his ardor. Some of his best work 
 was yet to be done. Some of his happiest years were be 
 fore him. He was not only eager to cast in his lot with 
 the vigorous life about him, but he desired a home, a 
 permanent anchorage in his beloved land. The site he 
 fixed upon was on the east bank of the Hudson, near 
 Tarrytown, and within an easy walk of Sleepy Hollow. 
 He purchased a few acres of ground on the bank of the 
 river, having an old Dutch stone cottage, which had be 
 longed to the Van Tassels, which he transformed, with 
 out destroying its character, into Sunnyside. The place 
 was small, but it evidently swallowed up a good deal of 
 money. Its situation is lovely. And when the author 
 had added to the house a tower, which in a few years 
 was draped in ivy, the root of which was transplanted 
 
58 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 from Melrose Abbey, and upon the top of the tower turned 
 and creaked a venerable Dutch weathercock from Kotter- 
 dam ; when he had planted trees and shrubs, built conser 
 vatories and stables, and laid out secluded walks, he had 
 as pretty a retreat as even his fastidious taste could desire. 
 But it was not for himself alone that he built and 
 adorned it ; nor was it for his own comfort or for the sake 
 of gain that he kept on toiling with his pen. He was 
 able at last to gratify his longing for domestic life, and 
 to offer a home to his surviving brothers and his nieces. 
 His life at Sunnyside, surrounded by his nieces, who 
 were devoted to him, and would have spoiled a more self 
 ish man, is a picture that the mind likes to linger on. It 
 is a realization of what one would have wished for a man 
 who had added so much to the enjoyment of his genera 
 tion. But the limits of this essay do not permit me to 
 dwell upon it, nor in much detail upon his remaining lit 
 erary achievements. Nor is it necessary to a satisfactory 
 estimate of the man and his works. "With the exception 
 of his absence at Madrid as minister, he resided the re 
 mainder of his life at Sunnyside, which became a sort of 
 place of pilgrimage for travelling celebrities, young au 
 thors, and troops of friends. The consideration in which 
 Irving was held appears by the attitude towards him of 
 the chief authors of his generation, and his sympathy 
 with every rising talent, and his quickness to recognize 
 it, made him beloved by everybody. Never was an au 
 thor freer from vanity and jealousy. 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 59 
 
 A considerable portion of the ten years after his re 
 turn was given to travel and social life, to building, and 
 to putting his savings into productive form (though some 
 of them went into Western speculations that illustrated 
 the facility rather than the security of investments at that 
 period) ; but he was engaged in a variety of literary pro 
 jects as well. For a time he undertook regular contri 
 butions to the Knickerbocker Magazine, which was not a 
 lucrative amusement. The books of this period are " A 
 Tour on the Prairies," " Recollections of Abbotsford and 
 Newstead Abbey," "The Legends of the Conquest of 
 Spain," " Astoria," " Captain Bonneville," and a number 
 of graceful papers finally collected under the title of 
 "Wolfert's Boost." 
 
 One incident of this period should not be passed in 
 silence : that was the abandonment of his life-long pro 
 ject of writing the History of the Conquest of Mexico to 
 Mr. William H. Prescott. It had been a scheme of his 
 boyhood ; he had made collections of materials for it 
 during his first residence in Spain ; and he was actually 
 and absorbedly engaged in the composition of the first 
 chapters, when he was sounded by Mr. Cogswell, of the 
 Astor Library, in behalf of Mr. Prescott. Some conver 
 sation showed that Mr. Prescott was contemplating the 
 subject upon which Mr. Irving was engaged, and the lat 
 ter instantly authorized Mr. Cogswell to say that he 
 abandoned it. Although our author was somewhat far 
 advanced, and Mr. Prescott had not yet collected his ma- 
 
60 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 terials, Irving renounced the glorious theme in such a 
 manner that Prescott never suspected the pain and loss 
 it cost him,- nor the full extent of his own obligation. 
 Some years afterwards Irving wrote to his nephew that 
 in giving it up he in a manner gave up his bread, as he 
 had no other subject to supply its place. " I was," he 
 wrote, " dismounted from my clieval de bataille, and have 
 never been completely mounted since." But he added 
 that he was not sorry for the warm impulse that induced 
 him to abandon the subject, and that Mr. Prescott's 
 treatment of it had justified his opinion of him. Not 
 withstanding Prescott's very brilliant work, we cannot 
 but feel some regret that Irving did not write a Conquest 
 of Mexico. His method, as he outlined it, would have 
 been the natural one. Instead of partially satisfying the 
 reader's curiosity in a preliminary essay in which the 
 Aztec civilization was exposed, Irving would have begun 
 with the entry of the conquerors, and carried his reader 
 step by step onward, letting him share all the excitement 
 and surprise of discovery which the invaders experi 
 enced, and learn of the wonders of the country in the 
 manner most likely to impress both the imagination and 
 the memory ; and with his artistic sense of the value of 
 the picturesque he would have brought into strong relief 
 the dramatis personce of the story. 
 
 High as Irving' s position was as a man of letters, the 
 consideration in which he was held was much broader 
 than that it was that of one of the first citizens of the 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 61 
 
 republic. His friends, readers, and admirers were not 
 merely the literary class, but people of affairs, business, 
 society, and politics, and among these friends were the 
 prominent statesmen of both parties. Almost any career 
 was open to him if he had lent an ear to their solicita 
 tions. But political life was not to his taste, and it would 
 have been fatal to his sensitive spirit. It did not require 
 much self-denial, perhaps, to decline the candidacy for 
 mayor of New York, nor the honor of running for Con 
 gress ; but he put aside also the distinction of a seat in 
 Van Buren's Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy. His ac 
 ceptance of the mission to Spain, an appointment which 
 plunged him into profound astonishment, was doubtless 
 influenced by the intended honor to his profession, the 
 gratifying manner in which it came to him, his desire to 
 please his friends, and the belief, which was a delusion, 
 that diplomatic life in Madrid would offer no serious in 
 terruption to his "Life of "Washington," in which he had 
 just become engaged. The nomination the suggestion of 
 Daniel Webster, Tyler's Secretary of State was cordially 
 approved by the President and Cabinet, and confirmed 
 almost by acclamation in the Senate. "Ah," said Mr. 
 Clay, who was opposing nearly all the President's ap 
 pointments, " this is a nomination everybody will concur 
 in!" "If a person of more merit and higher qualifica 
 tion," wrote Mr. Webster in his official notification, " had 
 presented himself, great as is my personal regard for you, 
 I should have yielded it to higher considerations." No 
 
62 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 other appointment could have been made so complimen 
 tary to Spain, and it remains to this day one of the most 
 honorable to his own country. 
 
 Irving was in his sixtieth year when he went to Madrid, 
 and he remained away four years. He was not by any 
 means insensible to the honor of the appointment, he 
 thought it rather the crowning honor of his life ; but he 
 went with great reluctance, and there seems to have been 
 not a day of his absence that he did not long for Sunny- 
 side. Nor was he indifferent to the recognition of his 
 fame which met him in Europe ; but Sunnyside was every 
 day weighed against the world, and the world kicked the 
 beam. His diplomatic rank gave him access to the courts 
 of England, France, and Spain, where he was received as 
 one well known, with many marks of attention paid to 
 the author rather than the minister. But the shows 
 and spectacles had lost their novelty, the illusions of 
 society were dispelled he had run the round of it for al 
 most half a century and he in vain sought to revive the 
 spell that Europe once had for him. He had no more 
 curiosity for great sights or great people, and he escaped 
 when possible from the fine ladies and the attentions of 
 the drawing-rooms. And we, looking through his eyes 
 and his letters of this time, also see Europe faded, and 
 worn, and empty in comparison with that little nest on 
 the Hudson. In all this there was not a shade of cyni 
 cism just a philosophical acceptance of the situation. 
 
 In Spain it was impossible but some romantic warmth 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. ($ 
 
 should be rekindled, and it is quite easy, as we journey 
 about with him, to renew much of the enthusiasm of 
 other days. Spain was as beautiful to him as ever, and 
 he lost no interest in its people ; but there were absences 
 and changes that saddened him, and he found the revival 
 of old associations but a sad pleasure. He could not 
 have come to Spain in a more critical and interesting 
 state of affairs, or one requiring more diplomatic caution 
 and common sense. Isabella II. was queen, but a girl of 
 twelve, and in her legal minority. The soldier Espartero 
 was acting regent. Her mother had run off to Paris with 
 her savings and her lover ; and this child-queen, with her 
 little sister, was left, without other relatives, in the hands 
 of statesmen, politicians, and priests merely a queen 
 and a pawn on the chess-board. The little queen excited 
 Irving's sympathy, and he soon came to take a deep in 
 terest in the drama going on about him. For four years 
 he lived amid the revolutionary alarms, the plottings, the 
 fightings, sieges and the escapades, the changes of minis 
 try, and the endless complications of that disturbed time. 
 He discharged his official duties with admirable tact, pru 
 dence, and a real diplomatic address. A minister of less 
 personal reputation, and unknown in Madrid, would have 
 experienced more difficulties. His conduct pleased both 
 governments. I do not dwell upon this period, for al 
 though it is a most interesting episode in Irving's life, it 
 has little relation to his literary career. The "Life of 
 Washington" made very little progress. 
 
64 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 It is evidence of the weight that living's name car 
 ried as a citizen at this time, aside from his consideration 
 in literature, that he was called from Madrid to London 
 for consultation on the Oregon boundary difficulty in 
 1845, and that his efforts contributed to the settlement. 
 Irving was strongly excited on the subject, and deplored 
 the course of the British press in stirring up rancorous 
 prejudice and bitterness between the two nations. " Bul- 
 wer," he once exclaimed to the English Minister at Ma 
 drid, " I should deplore exceedingly a war with England, 
 for, depend upon it, if we must come to blows it will be 
 serious work for both. You might break our head at 
 first, but, by Heaven ! we would break your back in the 
 end." 
 
 Irving's joy in returning to Sunnyside was like that of a 
 boy home from school on a vacation. But it was not to a 
 life of idleness that he retired. His leisure had been 
 all spent in his youth, the time of loitering and dreaming 
 with him was in the days usually given to the keenest 
 competition of life. And he was fortunate in this that 
 his old age was a busy one, that he was impelled by the 
 irresistible literary rage to the very last. He had indeed 
 much to do. The "Life of Washington," a task that had 
 been laid upon his mind in early years, must be finished 
 before his departure. But other duties close at hand 
 constantly postponed it. 
 
 His attention was first occupied by an addition to the 
 house at Sunnyside, and then by putting his books in a 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 65 
 
 productive train. I am told that for several years, and 
 when the author was at the height of his popularity, 
 his works were virtually out of print. From 1842 to 1848 
 none were to be bought except stray copies of a cheap 
 Philadelphia edition, and perhaps some of the Paris re 
 print, in the " collection of ancient and modern British 
 authors," of 1840. The Philadelphia publishers did not 
 think the market warranted a new edition. But Mr. Ir 
 ving and his friends judged it more wisely. Mr. George 
 P. Putnam, then a young publisher of New York, offered 
 to assume the responsibility, and Mr. Irving made an 
 arrangement with him which was satisfactory to both. 
 The result vindicated the author's confidence, and the 
 publisher's enterprise and sagacity : from July, 1848, to 
 November, 1859, Irving received on his copyrights over 
 eighty-eight thousand dollars. If the relations* existing 
 between this author and publisher were universal, we 
 should think the literary millennium close at hand. When 
 business disaster overtook the publisher, Irving stood by 
 him like a brother, and in the end he reaped the benefit 
 of his trust and kindness. 
 
 While the revision of his works was going on, the 
 Washington made some progress, but it was occasion 
 ally put aside for some tempting literary excursion. Two 
 of these " asides " were the " Biography of Goldsmith " 
 and the "Life of Mahomet." The Goldsmith was en 
 larged from a sketch made twenty-five years before, and 
 was rapidly thrown off. It is a sympathetic piece of 
 
66 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 work, which deserves the popularity it attained and holds. 
 Without being at all a deep study of character, it is, I 
 think, as true a representation of the simple-minded 
 scholar, the vain and lovable author, as ever has been 
 given. The Mahomet has the charm of Irving's style, 
 and is pervaded by his equity of judgment ; but it is a 
 little pale beside Gibbon's masterly and virile picture of 
 the Arabian prophet. 
 
 There is a certain sad pleasure in reading the memoirs 
 of Irving's last years, enlivened as they were by congen 
 ial work, cheered by the affectionate glow of a charming 
 home and the loving assiduities of friends and relatives, 
 and glorified by a fame honorably won. The sadness is 
 in the inevitable withdrawal of comrade after com 
 rade, and the slow setting of the sun. Yet the author 
 preserved to the end his playful humor, his freshness of 
 feeling, his enjoyment of life, his sweet temper towards 
 the world, his delight in beauty. To the last he basked 
 in the sun, and radiated cheerfulness to all around him. 
 I like to read of him, enjoying what he calls a " social 
 outbreak, after a long course of quiet life," at Sara 
 toga, surrounded by old friends and new acquaintances. 
 "There are some very agreeable talking ladies here," 
 writes this charming old gentleman, in his seventieth 
 year, to his niece, " and a great number of very pretty- 
 looking ones ; two or three with dark Spanish eyes, that 
 I sit and talk to, and look under their dark eyelashes, 
 and think of dear old Spain." 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. ffl 
 
 The final volume of the "Life of Washington" was not 
 issued from the press till a few months before his death, 
 but long enough before for him to receive from the best 
 students of the Revolutionary period the warmest testi 
 mony to its high merit. It is possible that if it had 
 been composed in earlier years it would have been a 
 more brilliant performance, and in reading it I can see 
 that its placid and moderate tone may mislead as to its 
 real strength. "We miss from it certain personal details 
 and the fuller information which memoirs and diaries 
 then unpublished would enable the author to add now. 
 It must be remembered that Irving carried his literary 
 moderation down into an age that demands the vivid, 
 the startling, and the unexpected. It is impossible 
 for any biography to be less pretentious in style, or 
 less ambitious in proclamation. The only pretension 
 of matter is in the early chapters, in which a more 
 than doubtful genealogy is elaborated, and in which it is 
 thought necessary to Washington's dignity to give a ficti 
 tious importance to his family and his childhood, and to 
 accept the Southern estimate of the hut in which he was 
 born as a "mansion." In much of this false estimate, 
 Irving was doubtless misled by the fables of Weems. 
 But while he has given us a dignified portrait of Wash 
 ington, it is as far as possible removed from that of the 
 smileless prig which has begun to weary even the popu 
 lar fancy. The man he paints is flesh and blood, pre 
 sented, I believe, with substantial faithfulness to his 
 
68 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 character ; with a recognition of the defects of his educa 
 tion and the deliberation of his mental operations ; with 
 at least a hint of that want of breadth of culture and 
 knowledge of the past, the possession of which charac 
 terized many of his great associates ; and with no con 
 cealment that he had a dower of passions and a temper 
 which only vigorous self- watchfulness kept under. But 
 he portrays with an admiration not too highly colored 
 the magnificent patience, the courage to bear miscon 
 struction, the unfailing patriotism, the practical sagacity, 
 the level balance of judgment, combined with the wisest 
 toleration, the dignity of mind, and the lofty moral na 
 ture which made him the great man of his epoch. Ir- 
 ving's grasp of this character ; his lucid marshalling of 
 the scattered, often wearisome and uninteresting details 
 of our dragging, unpicturesque Revolutionary "War ; his 
 just judgment of men ; his even, almost judicial modera 
 tion of tone ; and his admirable proportion of space to 
 events, render the discussion of style in reference to this 
 work superfluous. 
 
 "Washington's character is presented as a conception 
 pervading the whole book, and is not projected on any 
 one page in a blaze of adjectives, and under an illumina 
 tion of colored lights. The method followed is that in 
 the "Life of Columbus," which gives to the reader a truer 
 conception of character than any amount of antithetical 
 parade of qualities. It is to be noted also that the au 
 thor's judgment of men and events has been little dis- 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. QQ 
 
 turbed by subsequent research. There has been noth 
 ing added of value to his judicial portraits of Arnold, of 
 Andre, of Gates, of Lee. That the book raised few con 
 troversies may be regarded by some as evidence of its 
 unimportance ; it seems to me that time is deciding 
 otherwise. There is no railing at the Provincial Con 
 gress, yet we are left in no doubt as to the embarrass 
 ments its action caused Washington. There is no scold 
 ing about the militia, nor much about the contractors, 
 but we are made aware of the difficulties that beset the 
 unselfish patriots of the time ; and what is always delight 
 ful in the biography is the tone of calm patriotism, the 
 author's broad love of his native land disfigured by no 
 vulgar partisanship. 
 
 With this book Irving's work was finished ; and in 
 November, 1859, he took his departure from a world 
 with which he was at peace, to go to another existence 
 in which his faith had rested undisturbed. 
 
 I hope that this sketch, imperfect as it is, has given the 
 reader a point of view for an impartial estimate of Ir 
 ving's literary rank and career. The writer is warned of 
 the futility of attempting to assign to any man of letters 
 his future standing, a matter which experience shows is 
 determined by rules that the critics have not yet discov 
 ered. I can only express the belief that Irving's position 
 will be somewhat higher than the present critical esti 
 mate of him, and for this I will give a reason or two. 
 
 Irving's achievements in pure creation will be more dis- 
 
70 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 tinctly recognized when some of his own work and much 
 of contemporary writing falls away. The romantic inves 
 titure of the Hudson and the Knickerbocker legend are 
 simply indestructible. The author's service to American 
 letters was of a peculiar kind that cannot be repeated. 
 
 He was our first literary man. I use the term in a 
 narrow and technical sense. He was one of the very few 
 in America who have regarded life not from any prac 
 tical, reformatory, political, or theologic, but from a 
 literary point of view. The value of this point of view to 
 the world can be maintained ; it endures when the others 
 pass away. A man with Irving's gifts is doing man 
 kind more permanent service as an observer, a spectator 
 even, than he could do by active participation in the 
 affairs of the moment. 
 
 The measure of such a genius is not altogether that of 
 what we call intellectual force. In regarding Irving's 
 career and in reading his works, he does not impress me 
 as a person of the highest intellectual force, and proba 
 bly he did not so impress his contemporaries. There is 
 nothing aggressive in his personality. We could name 
 a score of men of this age, some of them now living, to 
 whom we should not compare Irving in point of intel 
 lectual vigor. He had little aggressiveness ; he had 
 a certain equable breadth of conception and clearness, 
 without close analytic or critical power; internal calm 
 was the necessary condition of his production, criticism 
 chilled him, and the sunshine of approval was necessary 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 71 
 
 to his literary work. This argues a want of virility ; but 
 when we consider his achievements, and the unique posi 
 tion he held in England and America for almost half a 
 century, we begin to think that some element of genius 
 has been left out of our calculation. 
 
 No writer of his time had a better sense of literary 
 form and proportion ; he seems to have been born with 
 this as with his style, for I find no discipline in his de 
 sultory and imperfect education to account for either. 
 His style, which is not an imitation of any, but yet has 
 its affinities with that in vogue two generations ago, and 
 not with our style (if we have any), is in some of his 
 books somewhat too highly polished and annoy ingly 
 melodious ; but it is natural to the man. It does not 
 weary, and it combines as many of the qualities that 
 make what we call " charm " in lighter literature as any 
 in our tongue. 
 
 Irving' s books are quite free from the unrest of these 
 times, and there is a total absence in them of the in 
 tellectual strain which characterizes nearly all the writ 
 ing of the past thirty years. He was in many respects 
 a man of another age ; his writings lead to reflective en 
 joyment, and have little in them stimulating. His be 
 lief in the supernatural was never disturbed, his faith 
 in God was simple, his love of humanity was clouded by 
 no pessimistic doubts. The dawning realism perhaps he 
 did not at all apprehend. It must be confessed that he 
 was an idealist, and it is fortunate that he was, for I do 
 
72 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 not believe that the world has yet done with the litera 
 ture which bears that stamp. 
 
 Irving has been reproached with being an "English" 
 writer. The truth is that he was, in his pure literary 
 capacity, cosmopolitan. Nothing can be more purely 
 American than his treatment of American subjects, and if 
 in Italy, in England, in Spain, he caught the local color 
 and tone, he was only doing what literary art demands. 
 But in all that he wrote, under all surface color and 
 local infusion, there is always discernible the one uni 
 form quality, the unmistakable individual style of Irving. 
 
 I should be untrue to my own conception of one of 
 the most potent forces in Irving's literature, if I did not 
 speak of his moral quality ; and I may be permitted to 
 repeat what I have said elsewhere. There is something 
 that made Scott and Irving personally loved by the mill 
 ions of their readers who had only the dimmest ideas of 
 their personality. This was some quality perceived in 
 what they wrote. Each one can define it for himself ; 
 there it is, and I do not see why it is not as integral a 
 part of the authors an element in the estimate of their 
 future position as what we term their intellect, their 
 knowledge, their skill, or their art. However you rate it, 
 you cannot account for Irving's influence in the world 
 without it. In his tender tribute to Irving, the great 
 hearted Thackeray, who saw as clearly as anybody the 
 place of mere literary art in the sum total of life, quoted 
 the dying words of Scott to Lockhart, "Be a good man, 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 73 
 
 my dear." "We know well enough that the great author 
 of The Newcomes and the great author of The Heart of 
 Midlothian recognized the abiding value in literature of 
 integrity, sincerity, purity, charity, faith. These are 
 beneficences; and Irving's literature, walk round it and 
 measure it by whatever critical instruments you will, is a 
 beneficent literature. The author loved good women and 
 little children and a pure life ; he had faith in his fellow- 
 men, a kindly sympathy with the lowest, without any 
 subservience to the highest ; he retained a belief in the 
 possibility of chivalrous actions, and did not care to en 
 velop them in a cynical suspicion ; he was an author still 
 capable of an enthusiasm. His books are wholesome, 
 full of sweetness and charm, of humor without any sting, 
 of amusement without any stain; and their more solid 
 qualities are marred by neither pedantry nor pretension. 
 
LIFE, CHARACTER, AND GENIUS 
 
 OF 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 BY WILLIAM CULLEN BBYANT. 
 
A DISCOUESE 
 
 ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER, AND GENIUS OF WASHINGTON IRVING, DELIVERED 
 
 BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AT THE ACADEMY 
 
 OF MUSIC, IN NEW YORK, ON THE 3D OF APRIL, 1860, 
 
 BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 
 
 E have come together, my friends, on the birth 
 day of an illustrious citizen of our republic, 
 but so recent is his departure from among us, 
 that our assembling is rather an expression of sorrow for 
 his death than of congratulation that such a man was born 
 into the world. His admirable writings, the beautiful 
 products of his peculiar genius, remain, to be the enjoy 
 ment of the present and future generations. We keep 
 the recollection of his amiable and blameless life, and his 
 kindly manners, and for these we give thanks ; but the 
 thought will force itself upon us that the light of his 
 friendly eye is quenched, that we must no more hear his 
 beloved voice, nor take his welcome hand. It is as if 
 some genial year had just closed and left us in frost and 
 gloom ; its flowery spring, its leafy summer, its plenteous 
 autumn, flown, never to return. Its gifts are strewn around 
 
 us; its harvests are in our garners; but its season of 
 
 77 
 
78 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 bloom, and warmth, and fruitfulness is past. We look 
 around us and see that the sunshine, which filled he 
 golden ear and tinged the reddening apple, brightens the 
 earth no more. 
 
 Twelve years since, the task was assigned me to deliver 
 the funeral eulogy of Thomas Cole, the great father of 
 landscape painting in America, the artist who first taught 
 the pencil to portray, with the boldness of nature, our 
 wild forests and lake shores, our mountain regions and 
 the borders of our majestic rivers. Five years later I was 
 bidden to express, in such terms as I coul$ command, the 
 general sorrow which was felt for the death of Fenimore 
 Cooper, equally great and equally the leader of his coun 
 trymen in a different walk of creative genius. Another 
 grave has been opened, and he who has gone down to it, 
 earlier than they in his labors and his fame, was, like 
 them, foremost in the peculiar walk to which his genius 
 attracted him. Cole was taken from us in the zenith of 
 his manhood ; Cooper, when the sun of life had stooped 
 from its meridian. In both instances the day was dark 
 ened by the cloud of death before the natural hour of its 
 close ; but Irving was permitted to behold its light until, 
 in the fulness of time and by the ordinary appointment of 
 nature, it was carried below the horizon. 
 
 Washington Irving was born in New York, on the third 
 of April, 1783, but a few days after the news of the treaty 
 with Great Britain, acknowledging our independence, had 
 been received, to the great contentment of the people. He 
 
WILLIAM CTTLLEN BRYANT. 79 
 
 opened his eyes to the light, therefore, just in the dawn of 
 that Sabbath of peace which brought rest to the land after 
 a weary seven years' war just as the city of which he was 
 a native, and the republic of which he was yet to be the 
 ornament, were entering upon a career of greatness and 
 prosperity of which those who inhabited them could 
 scarce have dreamed. It seems fitting that one of the first 
 births of the new peace, so welcome to the country, should 
 be that of a genius as kindly and fruitful as peace itself, 
 and destined to make the world better and happier by its 
 gentle influences. In one respect, those who were born 
 at that time had the advantage of those who are educated 
 under the more vulgar influences of the present age. Be 
 fore their eyes were placed, in the public actions of the 
 men who achieved our revolution, noble examples of steady 
 rectitude, magnanimous self-denial, and cheerful self-sacri 
 fice for the sake of their country. Irving came into the 
 world when these great and virtuous men were in the 
 prime of their manhood, and passed his youth in the midst 
 of that general reverence which gathered round them as 
 they grew old. 
 
 William Irving, the father of the great author, was a 
 native of Scotland one of a race in which the instinct of 
 veneration is strong and a Scottish woman was employed 
 as a nurse in his household. It is related that one day 
 while she was walking in the street with her little charge, 
 then five years old, she saw General "Washington in a 
 shop, and, entering, led up the boy, whom she presented 
 
80 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 as one to whom his name had been given. The general 
 turned, laid his hand on the child's head, and gave him 
 his smile and his blessing, little thinking that they were 
 bestowed upon his future biographer. The gentle pres 
 sure of that hand Irving always remembered, and that 
 blessing, he believed, attended him through life. Who 
 shall say what power that recollection may have had in 
 keeping him true to high and generous aims ? 
 
 At the time that Washington Irving was born, the city 
 of New York contained scarcely more than twenty thou 
 sand inhabitants. During the war its population had 
 probably diminished. The town was scarcely built up 
 to Warren street ; Broadway, a little beyond, was lost 
 among grassy pastures and tilled fields ; the Park, in 
 which now stands our City Hall, was an open common, 
 and beyond it gleamed, in a hollow among the meadows, 
 a little sheet of fresh water, the Kolch, from which a 
 sluggish rivulet stole through the low grounds, called 
 Lispenard's Meadows, and following the course of what 
 is now Canal street, entered the Hudson. With the ex 
 ception of the little corner of the island below the present 
 City Hall, the rural character of the whole region was 
 unchanged, and the fresh air of the country entered New 
 York at every street. The town at that time contained a 
 mingled population, drawn from different countries ; but 
 the descendants of the old Dutch settlers formed a large 
 proportion of the inhabitants, and these preserved many 
 of their peculiar customs, and had not ceased to use the 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 81 
 
 speech of their ancestors at their firesides. Many of 
 them lived in the quaint old houses, built of small yellow 
 bricks from Holland, with their notched gable-ends on 
 the streets, which have since been swept away with the 
 language of those who built them. 
 
 In the surrounding country, along its rivers and beside 
 its harbors, and in many parts far inland, the original 
 character of the Dutch settlements was still less changed. 
 Here they read their Bibles, and said their prayers, and 
 listened to sermons in the ancestral tongue. Remains of 
 this language yet linger in a few neighborhoods ; but in 
 most, the common schools, and the irruptions of the 
 Yankee race, and the growth of a population newly 
 derived from Europe, have stifled the ancient utterances 
 of New Amsterdam. I remember that twenty years since 
 the market people of Bergen chattered Dutch in the 
 steamers which brought them in the early morning to 
 New York. I remember also that, about ten years be 
 fore, there were families in the westernmost towns of 
 Massachusetts where Dutch was still the household 
 tongue, and matrons of the English stock, marrying into 
 them, were laughed at for speaking it so badly. 
 
 It will be readily inferred that the isolation in which the 
 use of a language, strange to the rest of the country, placed 
 these people, would form them to a character of peculiar 
 simplicity, in which there was a great deal that was quaint 
 and not a little that would appear comic to their neighbors 
 of the Anglo-Saxon stock. It was among such a popula- 
 
82 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 tion, friendly and hospitable, wearing their faults on the 
 outside, and living in homely comfort on their fertile and 
 ample acres, that the boyhood and early youth of Irving 
 were passed. He began, while yet a stripling, to wander 
 about the surrounding country, for the love of rambling 
 was the most remarkable peculiarity of that period of his 
 life. He became, as he himself writes, familiar with all 
 the neighboring places famous in history or fable, knew 
 every spot where a murder or a robbery had been com 
 mitted or a ghost seen ; strolled into the villages, noted 
 their customs and talked with their sages, a welcome 
 guest, doubtless, with his kindly and ingenuous manners 
 and the natural playful turn of his conversation. 
 
 I dwell upon these particulars because they help to 
 show here how the mind of Irving was "trained, and by 
 what process he made himself master of the materials 
 afterwards wrought into the forms we so much admire. It 
 was in these rambles that his strong love of nature was 
 awakened and nourished. Those who only know the island 
 of New York as it now is, see few traces of the beauty it 
 wore before it was levelled and smoothed from side to 
 side for the builder. Immediately without the little town, 
 it was charmingly diversified with heights and hollows, 
 groves alternating with sunny openings, shining tracks of 
 rivulets, quiet country-seats with trim gardens, broad 
 avenues of trees, and lines of pleached hawthorn hedges. 
 I came to New York in 1825, and I well recollect how 
 much I admired the shores of the Hudson above Canal 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. S3 
 
 street, where the dark rocks jutted far out in the water, 
 with little bays between, above which drooped forest trees 
 overrun with wild vines. No less beautiful were the shores 
 of the East River, where the orchards of the Stuyvesant 
 Estate reached to cliffs beetling over the water, and still 
 further on were inlets between rocky banks bristling with 
 red cedars. Some idea of this beauty may be formed from 
 looking at what remains of the natural shore of New York 
 
 island where the tides of the East Eiver rush to and fro 
 
 i 
 
 by the rocky verge of Jones's Wood. 
 
 Here wandered Irving in his youth, and allowed the as 
 pect of that nature which he afterwards portrayed so well 
 to engrave itself on his heart ; but his excursions were 
 not confined to this island. He became familiar with the 
 banks of the Hudson, the extraordinary beauty of which 
 he was the first to describe. He made acquaintance with 
 the Dutch neighborhoods sheltered by its hills, Nyack, 
 Haverstraw, Sing Sing and Sleepy Hollow, and with the 
 majestic Highlands beyond. His rambles in another di 
 rection led him to ancient Communipaw, lying in its quiet 
 recess by New York Bay ; to the then peaceful Gowanus, 
 now noisy with the passage of visitors to Greenwood and 
 thronged with funerals ; to Hoboken, Horsimus and Paulus 
 Hook, which has since become a city. A ferry-boat danc 
 ing on the rapid tides took him over to Brooklyn, now 
 our flourishing and beautiful neighbor city ; then a cluster 
 of Dutch farms, whose possessors lived in broad, low 
 houses, with stoops in front, overshadowed by trees. 
 
84 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 The generation with whom Irving grew up read the 
 " Spectator " and the " Rambler," the essays and tales of 
 Mackenzie and those of Goldsmith ; the novels of the day- 
 were those of Richardson, Fielding and Smollett ; the reli 
 gious world were occupied with the pages of Hannah More, 
 fresh from the press, and with the writings of Doddridge ; 
 politicians sought their models of style and reasoning in 
 the speeches of Burke and the writings of Mackintosh 
 and Junius. These were certainly masters of whom no 
 pupil needed to be ashamed, but it can hardly be said 
 that the style of Irving was formed in the school of any 
 of them. His father's library was enriched with authors 
 of the Elizabethan age, and he delighted, we are told, in 
 reading Chaucer and Spenser. The elder of these great 
 poets might have taught him the art of heightening his 
 genial humor with poetic graces, and from both he might 
 have learned a freer mastery over his native English than 
 the somewhat formal taste of that day encouraged. Cow- 
 per's poems, at that time, were in everybody's hands, and 
 if his father had not those of Burns, we must believe that 
 he was no Scotchman. I think we may fairly infer that 
 if the style of Irving took a bolder range than was allowed 
 in the way of writing which prevailed when he was a 
 youth, it was owing, in a great degree, to his studies in 
 the poets, and especially in those of the earlier English 
 literature. 
 
 He owed little to the schools, though he began to at 
 tend them early. His first instructions were given when 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 85 
 
 lie was between four and six years old, by Mrs. Ann Kil- 
 master, at her school in Ann street, who seems to have 
 had some difficulty in getting him through the alphabet. 
 In 1789, he was transferred to a school in Fulton street, 
 then called Partition street, kept by Benjamin Eomaine, 
 who had been a soldier in the Revolution a sensible man 
 and a good disciplinarian, but probably an indifferent 
 scholar and here he continued till he was fourteen years 
 of age. He was a favorite with the master, but preferred 
 reading to regular study. At ten years of age he delighted 
 in the wild tales of Ariosto, as translated by Hoole ; at 
 eleven, he was deep in books of voyages and travels, which 
 he took to school and read by stealth. At that time he 
 composed with remarkable ease and fluency, and exchanged 
 tasks with the other boys, writing their compositions, 
 while they solved his problems in arithmetic, which he 
 detested. At the age of thirteen he tried his hand at 
 composing a play, which was performed by children at a 
 friend's house, and of which he afterwards forgot every 
 part, even the title. 
 
 Eomaine gave up teaching in 1797, and in that year 
 Irving entered a school kept in Beekman street, by Jona 
 than Irish, probably the most accomplished of his in 
 structors. He left this school in March, 1798, but con 
 tinued for a time to receive private lessons from the same 
 teacher, at home. Dr. Francis, in his pleasant reminis 
 cences of Irving's early life, speaks of him as preparing 
 to enter Columbia College, and as being prevented by the 
 
86 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 state of his health ; but it is certain that an indifference 
 to the acquisition of learning had taken possession of him 
 at that age, which he afterwards greatly regretted. 
 
 At the age of sixteen he entered his name as a student 
 at law in the office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, an eminent 
 advocate, who, in later life, became a judge in one of our 
 principal tribunals. It was while engaged in his profes 
 sional studies that he made his first appearance as an 
 author. I should have mentioned, among the circum 
 stances that favored the unfolding of his literary capaci 
 ties, that two of his elder brothers were men of decided 
 literary tastes, William Irving, some seventeen years his 
 senior, and Dr. Peter Irving, who, in the year 1802, found 
 ed a daily paper in New York, at a time when a daily pa 
 per was not, as now, an enterprise requiring a large out 
 lay of capital, but an experiment that might be tried 
 and abandoned with little risk. Dr. Irving established 
 the Morning Chronicle, and his younger brother contrib 
 uted a series of essays, bearing the signature of Jona 
 than Oldstyle, of which Mr. Duyckinck, whose judgment 
 I willingly accept, says that they show how early he ac 
 quired the style which so much charms us in his later 
 writings. 
 
 In 1804, having reached the age of twenty-one, Irving, 
 alarmed by an increasing weakness of the chest, visited 
 Europe for the sake of his health. He sailed directly to 
 the south of France, landed at Bordeaux in May, and 
 passed two months in Genoa, where he embarked for 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 87 
 
 Messina, in search of a softer climate than any to be 
 found on the Italian peninsula. While at Messina, he 
 saw the fleet of Nelson sweeping by that port on its way 
 to fight the great naval battle of Trafalgar. He made 
 the tour of Sicily, and crossing from Palermo to Naples, 
 proceeded to Rome. Here he formed the acquaintance 
 of Washington Allston, who was then entering on a career 
 of art as extraordinary as that of Irving in literature. 
 With Allston he made long rambles in the picturesque 
 neighborhood of that old city, visited the galleries of its 
 palaces and villas, and studied their works of art with a 
 delight that rose to enthusiasm. He thought of the dry 
 pursuit of the law which awaited his return to America, 
 and for which he had no inclination, and almost deter 
 mined to be a painter. Allston encouraged him in this 
 disposition, and together they planned the scheme of a 
 life devoted to the pursuit of art. It was fortunate for 
 the world that, as Irving reflected on the matter, doubts 
 arose in his mind which tempered his enthusiasm, and 
 led him to a different destiny. The two friends sepa 
 rated, each to take his own way to renown Allston to 
 become one of the greatest of painters, and Irving to take 
 his place among the greatest of authors. Leaving Italy, 
 Irving passed through Switzerland to France, resided in 
 Paris several months, travelled through Flanders and 
 Holland, went to England, and returned to his native 
 country in 1806, after an absence of two years. 
 At the close of the year he was admitted to practice as 
 
88 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 an attorney-at-law. He opened an office, but it could not 
 be said that lie ever became a practitioner. He began 
 the year 1807 with the earliest of those literary labors 
 which have won him the admiration of the world. On 
 the 24th of January appeared, in the form of a small 
 pamphlet, the first number of a periodical entitled " Sal 
 magundi," the joint production of himself, his brother 
 William, and James K. Paulding. The elder brother 
 contributed the poetry, with hints and outlines for some 
 of the essays, but nearly all the prose was written by the 
 two younger associates. 
 
 "William Irving, however, had talent enough to have 
 taken a more important part in the work. He was a man 
 of wit, well educated, well informed, and the author of 
 many clever things written for the press, in a vein of 
 good-natured satire and published without his name. 
 He was held in great esteem on account of his personal 
 character, and had great weight in Congress, of which he 
 was for some years a member.* 
 
 When " Salmagundi " appeared, the quaint old Dutch 
 town in which Irving was born had become transformed 
 to a comparatively gay metropolis. Its population of 
 twenty thousand souls had enlarged to more than eighty 
 thousand, although its aristocratic class had yet their 
 residences in what seems now to us the narrow space 
 between the Battery and Wall street. The modes and 
 
 * See a brief but well-written memoir of William Irving by Dr. Ber- 
 rian. 
 
WILLIAM CULLED BRYANT. 89 
 
 fashions of Europe were imported fresh and fresh. 
 " Salmagundi " speaks of leather breeches as all the rage 
 for a morning dress, and flesh-colored smalls for an even 
 ing party. Gay equipages dashed through the streets. 
 A new theatre had risen in Park Kow, on the boards of 
 which Cooper, one of the finest declaimers, was perform 
 ing to crowded houses. The churches had multiplied 
 faster than the places of amusement ; other public build 
 ings of a magnificence hitherto unknown, including our 
 present City Hall, had been erected ; Tammany Hall, 
 fresh from the hands of the builder, overlooked the 
 Park. We began to affect a taste for pictures, and the 
 rooms of Michael Paff, the famous German picture dealer 
 in Broadway, were a favorite lounge for such connois 
 seurs as we then had, who amused themselves with mak 
 ing him talk of Michael Angelo. Ballston Springs were 
 the great fashionable watering-place of the country, to 
 which resorted the planters of the South with splendid 
 equipages and troops of shining blacks in livery. 
 
 " Salmagundi " satirized the follies and ridiculed the 
 humors of the time with great prodigality of wit and no 
 less exuberance of good nature. In form it resembles the 
 " Tattler," and that numerous brood of periodical papers 
 to which the success of the "Tattler" and "Spectator" 
 gave birth ; but it is in no sense an imitation. Its gaiety 
 is its own ; its style of humor is not that of Addison nor 
 Goldsmith, though it has all the genial spirit of theirs ; 
 nor is it borrowed from any other writer. It is far more 
 
90 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 frolicsome and joyous, yet tempered by a native graceful 
 ness. " Salmagundi " was manifestly written without the 
 fear of criticism before the eyes of the authors, and to 
 this sense of perfect freedom in the exercise of their ge 
 nius the charm is probably owing which makes us still 
 read it with so much delight. Irving never seemed to 
 place much value on the part he contributed to this work, 
 yet I doubt whether he ever excelled some of those pa 
 pers in "Salmagundi" which bear the most evident marks 
 of his style, and Paulding, though he has since acquired a 
 reputation by his other writings, can hardly be said to 
 have written anything better than the best of those 
 which are ascribed to his pen. 
 
 Just before " Salmagundi " appeared, several of the au 
 thors who gave the literature of England its present 
 character had begun to write. For five years the quar 
 terly issues of the Edinburgh Review, then in the most 
 brilliant period of its existence, had been before the pub 
 lic. Hazlitt had taken his place among the authors, and 
 John Foster had published his essays. Of the poets, 
 Rogers, Campbell and Moore were beginning to be popu 
 lar ; "Wordsworth had published his " Lyrical Ballads," 
 Scott, his "Lay of the Last Minstrel," Southey, his 
 "Madoc," and Joanna Baillie two volumes of her plays. 
 In this revival of the creative power in literature it is 
 pleasant to see that our own country took part, contrib 
 uting a work of a character as fresh and original as any 
 they produced on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 91 
 
 Nearly two years afterwards, in the autumn of 1809,ap- 
 peared in the Evening Post, addressed to the humane, 
 an advertisement requesting information concerning a 
 small elderly gentleman named Knickerbocker, dressed 
 in a black coat and cocked hat, who had suddenly left his 
 lodgings at the Columbian Hotel in Mulberry street, and 
 had not been heard of afterwards. In the beginning of 
 November, a "Traveller" communicated to the same 
 journal the information that he had seen a person an 
 swering to this description, apparently fatigued with his 
 journey, resting by the road-side a little north of Kings- 
 bridge. Ten days later Seth Handaside, the landlord of 
 the Columbian Hotel, gave notice, through the same jour 
 nal, that he had found in the missing gentleman's cham 
 ber " a curious kind of written book," which he should 
 print by way of reimbursing himself for what his lodger 
 owed him. In December following, Inskeep and Brad 
 ford, booksellers, published " Diedrich Knickerbocker's 
 History of New York." 
 
 " Salmagundi " had prepared the public to receive this 
 work with favor, and Seth Handaside had no reason to 
 regret having undertaken its publication. I recollect well 
 its early and immediate popularity. I was then a youth 
 in college, and having committed to memory a portion of 
 it to repeat as a declamation before my class, I was . so 
 overcome with laughter, when I appeared on the floor, 
 that I was unable to proceed, and drew upon myself the 
 rebuke of the tutor. 
 
92 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 I have just read this " History of New York " over 
 again, and I found myself no less delighted than when I 
 first turned its pages in my early youth. When I com 
 pare it with other works of wit and humor of a similar 
 length, I find that, unlike most of them, it carries forward 
 the reader to the conclusion without weariness or satiety, 
 so unsought, spontaneous, self-suggested are the wit and 
 the humor. The author makes us laugh, because he can 
 no more help it than we can help laughing. Scott, in one 
 of his letters, compared the humor of this work to that 
 of Swift. The rich vein of Irving' s mirth is of a quality 
 quite distinct from the dry drollery of Swift, but they 
 have this in common, that they charm by the utter ab 
 sence of effort, and this was probably the ground of Scott's 
 remark. A critic in the London Quarterly, some years 
 after its appearance, spoke of it as a " tantalizing book," 
 on account of his inability to understand what he called 
 " the point of many of the allusions in this political satire." 
 I fear he must have been one of those respectable persons 
 who find it difficult to understand a joke unless it be ac 
 companied with a commentary opening and explaining it 
 to the humblest capacity. Scott found no such difficulty. 
 " Our sides," he says, in a letter to Mr. Brevoort, a friend 
 of Irving, written just after he had read the book, " are 
 absolutely sore with laughing." The mirth of the " His 
 tory of New York "is of the most transparent sort, and 
 the author, even in the later editions, judiciously abstained 
 from any attempt to make it more intelligible by notes. 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 93 
 
 I find in this work more manifest traces than in his 
 other writings of what Irving owed to the earlier authors 
 in our language. The quaint poetic coloring, and often 
 the phraseology, betray the disciple of Chaucer and Spen 
 ser. We are conscious of a flavor of the olden time, as of 
 a racy wine of some rich vintage 
 
 " Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth." 
 
 I will not say that there are no passages in this work 
 which are not worthy of their context ; that we do not 
 sometimes meet with phraseology which we could wish 
 changed, that the wit does not sometimes run wild, and 
 drop here and there a jest which we could willingly spare. 
 We forgive, we overlook, we forget all this as we read, in 
 consideration of the entertainment we have enjoyed, and 
 of that which beckons us onward in the next page. Of 
 all mock-heroic works, " Knickerbocker's History of New 
 York " is the gayest, the airiest, and the least tiresome. 
 
 In 1848 Mr. Irving issued an edition of this work, to 
 which he prefixed what he called an " Apology," intended 
 in part as an answer to those who thought he had made 
 too free with the names of our old Dutch families. To 
 speak frankly, I do not much wonder that the descendants 
 of the original founders of New Amsterdam should have 
 hardly known whether to laugh or look grave on finding 
 the names of their ancestors, of whom they never thought 
 but with respect, now connected with ludicrous associa 
 tions, by a wit of another race. In one of his excellent 
 
94 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 historical discourses Mr. Verplanck had gently com 
 plained of this freedom, expressing himself, as he said, 
 more in sorrow than in anger. Even the sorrow, I believe, 
 must have long since wholly passed away, when it is seen 
 how little Irving's pleasantries have detracted from the 
 honor paid to the early history of our city at all events, 
 I do not see how it could survive Irving's good-humored 
 and graceful Apology. 
 
 It was not long after the publication of the " History 
 of New York " that Irving abandoned the profession of 
 law, for which he had so decided a distaste as never to 
 have fully tried his capacity for pursuing it. Two of his 
 brothers were engaged in commerce, and they received 
 him as a silent partner. He did not, however, renounce 
 his literary occupations. He wrote, in 1810, a memoir of 
 Campbell, the poet, prefaced to an edition of the writings 
 of that author, which appeared in Philadelphia ; and in 
 1813 and the following year, employed himself as editor 
 of the Analeclic Magazine^ published in the same city; 
 making the experiment of his talent for a vocation to 
 which men of decided literary tastes in this country are 
 strongly inclined to betake themselves. Those who re 
 member this magazine cannot have forgotten that it was 
 a most entertaining miscellany, partly compiled from 
 English publications, mostly periodicals, and partly 
 made up of contributions of some of our own best 
 writers. Paulding wrote for it a series of biographical 
 accounts of the naval commanders of the United States, 
 
WILLIAM CULLEtf BRYANT. 95 
 
 which added greatly to its popularity ; and Yerplanck 
 contributed memoirs of Commodore Stewart and General 
 Scott, Barlow, the poet, and other distinguished Ameri 
 cans, which were received with favor. The life of Camp 
 bell, with the exception perhaps of some less important 
 contributions to the magazine, is the only published 
 work of Irving between the appearance of the " History 
 of New York," in 1809, and that of the " Sketch-Book," 
 in 1819. 
 
 It was during this interval that an event took place 
 which had a marked influence on Irving's future life, af 
 fected the character of his writings, and, now that the 
 death of both parties allows it to be spoken of without 
 reserve, gives a peculiar interest to his personal history. 
 He became attached to a young lady whom he was to 
 have married. She died unwedded, in the flower of her 
 age ; there was a sorrowful leave-taking between her and 
 her lover, as the grave was about to separate them on the 
 eve of what should have been her bridal ; and Irving, 
 ever after, to the close of his life, tenderly and faithfully 
 cherished her memory. In one of the biographical 
 notices published immediately after Irving's death, an 
 old, well-worn copy of the Bible is spoken of, which was 
 kept lying on the table in his chamber, within reach of his 
 bedside, bearing her name on the title-page in a delicate 
 female hand a relic which we may presume to have 
 been his constant companion. Those who are fond of 
 searching, in the biographies of eminent men, for the cir- 
 
96 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 cumstances which determined the bent of their genius, 
 find in this sad event, and the cloud it threw over the 
 hopeful and cheerful period of early manhood, an ex 
 planation of the transition from the unbounded playful 
 ness of the " History of New York " to the serious, tender, 
 and meditative vein of the " Sketch-Book." 
 
 In 1815, soon after our second peace with Great 
 Britain, Irving sailed again for Europe, and fixed himself 
 at Liverpool, where a branch of the large commercial 
 house to which he belonged was established. His old 
 love of rambling returned upon him; he wandered first 
 into Wales, and over some of the finest counties of Eng 
 land, and then northward to the sterner region of the 
 Scottish Highlands. His memoir of Campbell had pro 
 cured him the acquaintance and friendship of that poet. 
 Campbell gave him, more than a year after his arrival in 
 England, a letter of introduction to Scott, who, already 
 acquainted with him by his writings, welcomed him 
 warmly to Abbotsford, and made him his friend for life. 
 Scott sent a special message to Campbell, thanking him 
 for having made him known to Irving. " He is one of the 
 best and pleasantest acquaintances," said Scott, "that 
 I have made this many a day." 
 
 In the same year that he visited Abbotsford his brothers 
 failed. The changes which followed the peace of 1815 
 swept away their fortunes and his together, and he was 
 now to begin the world anew. 
 
 In 1819, he began to publish the " Sketch-Book." It was 
 
WIILLAM CULLEN BRYANT. 97 
 
 written in England and sent over to New York, where it 
 was issued by Yan Winkle, in octavo numbers, containing 
 from seventy to a hundred pages. In the preface he re 
 marked that he was " unsettled in his abode," that he had 
 "his cares and vicissitudes," and could not, therefore, 
 give these papers the "tranquil attention necessary to 
 finished composition." Several of them were copied with 
 praise in the London Literary Gazette, and an intima 
 tion was conveyed to the author, that some person in 
 London was about to publish them entire. He preferred 
 to do this himself, and accordingly offered the work to the 
 famous bookseller, Murray. Murray was slow in giving 
 the matter his attention, and Irving, after a reasonable 
 delay, wrote to ask that the copy which he had left with 
 him might be returned. It was sent back with a note, 
 pleading excess of occupation, the great cross of all emi 
 nent booksellers, and alleging the " want of scope in the 
 nature of the work," as a reason for declining it. This 
 was discouraging, but Irving had the enterprise to print 
 the first volume in London, at his own risk. It was is 
 sued by John Miller, and was well received, but in a month 
 afterward the publisher failed. Immediately Sir Walter 
 Scott came to London and saw Murray, who allowed him 
 self to be persuaded, the more easily, doubtless, on account 
 of the partial success of the first volume, that the work 
 had more " scope" than he supposed, and purchased the 
 copyright of both volumes for two hundred pounds, which 
 he afterwards liberally raised to four hundred. 
 7 
 
98 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 Whoever compares the " Sketch-Book " with the "His 
 tory of New York " might at first, perhaps, fail to recognize 
 it as the work of the same hand, so much graver and more 
 thoughtful is the strain in which it is written. A more 
 attentive examination, however, shows that the humor in 
 the lighter parts is of the same peculiar and original cast, 
 wholly unlike that of any author who ever wrote, a humor 
 which Mr. Dana happily characterized as " a fanciful play 
 ing with common things, and here and there beautiful 
 touches, till the ludicrous becomes half picturesque." 
 Yet one cannot help perceiving that the author's spirit 
 had been sobered since he last appeared before the pub 
 lic, as if the shadow of a great sorrow had fallen upon it. 
 The greater number of the papers are addressed to our 
 deeper sympathies, and some of them, as, for example, 
 the Broken Heart, the Widow and Her Son, and Rural 
 Funerals, dwell upon the saddest themes. Only in two of 
 them Rip Yan Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow 
 does he lay the reins loose on the neck of his frolicsome 
 fancy, and allow it to dash forward without restraint ; and 
 these rank among the most delightful and popular tales 
 ever written. In our country they have been read, I be 
 lieve, by nearly everybody who can read at all. 
 
 The "Sketch-Book," and the two succeeding works of 
 Irving, "Bracebridge Hall" and the "Tales of a Travel 
 ler," abound with agreeable pictures of English life, seen 
 under favorable lights and sketched with a friendly pen 
 cil. Let me say here, that it was not to pay court to 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 99 
 
 the English that he thus described them and their coun 
 try ; it was because he could not describe them other 
 wise. It was the instinct of his mind to attach itself to 
 the contemplation of the good and the beautiful, wherever 
 he found them, and to turn away from the sight of what 
 was evil, misshapen, and hateful. His was not a nature 
 to pry for faults, or disabuse the world of good-natured 
 mistakes; he looked for virtue, love, and truth among 
 men, and thanked God that he found them in such large 
 measure. If there are touches of satire in his writings, 
 he is the best-natured and most amiable of satirists, ami 
 able beyond Horace ; and in his irony for there is a 
 vein of playful irony running through many of his works 
 there is no tinge of bitterness. 
 
 I rejoice, for my part, that we have had such a writer 
 as Irving to bridge over the chasm between the two 
 great nations that an illustrious American lived so long 
 in England, and was so much beloved there, and sought 
 so earnestly to bring the people of the two countries to a 
 better understanding with each other, and to wean them 
 from the animosities of narrow minds. I am sure that 
 there is not a large-minded and large-hearted man in all 
 our country who can read over the " Sketch-Book " and 
 the other writings of Irving, and disown one of the mag 
 nanimous sentiments they express with regard to Eng 
 land, or desire to abate the glow of one of his warm and 
 cheerful pictures of English life. Occasions will arise, no 
 doubt, for saying some things in a less accommodating 
 
100 WASHINGTON IR VING. 
 
 spirit, and there are men enough on both sides of the At 
 lantic who can say them ; but Irving was not sent into 
 the world on that errand. A different work was assigned 
 him in the very structure of his mind, and the endow 
 ments of his heart a work of peace and brotherhood, 
 and I will say for him that he nobly performed it. 
 
 Let me pause here to speak of what I believe to have 
 been the influence of the " Sketch-Book " upon American 
 literature. At the time it appeared the periodical lists of 
 new American publications were extremely meagre, and 
 consisted, to a great extent, of occasional pamphlets and 
 dissertations on the questions of the day. The works of 
 greater pretension were, for the most part, crudely and 
 languidly made up, and destined to be little read. A 
 work like the " Sketch-Book," welcomed on both sides of 
 the Atlantic, showed the possibility of an American au 
 thor acquiring a fame bounded only by the limits of his 
 own language, and gave an example of the qualities by 
 which it might be won. "Within two years afterwards we 
 had Cooper's " Spy " and Dana's " Idle Man ; " the press 
 of our country began, by degrees, to teem with works 
 composed with a literary skill and a spirited activity of 
 intellect until then little known among us. Every year 
 the assertion that we had no literature of our own be 
 came less and less true : and now, when we look over a 
 list of new works by native authors, we find, with an as 
 tonishment amounting almost to alarm, that the most vo 
 racious devourer of books must despair of being able to 
 
WILLIAM CULLED BRYANT. 1Q1 
 
 read half those which make a fair claim upon his atten 
 tion. It was since 1819 that the great historians of our 
 country, whose praise is in the mouths of all the nations, 
 began to write. One of them built up the fabric of his 
 fame long after Irving appeared as an author, and slept 
 with Herodotus two years before Irving's death ; another 
 of the band lives yet to be the ornament of the associa 
 tion before which I am called to speak, and is framing 
 the annals of his country into a work for future ages. 
 Within that period has arisen among us the class who 
 hold vast multitudes spell-bound in motionless attention 
 by public discourses, the most perfect of their kind, such 
 as make the fame of Everett. Within that period our 
 theologians have learned to write with the elegance and 
 vivacity of the essayists. We had but one novelist be 
 fore the era of the " Sketch-Book ; " their number is now 
 beyond enumeration by any but a professed catalogue- 
 maker, and many of them are read in every cultivated form 
 of human speech. Those whom we acknowledge as our 
 poets one of whom is the special favorite of our 
 brothers in language who dwell beyond sea appeared in 
 the world of letters and won its attention after Irving 
 had become famous. We have wits, and humorists, and 
 amusing essayists, authors of some of the airiest and 
 most graceful compositions of the present century, and 
 we owe them to the new impulse given to our literature 
 in 1819. I look abroad on these stars of our literary fir- 
 manent some crowded together with their minute points 
 
102 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 of light in a galaxy some standing apart in glorious con 
 stellations ; I recognize Arcturus, and Orion, and Perse 
 us, and the glittering jewels of the Southern Crown, and 
 the Pleiades shedding sweet influences ; but the Evening 
 Star, the soft and serene light that glowed in their van, 
 the precursor of them all, has sunk below the horizon. 
 The spheres, meantime, perform their appointed courses ; 
 the same motion which lifted them up to the mid-sky 
 bears them onward to their setting ; and they, too, like 
 their bright leader, must soon be carried by it below the 
 earth. 
 
 Irving went to Paris in 1820, where he passed the re 
 mainder of the year and part of the next, and where he 
 became acquainted with the poet Moore, who frequently 
 mentions him in his Diary. Moore and he were much in 
 each other's company, and the poet has left on record an 
 expression of his amazement at the rapidity with which 
 " Bracebridge Hall " was composed one hundred and 
 thirty pages in ten days. The winter of 1822 found him 
 in Dresden. In that year was published " Bracebridge 
 Hall," the groundwork of which is a charming description 
 of country life in England, interspersed with narratives, 
 the scene of which is laid in other countries. Of these, 
 the Norman tale of " Annette Delarbre " seems to me the 
 most beautiful and affecting thing of its kind in all his 
 works ; so beautiful, indeed, that I can hardly see how he 
 who has once read it can resist the desire to read it 
 again. In " Bracebridge Hall " we have the Stout Gen- 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 103 
 
 tleman, full of certain minute paintings of familiar ob 
 jects, where not a single touch is thrown in that does not 
 heighten the comic effect of the narrative. If I am not 
 greatly mistaken, the most popular novelists of the day 
 have learned from this pattern the skill with which they 
 have wrought up some of their most striking passages, 
 both grave and gay. In composing " Bracebridge Hall," 
 Irving showed that he had not forgotten his native coun 
 try ; and in the pleasant tale of Dolph Heyliger he went 
 back to the banks of that glorious river beside which he 
 was born. 
 
 In 1823, Irving, still a wanderer, returned to Paris, and 
 in the year following gave the world his " Tales of a 
 Traveller." Murray, in the meantime, had become fully 
 weaned from the notion that Irving's writings lacked the 
 quality which he called " scope," for he had paid a thou 
 sand guineas for the copyright of " Bracebridge Hall," 
 and now offered fifteen hundred pounds for the " Tales of 
 a Traveller," which Irving accepted. " He might have 
 had two thousand," says Moore, but this assembly will 
 not, I hope, think the worse of him, if it be acknowl 
 edged that the world contained men who were sharper 
 than he at driving a bargain. The "Tales of a Travel 
 ler" are most remarkable for their second part, entitled 
 " Buckthorn and his Friends," in which the author intro 
 duces us to literary life in its various aspects, as he had 
 observed it in London, and to the relations in which 
 authors at that time stood to the booksellers. His 
 
104 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 sketches of the different personages are individual, char 
 acteristic and diverting, yet with what a kindly pencil 
 they are all drawn! His good nature overspreads and 
 harmonizes everything, like the warm atmosphere which 
 so much delights us in a painting. 
 
 Irving, still " unsettled in his abode," passed the win 
 ter of 1825 in the south of France. When you are in 
 that region you see the snowy summits of the Spanish 
 Pyrenees looking down upon you ; Spanish visitors fre 
 quent the watering-places; Spanish peddlers, in their 
 handsome costume, offer you the fabrics of Barcelona and 
 Valencia ; Spanish peasants come to the fairs ; the travel 
 ler feels himself almost in Spain already, and is haunted 
 by the desire of visiting that remarkable country. To 
 Spain Irving went in the latter part of the year, invited 
 by our Minister at Madrid, Alexander H. Everett, at the 
 suggestion of Mr. Rich, the American Consul, an indus 
 trious and intelligent collector of Spanish works relating 
 to America. His errand was to translate into English 
 the documents relating to the discovery and early history 
 of our Continent, collected by the research of Navarrete. 
 He passed the winter of 1826 at the Spanish capital, as 
 the guest of Mr. Eich ; the following season took him to 
 Granada, and he lingered awhile in that beautiful region, 
 profusely watered by the streams that break from the 
 Snowy Eidge. In 1827, he again visited the south of 
 Spain, gathering materials for his " Life of Columbus," 
 which, immediately after his arrival in Spain, he had de- 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 105 
 
 termined to write, instead of translating the documents 
 of Navarrete. In Spain he began and finished that work 
 after having visited the places associated with the princi 
 pal events in the life of his hero. Murray was so well 
 satisfied with its " scope " that he gave him three thou 
 sand guineas for the copyright, and laid it before the 
 public in 1828. Like the other works of Irving' s, it was 
 published here at the same time as in London. 
 
 The "Life and Yoyages of Christopher Columbus" 
 placed Irving among the historians, for the biography of 
 that great discoverer is a part, and a remarkable part, of 
 the history of the world. Of what was strictly and sim 
 ply personal in his adventures, much, of course, has 
 passed into irremediable oblivion ; what was both per 
 sonal and historical is yet outstanding above the shadow 
 that has settled upon the rest. The work of Irving was 
 at once in everybody's hands and eagerly read. Navar 
 rete vouched for its historical accuracy and complete 
 ness. Jeffrey declared that no work could ever take its 
 place. It was written with a strong love of the subject, 
 and to this it owes much of its power over the reader. 
 Columbus was one of those who, with all their faculties 
 occupied by one great idea, and bent on making it a 
 practical reality, are looked upon as crazed, and pitied 
 and forgotten if they fail, but if they succeed are vene 
 rated as the glory of their age. The poetic elements of 
 his character and history, the grandeur and mystery of 
 his design, his prophetic sagacity, his hopeful and devout 
 
106 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 courage, and his disregard of the ridicule of meaner in 
 tellects, took a strong hold on the mind of Irving, and 
 formed the inspiration of the work. 
 
 Mr. Duyckinck gives, on the authority of one who knew 
 Irving intimately, an instructive anecdote relating to the 
 "Life of Columbus." When the work was nearly finished 
 it was put into the hands of Lieutenant Slidell Macken 
 zie, himself an agreeable writer, then on a visit to Spain, 
 who read it with a view of giving a critical opinion of its 
 merits. " It is quite perfect," said he, on returning the 
 manuscript, "except the style, and that is unequal." 
 The remark made such an impression on the mind of the 
 author that he wrote over the whole narrative with the 
 view of making the style more uniform, but he afterwards 
 thought that he had not improved it. 
 
 In this I have no doubt that Irving was quite right, 
 and that it would have been better if he had never 
 touched the work after he had brought it to the state 
 which satisfied his individual judgment. An author can 
 scarce commit a greater error than to alter what he 
 writes, except when he has a clear perception that the al 
 teration is for the better, and can make it with as hearty 
 a confidence in himself as he felt in giving the work its 
 first shape. "What strikes me as an occasional defect in 
 the " Life of Columbus " is this elaborate uniformity of 
 style a certain prismatic coloring in passages where ab 
 solute simplicity would have satisfied us better. It may 
 well be supposed that Irving originally wrote some parts 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 107 
 
 of the work with the quiet plainness of a calm relater of 
 facts, and others, with the spirit and fire of one who had 
 become warmed with his subject, and this probably gave 
 occasion to what was said of the inequality of the style. 
 The attempt to elevate the diction of the simpler portions, 
 we may suppose, marred what Irving afterwards per 
 ceived had really been one of the merits of the work. 
 
 In the spring of 1829, Irving made another visit to the 
 south of Spain, collecting materials from which he after 
 wards composed some of his most popular works. When 
 the traveller now visits Granada and is taken to the Al- 
 hambra, his guide will say, " Here is one of the curiosi 
 ties of the place ; this is the chamber occupied by Wash 
 ington Irving," and he will show an apartment, from the 
 windows of which you have a view of the glorious valley 
 of the Genii, with the mountain peaks overlooking it, 
 and hear the murmur of many mountain brooks at once, 
 as they hurry to the plain. In July of the same year, he 
 repaired to London, where he was to act as Secretary of 
 the American Legation. We had at that time certain 
 controversies with the British government which were 
 the subject of negotiation. Irving took great interest in 
 these, and in some letters which I saw at the time, 
 stated the points in dispute at considerable length and 
 with admirable method and perspicuity. In London he 
 published his " Chronicles of the Conquest of Granada," 
 one of the most delightful of his works, an exact history, 
 for such it is admitted to be by those who have searched 
 
108 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 most carefully the ancient records of Spain, yet so full of 
 personal incident, so diversified with surprising turns of 
 fortune, and these wrought up with such picturesque ef 
 fect, that, to use an expression of Pope, a young lady 
 might read it by mistake for a romance. In 1831, he 
 gave the world another work on Spanish history, the 
 " Voyages of the Companions of Columbus," and in the 
 year following the "Alhambra," which is another 
 " Sketch-Book," with the scenes laid in Spain. 
 
 While in Spain, Irving had planned a Life of Cortez, 
 the Conqueror of Mexico, and collected the facts from 
 which it was to be written. When, afterwards, he had 
 actually begun the composition of the work, he happened 
 to learn that Prescott designed to write the " History of 
 the Mexican Conquest," and immediately he desisted. It 
 was his intention to interweave with the narrative, de 
 scriptions of the ancient customs of the aborigines, such 
 as their modes of warfare and their gorgeous pageants, 
 by way of relief to the sanguinary barbarities of the Con 
 quest. He saw what rich materials of the picturesque 
 these opened to him, and if he had accomplished his 
 plan, he would probably have produced one of his most 
 popular works. 
 
 In 1832 Irving returned to New York. He returned, 
 after an absence of seventeen years, to find his native city 
 doubled in population ; its once quiet waters alive with 
 sails and furrowed by steamers passing to and fro, its 
 wharves crowded with masts ; the heights which surround 
 
WILLIAM CULLEJV BRYANT. 109 
 
 it, and which he remembered wild and solitary and lying 
 in forest, now crowned with stately country seats or with 
 dwellings clustered in villages, and everywhere the ac 
 tivity and bustle of a prosperous and hopeful people. 
 And he, too, how had he returned ? The young and com 
 paratively obscure author, whose works had only found 
 here and there a reader in England, had achieved a fame 
 as wide as the civilized world. All the trophies he had 
 won in this field he brought home to lay at the feet of 
 his country. Meanwhile all the country was moved to 
 meet him ; the rejoicing was universal that one who had 
 represented us so illustriously abroad was henceforth to 
 live among us. 
 
 Irving hated public dinners, but he was forced to 
 accept one pressed upon him by his enthusiastic coun 
 trymen. It was given at the City Hotel on the 30th of 
 May, Chancellor Kent presiding, and the most eminent 
 citizens of New York assembled at the table. I remem 
 ber the accounts of this festivity reaching me as I was 
 wandering in Illinois, hovering on the skirts of the Indian 
 war, in a region now populous, but then untilled and 
 waste, and I could only write to Irving and ask leave to 
 add my voice to the general acclamation. In his address 
 at the dinner, Chancellor Kent welcomed the historian of 
 New Amsterdam back to his native city, and Irving, in 
 reply, poured forth his heart in the warmest expressions 
 of delight at finding himself again among his countrymen 
 and kindred, in a land of sunshine and freedom and hope. 
 
HO WASHINGTON lEVING. 
 
 " I am asked," he said, " how long I mean to remain 
 here. They know little of my heart who can ask me this 
 question. I answer, as long as I live." 
 
 The instinct of rambling had not, however, forsaken 
 him. In the summer after his return he made a journey 
 to the country west of the Mississippi, in company with 
 Mr. Ellsworth, a commissioner intrusted with the re 
 moval of certain Indian tribes, and roamed over wild 
 regions, then the hunting-grounds of the savage, but into 
 which the white man has since brought his plough and 
 his herds. He did not publish his account of this jour 
 ney until 1835, when it appeared as the first volume of the 
 " Crayon Miscellany," under the title of a " Tour on the 
 Prairies." In this work the original West is described 
 as Irving knew how to describe it, and the narrative is in 
 that vein of easy gaiety peculiar to his writings. " Ab- 
 botsford and Newstead Abbey " formed the second volume 
 of the " Crayon Miscellany," and to these he afterwards 
 added another, entitled " Legends of the Conquest of 
 Spain." 
 
 In 1836 he published " Astoria ; or, Anecdotes of an 
 Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains ; " a somewhat 
 curious example of literary skill. A voluminous com 
 mercial correspondence was the dull ore of the earth 
 which he refined and wrought into symmetry and splen 
 dor. Irving reduced to a regular narrative the events to 
 which it referred, bringing out the picturesque whenever 
 he found it, and enlivening the whole with touches of his 
 
WILLIAM CULLED BRYANT. 
 
 native humor. His nephew, Pierre M. Irving, lightened 
 his labor materially by examining and collating the let 
 ters and making memoranda of their contents. In 1837, 
 he prepared for the press the "Adventures of Captain 
 Bonneville, of the United States Army, in the Eocky 
 Mountains and the Far "West." He had the manuscript 
 journal of Bonneville before him, but the hand of Irving 
 is apparent in every sentence. 
 
 About the time that this work appeared, Irving was 
 drawn into the only public controversy in which, so far 
 as I know, he ever engaged. William Leggett then 
 conducted a weekly periodical entitled the Plaindedler, 
 remarkable both for its ability and its love of disputa 
 tion. It attacked Mr. Irving for altering a line or two in 
 one of my poems, with a view of making it less offensive 
 to English readers, and for writing a preface to the Amer 
 ican edition of his " Tour on the Prairies," full of pro 
 fessions of love for his country, which were studiously 
 omitted from the English edition. From these circum 
 stances the Plaindecder drew an inference unfavorable to 
 Irving' s sincerity. 
 
 I should here mention, and I hope I may do it without 
 much egotism, that when a volume of my poems was 
 published here in the year 1832, Mr. Verplanck had the 
 kindness to send a copy of it to Irving, desiring him to 
 find a publisher for it in England. This he readily 
 engaged to do, though wholly unacquainted with me, and 
 offered the volume to Murray. "Poetry does not sell 
 
112 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 at present," said Murray, and declined it. A bookseller 
 in Bond street, named Andrews, undertook its publica 
 tion, but required that Irving should introduce it with a 
 preface of his own. He did so, speaking of my verses in 
 such terms as would naturally command for them the 
 attention of the public, and allowing his name to be 
 placed in the title-page as the editor. The edition, in 
 consequence, found a sale. It happened, however, that 
 the publisher objected to two lines in a poem called the 
 " Song of Marion's Men." One of them was 
 
 " The British soldier trembles," 
 
 and Irving good-naturedly consented that it should be 
 
 altered to 
 
 " The foeman trembles in his camp." 
 
 The other alteration was of a similar character. 
 
 To the accusations of the Plaindeakr, Irving replied 
 with a mingled spirit and dignity which almost makes us 
 regret that his faculties were not oftener roused into 
 energy by such collisions, or, at least, that he did not 
 sometimes employ his pen on controverted points. He 
 fully vindicated himself in both instances, showing that 
 he had made the alterations in my poem from a simple 
 desire to do me service, and that with regard to the 
 " Tour on the Prairies," he had sent a manuscript copy 
 of it to England for publication, at the same time that he 
 sent another to the printer here, and that it would have 
 been an absurdity to address the English edition to the 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. H3 
 
 American public. But as this was the first time that he 
 had appeared before his countrymen as an author since 
 his return from Europe, it was but proper that he should 
 express to them the feelings awakened by their generous 
 welcome. "These feelings," he said, "were genuine, 
 and were not expressed with half the warmth with which 
 they were entertained;" an assertion which every reader, 
 I believe, was disposed to receive literally. 
 
 In his answer to the Plaindealer, some allusions 
 were made to me which seemed to imply that I had 
 taken part in this attack upon him. To remove the im 
 pression, I sent a note to the Plaindealer for publica 
 tion, in which I declared in substance that I never had 
 complained of the alterations of my poem that though 
 they were not such as I should have made, I was certain 
 they were made with the kindest intentions, and that 
 I had no feeling toward Mr. Irving but gratitude for the 
 service he had rendered me. The explanation was gra 
 ciously accepted, and in a brief note, printed in the 
 Plaindealer, Irving pronounced my acquittal. 
 
 Several papers were written by Irving in 1839 and the 
 following year, for Ihe Knickerbocker, a monthly peri 
 odical conducted by his friend, Lewis Gaylord Clark, all 
 of them such as he only could write. They were after 
 ward collected into a volume, entitled " Wolfert's Boost," 
 from the ancient name of that beautiful residence of his 
 on the banks of the Hudson, in which they were mostly 
 written. They were, perhaps, read with more interest in 
 
114 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 the volume than in the magazine, just as some paintings 
 of the highest merit are seen with more pleasure in the 
 artist's room than on the walls of an exhibition. 
 
 In 1842 he went to Spain as the American Minister, 
 and remained in that country for four years. I have 
 never understood that anything occurred during that 
 time to put his talents as a negotiator to any rigorous 
 test. He was a sagacious and intelligent observer ; his 
 connection with the American Legation in London had 
 given him diplomatic experience, and I have heard that 
 he sent home to his government some valuable de 
 spatches on the subject of our relations with Spain. In 
 other respects, he did, at least, what all American minis 
 ters at the European courts are doing, and I suppose my 
 hearers understand very well what that is ; but if there 
 had been any question of importance to be settled, I 
 think he might have acquitted himself as well as many 
 who have had a higher reputation for dexterity in busi 
 ness. When I was at Madrid in 1857, a distinguished 
 Spaniard said to me : " Why does not your government 
 send out Washington Irving to this court ? Why do you 
 not take as your agent the man whom all Spain admires, 
 venerates, loves ? I assure you, it would be difficult for 
 our government to refuse anything which Irving should 
 ask, and his signature would make almost any treaty ac 
 ceptable to our people." 
 
 Eeturning in 1846, Irving went back to Sunnyside, on 
 the Hudson, and continued to make it his abode for the 
 
WILLIAM CULLEtf BRYANT. H5 
 
 rest of his life. Those who passed up and down the 
 river before the year 1835, may remember a neglected 
 cottage on a green bank, with a few locust-trees before it, 
 close to where a little brook brings in its tribute to the 
 mightier stream. In that year Irving became its posses 
 sor ; he gave it the name it now wears, planted its pleas 
 ant slopes with trees and shrubs, laid it out in walks, 
 built outhouses, and converted the cottage into a more 
 spacious dwelling, in the old Dutch style of architecture, 
 with crow-steps on the gables ; a quaint, picturesque 
 building, with " as many angles and corners," to use his 
 own words, "as a cocked hat." He caused creeping 
 plants and climbing roses to be trained up its walls ; the 
 trees he planted prospered in that sheltered situation, 
 and were filled with birds, which would not leave their 
 nests at the approach of the kind master of the place. 
 The house became almost hidden from sight by their 
 lofty summits, the perpetual rustlings of which, to those 
 who sat within, were blended with the murmurs of the 
 water. Yan Tassel would have had some difficulty in 
 recognizing his old abode in this little paradise, with the 
 beauty of which one of Irving's friends * has made the 
 public familiar in prose and verse. 
 
 At Sunnyside, Irving wrote his " Life of Oliver Gold 
 smith." Putnam, the bookseller, had said to him one 
 day : " Here is Foster's ' Life of Goldsmith ; ' I think of 
 
 *H. T. Tuckerman. 
 
116 WASHINGTON IRVING, 
 
 republishing it." " I once wrote a Memoir of Goldsmith," 
 answered Irving, " which was prefixed to an edition of his 
 works printed at Paris ; and I have thought of enlarging 
 it and making it more perfect." " If you will do that," 
 was the reply of the bookseller, " I shall not republish 
 the Life by Foster." Within three months afterwards, 
 Irving's " Life of Goldsmith " was finished and in press. 
 It was so much superior to the original sketch, in the ex 
 actness of the particulars, the entertainment of the anec 
 dotes, and the beauty of the style, that it was really a new 
 work. For my part, I know of nothing like it. I have 
 read no biographical memoir which carries forward the 
 reader so delightfully and with so little tediousness of 
 recital or reflection. I never take it up without being 
 tempted to wish that Irving had written more works of 
 the kind ; but this could hardly be ; for where could he 
 have found another Goldsmith? 
 
 In 1850 appeared his " Lives of Mahomet and his Suc 
 cessors," composed principally from memoranda made by 
 him during his residence in Spain ; and in the same year 
 he completed the revisal of his works for a new edition, 
 which was brought out by Putnam, a bookseller of whose 
 obliging and honorable conduct he delighted to speak. 
 Irving was a man with whom it was not easy to have a 
 misunderstanding ; but, even if he had been of a different 
 temper, these commendations would have been none the 
 less deserved. 
 
 When Cooper died, toward the close of the year 1850, 
 
WILLIAM CTTLLEN BRYANT. H7 
 
 Irving, who had not long before met him, apparently in 
 the full vigor of his excellent constitution, was much 
 shocked by the event, and took part in the meetings held 
 for the purpose of collecting funds to erect a monument 
 to his memory in this city a design which, I am sorry to 
 say, has wholly failed. He wrote a letter advising that 
 the monument should be a statue, and attended the great 
 memorial meeting held in Metropolitan Hall, in February 
 of the next year, at which Webster presided. He was 
 then near the end of his sixty-eighth year, and was re 
 marked as one over whom the last twenty years had 
 passed lightly. He, whom Dr. Francis describes as in 
 early life a slender and delicate youth, preserving his 
 health by habitual daily exercise, appeared before that 
 vast assembly a fresh, well-preserved gentleman scarcely 
 more than elderly, with firm but benevolent features, 
 well-knit and muscular limbs, and an elastic step, the 
 sign of undiminished physical vigor. 
 
 In his retirement at Sunnyside, Irving planned and ex 
 ecuted his last great work, the "Life of Washington," to 
 which he says he had long looked forward as his crown 
 ing literary effort. Constable, the Edinburgh bookseller, 
 had proposed it to him thirty years before, and he then 
 resolved to undertake it as soon as he should return to 
 the United States. It was postponed in favor of other 
 projects, but never abandoned. At length the expected 
 time seemed to have arrived ; his other tasks had been 
 successfully performed ; the world was waiting for new 
 
118 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 works from his pen ; his mind and body were yet in their 
 vigor ; the habit and the love of literary production yet 
 remained, and he addressed himself to this greatest of his 
 labors. 
 
 Yet he had his misgivings, though they could not di 
 vert him from his purpose. " They expect too much 
 too much," he said to a friend of mine, to whom he was 
 speaking of the magnitude of the task and the difficulty 
 of satisfying the public. "We cannot wonder at these 
 doubts. At the time when he began to employ himself 
 steadily on this work, he was near the age of threescore 
 and ten, when with most men the season of hope and con 
 fidence is past. He was like one who should begin the 
 great labor of the day when the sun was shedding his 
 latest beams, and what if the shadows of night should 
 descend upon him before his task was ended ? A vast 
 labor had been thrown upon him by the almost number 
 less documents and papers recently brought to light re 
 lating to the events in which Washington was concerned 
 such as were amassed and digested by the research 
 of Sparks, and accompanied by the commentary of his 
 excellent biography. These were all to be carefully ex 
 amined and their spirit extracted. Historians had in the 
 meantime arisen in our country, of a world-wide fame, 
 with whose works his own must be compared, and he 
 was to be judged by a public whom he, more than almost 
 any other man, had taught to be impatient of mediocrity. 
 
 I do not believe, however, that Irving's task would have 
 
WILLIAM GULLEN BRYANT. H9 
 
 been performed so ably if it had been undertaken when 
 it was suggested by Constable; the narrative could not 
 have been so complete in its facts ; it might not have been 
 written with the same becoming simplicity. It was 
 fortunate that the work was delayed till it could be 
 written from the largest store of materials, till its plan 
 was fully matured in all its fair proportions, and till 
 the author's mind had become filled with the profound- 
 est veneration for his subject. 
 
 The simplicity already mentioned is the first quality of 
 this work which impresses the reader. Here is a man of 
 genius, a poet by temperament, writing the life of a man 
 of transcendent wisdom and virtue a life passed amidst 
 great events, and marked by inestimable public services. 
 There is a constant temptation to eulogy, but the tempta 
 tion is resisted ; the actions of his hero are left to speak 
 their own praise. He records events reverently, as one 
 might have recorded them before the art of rhetoric was 
 invented, with no exaggeration, with no parade of reflec 
 tion ; the lessons of the narrative are made to impress 
 themselves on the mind by the earnest and conscientious 
 relation of facts. Meantime the narrator keeps himself 
 in the background, solely occupied with the due presen 
 tation of his subject. Our eyes are upon the actors 
 whom he sets before us we never think of Mr. Irving. 
 
 A closer examination reveals another great merit of 
 the work, the admirable proportion in which the author 
 keeps the characters and events of his story. I suppose 
 
120 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 he could hardly have been conscious of this merit, and 
 that it was attained without a direct effort. Long medi 
 tation had probably so shaped and matured the plan in 
 his mind, and so arranged its parts in their just symme 
 try, that, executing it as he did, conscientiously, he could 
 not have made it a different thing from what we have it. 
 There is nothing distorted, nothing placed in too broad a 
 light or thrown too far in the shade. The incidents of 
 our Revolutionary war, the great event of Washington's 
 life, pass before us as they passed before the eyes of the 
 commander-in-chief himself, and from time to time varied 
 his designs. Washington is kept always in sight, and 
 the office of the biographer is never allowed to become 
 merged in that of the historian. 
 
 The men who were the companions of Washington in 
 the field or in civil life, are shown only in their associa 
 tion with him, yet are their characters drawn, not only 
 with skill and spirit, but with a hand that delighted to 
 do them justice. Nothing, I believe, could be more ab 
 horrent to Irving's ideas of the province of a biographer, 
 than the slightest detraction from the merits of others, 
 that his hero might appear the more eminent. So remark 
 able is his work in this respect, that an accomplished 
 member of the Historical Society,* who has analyzed the 
 merits of the " Life of Washington " with a critical skill 
 which makes me ashamed to speak of the work after him, 
 
 * G-. "W. Greene. " Biographical Studies." 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 121 
 
 has declared that no writer, within the circle of his read 
 ing, " has so successfully established his claim to the rare 
 and difficult virtue of impartiality." 
 
 I confess, my admiration of this work becomes the 
 greater the more I examine it. In the other writings of 
 Irving are beauties which strike the reader at once. In 
 this I recognize qualities which lie deeper, and which I 
 was not sure of finding a rare equity of judgment, a large 
 grasp of the subject, a profound philosophy, independent 
 of philosophical forms, and even instinctively rejecting 
 them, the power of reducing an immense crowd of loose 
 materials to clear and orderly arrangement, and forming 
 them into one grand whole, as a skilful commander, from 
 a rabble of raw recruits, forms a disciplined army, ani 
 mated and moved by a single will. 
 
 The greater part of this last work of Irving was com 
 posed while he was in the enjoyment of what might be 
 called a happy old age. This period of his life was not 
 without its infirmities, but his frame was yet unwasted, 
 his intellect bright and active, and the hour of decay 
 seemed distant. He had become more than ever the ob 
 ject of public veneration, and in his beautiful retreat en 
 joyed all the advantages with few of the molestations of 
 acknowledged greatness ; a little too much visited, per 
 haps, but submitting to the intrusion of his admirers 
 with his characteristic patience and kindness. That re 
 treat had now become more charming than ever, and the 
 domestic life within was as beautiful as the nature with- 
 
122 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 out. A surviving brother, older than himself, shared it 
 with him, and several affectionate nephews and nieces 
 stood to him in the relation of sons and daughters. He 
 was surrounded by neighbors who saw him daily, and 
 honored and loved him the more for knowing him so well. 
 
 "While he was engaged in writing the last pages of his 
 " Life of Washington," his countrymen heard with pain 
 that his health was failing and his strength ebbing away. 
 He completed the work, however, though he was not 
 able to revise the last sheets, and we then heard that his 
 nights had become altogether sleepless. He was himself 
 of opinion that his labors had been too severe for his 
 time of life, and had sometimes feared that the power to 
 continue them would desert him before his work could 
 be finished. A catarrh to which he had been subject, had, 
 by some injudicious prescription, been converted into an 
 asthma, and the asthma, according to the testimony of 
 his physician, Dr. Peters, one of the most attentive and 
 assiduous of his profession, was at length accompanied 
 by an enlargement of the heart. This disease ended in 
 the usual way by a sudden dissolution. On the 28th of 
 November last, in the evening, he had bidden the family 
 good night in his usual kind manner, and had withdrawn 
 to his room, attended by one of his nieces carrying his 
 medicines, when he complained of a sudden feeling of in 
 tense sadness, sank immediately into her arms, and died 
 without a struggle. 
 
 Although he had reached an age beyond which life is 
 
WILLIAM CULLEJV BRYANT. 123 
 
 rarely prolonged, the news of his death was everywhere 
 received with profound sorrow. The whole country 
 mourned, but the grief was most deeply felt in his im 
 mediate neighborhood; the little children wept for the 
 loss of their good friend. When the day of his funeral 
 arrived, the people gathered from far and near to attend 
 it; this capital poured forth its citizens; the trains on 
 the railway were crowded, and a multitude, like a mass 
 meeting, but reverentially silent, moved through the 
 streets of the neighboring village, which had been 
 dressed in the emblems of mourning, and clustered about 
 the church and the burial-ground. It was the first day 
 of December ; the pleasant Indian summer of our climate 
 had been prolonged far beyond its usual date ; the sun 
 shone with his softest splendor and the elements were 
 hushed into a perfect calm ; it was like one of the bland 
 est days of October. The hills and forests, the meadows 
 and waters which Irving had loved seemed listening, in 
 that quiet atmosphere, as the solemn funeral service was 
 read. 
 
 It was read over the remains of one whose life had 
 well prepared his spirit for its new stage of being. Ir 
 ving did not aspire to be a theologian, but his heart was 
 deeply penetrated with the better part of religion, and he 
 had sought humbly to imitate the example of the Great 
 Teacher of our faith. 
 
 That amiable character which makes itself so manifest 
 in the writings of Irving was seen in all his daily actions. 
 
124 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 He was ever ready to do kind offices, tender of the feel 
 ings of others, carefully just, but ever leaning to the mer 
 ciful side of justice, averse from strife, and so modest that 
 the world never ceased to wonder how it should have 
 happened that one so much praised should have gained 
 so little assurance. He envied no man's success, he 
 sought to detract from no man's merits, but he was acute 
 ly sensitive both to praise and to blame sensitive to 
 such a degree that an unfavorable criticism of any of his 
 works would almost persuade him that they were as 
 worthless as the critic represented them. He thought so 
 little of himself that he could never comprehend why it 
 was that he should be the object of curiosity or rever 
 ence. 
 
 From the time that he began the composition of his 
 " Sketch-Book," his whole life was the life of an author. 
 His habits of composition were, however, by no means 
 regular. "When he was in the vein, the periods would 
 literally stream from his pen ; at other times he would 
 scarcely write anything. For two years after the failure 
 of his brothers at Liverpool, he found it almost impos 
 sible to write a line. He was throughout life an early 
 riser, and when in the mood, would write all the morning 
 and till late in the day, wholly engrossed with his sub 
 ject. In the evening he was ready for any cheerful pas 
 time, in which he took part with an animation almost 
 amounting to high spirits. These intervals of excitement 
 and intense labor, sometimes lasting for weeks, were sue- 
 
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 125 
 
 ceeded by languor, and at times by depression of spirits, 
 and for months the pen would lie untouched ; even to 
 answer a letter at these times was an irksome task. 
 
 In the evening he wrote but very rarely, knowing so, 
 at least, I infer that no habit makes severer demands 
 upon the nervous system than this. It was owing, I 
 doubt not, to this prudent husbanding of his powers, 
 along with his somewhat abstinent habits and the exer 
 cise which he took every day, that he was able to pre 
 serve unimpaired to so late a period the faculties em 
 ployed in original composition. He had been a vigorous 
 walker and a fearless rider, and in his declining years he 
 drove out daily, not only for the sake of the open air and 
 motion, but to refresh his mind with the aspect of nature. 
 One of his favorite recreations was listening to music, of 
 which he was an indulgent critic, and he contrived to be 
 pleased and soothed by strains less artfully modulated 
 than fastidious ears are apt to require. 
 
 His facility in writing and the charm of his style were 
 owing to very early practice, the reading of good authors 
 and the native elegance of his mind, and not, in my opin 
 ion, to any special study of the graces of manner or any 
 anxious care in the use of terms and phrases. Words 
 and combinations of words are sometimes found in his 
 writings to which a fastidious taste might object; but 
 these do not prevent his style from being one of the most 
 agreeable in the whole range of our literature. It is 
 transparent as the light, sweetly modulated, unaffected, 
 
126 WASHINGTON IR VING. 
 
 the native expression of a fertile fancy, a benignant tem 
 per, and a mind which, delighting in the noble and the 
 beautiful, turned involuntarily away from their oppo- 
 sites. His peculiar humor was, in a great measure, the 
 offspring of this constitution of his mind. This " fanciful 
 playing with common things," as Mr. Dana calls it, is 
 never coarse, never tainted with grossness, and always in 
 harmony with our better sympathies. It not only tinged 
 his writings, but overflowed in his delightful conversa 
 tion. 
 
 I have thus set before you, my friends, with such mea 
 sure of ability as I possess, a rapid and imperfect sketch 
 of the life, character, and genius of Washington Irving. 
 Other hands will yet give the world a bolder, more vivid, 
 and more exact portraiture. In the meantime, when I 
 consider for how many years he stood before the world 
 as an author, with a still-increasing fame half a century 
 in this most changeful of centuries I cannot hesitate to 
 predict for him a deathless renown. Since he began to 
 write, empires have risen and passed away ; mighty 
 captains have appeared on the stage of the world, per 
 formed their part, and been called to their account ; wars 
 have been fought and ended, which have changed the des 
 tinies of the human race. New arts have been invented 
 and adopted, and have pushed the old out of use; the 
 household economy of half mankind has undergone a 
 revolution. Science has learned a new dialect and for 
 gotten the old ; the chemist of 1807 would be a vain 
 
WILLIAM CULLEF BRYANT. 127 
 
 babbler among his brethren of the present day, and 
 would in turn become bewildered in the attempt to un 
 derstand them. Nation utters speech to nation in words 
 that pass from realm to realm with the speed of light. 
 Distant countries have been made neighbors ; the Atlan 
 tic Ocean has become a narrow frith, and the Old World 
 and the New shake hands across it ; the East and the 
 West look in at each other's windows. The new inven 
 tions bring new calamities, and men perish in crowds by 
 the recoil of their own devices. War has learned more 
 frightful modes of havoc, and armed himself with dead 
 lier weapons ; armies are borne to the battle-field on the 
 wings of the wind, and dashed against each other and 
 destroyed with infinite bloodshed. We grow giddy with 
 this perpetual whirl of strange events, these rapid and 
 ceaseless mutations ; the earth seems to reel under our 
 feet, and we turn to those who write like Irving, for some 
 assurance that we are still in the same world into which 
 we were born ; we read, and are quieted and consoled. 
 In his pages we see that the language of the heart never 
 becomes obsolete ; that Truth and Good and Beauty, the 
 offspring of God, are not subject to the changes which 
 beset the inventions of men. We become satisfied that 
 he whose works were the delight of our fathers, and are 
 still ours, will be read with the same pleasure by those 
 who come after us. 
 
 If it were becoming, at this time and in this assembly, 
 to address our departed friend as if in his immediate 
 
128 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 presence, I would say : " Farewell, them who hast entered 
 into the rest prepared, from the foundation of the world, 
 for serene and gentle spirits like thine. Farewell, happy 
 in thy life, happy in thy death, happier in the reward to 
 which that death was the assured passage ; fortunate in 
 attracting the admiration of the world to thy beautiful 
 writings ; still more fortunate in having written nothing 
 which did not tend to promote the reign of magnanimous 
 forbearance and generous sympathies among thy fellow- 
 men. The brightness of that enduring fame which thou 
 hast won on earth is but a shadowy symbol of the glory 
 to which thou art admitted in the world beyond the 
 grave. Thy errand upon earth was an errand of peace 
 and good-will to men, and thou art now in a region where 
 hatred and strife never enter, and where the harmonious 
 activity of those who inhabit it acknowledges no impulse 
 less noble or less pure than that of love." 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF IRVING. 
 
 BY HIS PUBLISHER. 
 
EECOLLECTIONS OP IRVING-. 
 
 BY HIS PUBLISHER. 
 
 OU are aware that one of the most interesting 
 reunions of men connected with literary pur 
 suits in England is at the annual dinner of the 
 " Literary Fund," the management of which has been 
 so often dissected of late by Dickens and others. It is a 
 fund for disabled authors; and, like most other British 
 charities, requires to be fed annually by a public dinner. 
 A notable occasion of this kind happened on the llth of 
 May, 1842. It was at this that I first met Mr. Irving in Eu 
 rope. The president of the festival was no less than the 
 Queen's young husband, Prince Albert, his first appear 
 ance in that (presidential) capacity. His three speeches 
 were more than respectable, for a prince ; they were ^posi 
 tive success. In the course of the evening we had speeches 
 by Hallam and Lord Mahon for the historians ; Campbell 
 and Moore for the poets ; Talfourd for the dramatists and 
 the bar ; Sir Eoderick Murchison for the savans ; Cheva 
 lier Bunsen and Baron Brunow for the diplomatists ; G. 
 P. E. James for the novelists ; the Bishop of Gloucester ; 
 Gaily Knight, the antiquary ; and a goodly sprinkling of 
 
 131 
 
132 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 peers, not famed as authors. Edward Everett was present 
 as American Minister ; and Washington Irving (then on 
 his way to Madrid in diplomatic capacity) represented 
 American authors. Such an array of speakers in a single 
 evening is rare indeed, and it was an occasion long to be 
 remembered. 
 
 The toasts and speeches were, of course, very precisely 
 arranged beforehand, as etiquette requires, I suppose, be 
 ing in the presence of " His Royal Highness," yet most 
 of them were animated and characteristic. When " Wash 
 ington Irving and American Literature " was propounded 
 by the fugleman at the elbow of H. R. H., the cheering 
 was vociferously hearty and cordial, and the interest and 
 curiosity to see and hear Geoffrey Crayon seemed to be 
 intense. His name appeared to touch the finest chords of 
 genial sympathy and good-will. The other famous men 
 of the evening had been listened to with respect and def 
 erence, but Mr. Irving's name inspired genuine enthusi 
 asm. We had been listening to the learned Hallam, and 
 the sparkling Moore, to the classic and fluent author of 
 " Ion," and to the " Bard of Hope," to the historic and 
 theologic diplomate from Prussia, and to the stately rep 
 resentative of the Czar. A dozen well-prepared senti 
 ments had been responded to in as many different 
 speeches. " The Mariners of England," " And doth not a 
 meeting like this make amends," had been sung, to the 
 evident satisfaction of the authors of those lyrics (Camp 
 bell, by the way, who was near my seat, had to be " regu- 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 133 
 
 lated " in his speech by his friend and publisher, Moxon, 
 lest H. R. H. should be scandalized). And now everybody 
 was on tiptoe for the author of "Bracebridge Hall." If 
 his speech had been proportioned to the cheers which 
 greeted him, it would have been the longest of the even 
 ing. When, therefore, he simply said, in his modest, be 
 seeching manner, "I beg to return you my very sincere 
 thanks," his brevity seemed almost ungracious to those 
 who didn't know that it was physically impossible for 
 him to make a speech. It was vexatious that routine had 
 omitted from the list of speakers Mr. Everett, who was at 
 Irving's side'; but, as diplomate, the Prussian and Rus 
 sian had precedence, and as American author, Irving, of 
 course, was the representative man. An Englishman 
 near me said to his neighbor, " Brief?" "Yes, but you 
 can tell the gentleman in the very tone of his voice." 
 
 In the hat-room I was amused to see "little Tom 
 Moore " in the crowd, appealing, with mock-pathos, to 
 Irving, as the biggest man, to pass his ticket, lest he 
 should be demolished in the crush. They left the hall 
 together to encounter a heavy shower ; and Moore, in his 
 " Diary," tells the following further incident : 
 
 " The best thing of the evening (as far as I was con 
 cerned) occurred after the whole grand show was over. 
 Irving and I came away together, and we had hardly got 
 into the street, when a most pelting shower came on, and 
 cabs and umbrellas were in requisition in all directions. 
 As we were provided with neither, our plight was becom- 
 
134: WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 ing serious, when a common cad ran up to me, and said, 
 * Shall I get you a cab, Mr. Moore ? Sure, a'n't I the 
 man that patronizes your Melodies ? ' He then ran off in 
 search of a vehicle, while Irving and I stood close up, like 
 a pair of male caryatides, under the very narrow pro 
 tection of a hall-door ledge, and thought, at last, that we 
 were quite forgotten by my patron. But he came faith 
 fully back, and while putting me into the cab (without 
 minding at all the trifle I gave him for his trouble), he 
 said confidentially in my ear, ' Now mind, whenever you 
 want a cab, Misthur Moore, just call for Tim Flaherty, 
 and I'm your man.' Now, this I call fame, and of some 
 what more agreeable kind than that of Dante, when the 
 women in the street found him out by the marks of hell- 
 fire on his beard." 
 
 When I said that Mr. Irving could not speak in public, 
 I had forgotten that he did once get through with a very 
 nice little speech on such an occasion as that just alluded 
 to. It was at an entertainment given in 1837, at the old 
 City Hotel in New York, by the New York booksellers to 
 American authors. Many of " the Trade " will remember 
 the good things said on that evening, and among them 
 Mr. Irving's speech about Halleck, and about Rogers the 
 poet, as the "friend of American genius." At irfy re 
 quest, he afterwards wrote out his remarks, which were 
 printed in the papers of the day. Probably this was 
 his last, if not his best effort in this line ; for the 
 Dickens-dinner remarks were not complete. 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 135 
 
 In 1845, Mr. Irving came to London from his post at 
 Madrid, on a short visit to his friend, Mr. McLane, then 
 American Minister to England. It was my privilege at 
 that time to know him more domestically than before. 
 It was pleasant to have him at my table at " Knicker 
 bocker Cottage." With his permission, a quiet party of 
 four was made up; the others being Dr. Beattie, the 
 friend and biographer of Campbell ; Samuel Carter Hall, 
 the litterateur, and editor of the Art Journal ; and William 
 Howitt. Irving was much interested in what Dr. Beattie 
 had to tell about Campbell, and especially so in Carter 
 Hall's stories of Moore and his patron, Lord Lansdowne. 
 Moore, at this time, was in ill health and shut up from 
 the world. I need not attempt to quote the conversation. 
 Irving had been somewhat intimate with Moore in for 
 mer days, and found him doubtless an entertaining and 
 lively companion ; but his replies to Hall about the 
 " patronage " of my Lord Lansdowne, etc., indicated 
 pretty clearly that he had no sympathy with the small 
 traits and parasitical tendencies of Moore's character. If 
 there was anything specially detestable to Irving and at 
 variance with his very nature, it was that self-seeking 
 deference to wealth and station which was so character 
 istic of the Irish poet. 
 
 I had hinted to one of my guests that Mr. Irving was 
 sometimes caught " napping " even at the dinner-table, so 
 that such an event should not occasion surprise. The 
 conversation proved so interesting that I had almost 
 
136 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 claimed a victory, when, lo ! a slight lull in the talk dis 
 closed the fact that our respected guest was nodding. I 
 believe it was a habit with him, for many years, thus to 
 take " forty winks " at the dinner-table. Still, the con 
 versation of that evening was a rich treat, and my Eng 
 lish friends frequently thanked me afterwards for the op 
 portunity of meeting " the man of all others whom they 
 desired to know." 
 
 The term of Mr. Irving's contract with his Philadel 
 phia publishers expired in 1843, and, for five years, his 
 works remained in statu quo, no American publisher ap 
 pearing to think them of sufficient importance to propose 
 definitely for a new edition. Surprising as this fact ap 
 pears now, it is actually true that Mr. Irving began to 
 think his works had "rusted out" and were "defunct," 
 for nobody offered to reproduce them. Being, in 1848, 
 again settled in New York, and apparently able to render 
 suitable business attention to the enterprise, I ambitious 
 ly proposed an arrangement to publish Irving's Works. 
 My suggestion was made in a brief note, written on the 
 impulse of the moment ; but (what was more remarkable) 
 it was promptly accepted without the change of a single 
 figure or a single stipulation. It is sufficient to remark, 
 that the number of volumes since printed of these works 
 (including the later ones) amounts to about eight hun 
 dred thousand. 
 
 The relations of friendship I cannot say intimacy to 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 137 
 
 which this arrangement admitted me were such as any 
 man might have enjoyed with proud satisfaction. I had 
 always too much earnest respect for Mr. Irving ever to 
 claim familiar intimacy with him. He was a man who 
 would unconsciously and quietly command deferential re 
 gard and consideration; for in all his ways and words 
 there was the atmosphere of true refinement. He was 
 emphatically a gentleman, in the best sense of that word. 
 Never forbidding or morose, he was at times (indeed al 
 ways, when quite well) full of genial humor, sometimes 
 overflowing with fun. But I need not, here at least, at 
 tempt to sum up his characteristics. 
 
 That " Sunny side " home was too inviting to those who 
 were privileged there to allow any proper opportunity for 
 a visit to pass unimproved. Indeed, it became so attrac 
 tive to strangers and lion-hunters, that some of those 
 whose entree was quite legitimate and acceptable refrained, 
 especially during the last two years, from adding to the 
 heavy tax which casual visitors began to levy upon the 
 quiet hours of the host. Ten years ago, when Mr. Irving 
 was in his best estate of health and spirits, when his 
 mood was of the sunniest, and Wolfert's Boost was in the 
 spring-time of its charms, it was my fortune to pass a 
 few days there with my wife. Mr. Irving himself drove 
 a snug pair of ponies down to the steamboat to meet us 
 (for, even then, Thackeray's "one old horse" was not 
 the only resource in the Sunnyside stables). The drive 
 of two miles from Tarrytown to that delicious lane which 
 
138 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 leads to the Boost, who does not know all that, and how 
 charming it is ? Five hundred descriptions of the Tap- 
 pan Zee and the region round about have not exhausted 
 it. The modest cottage, almost buried under the luxuri 
 ant Melrose ivy, was then just made what it is, a pic 
 turesque and comfortable retreat for a man of tastes and 
 habits like those of Geoffrey Crayon, snug and modest, 
 but yet, with all its surroundings, a fit residence for a 
 gentleman who had means to make everything suitable as 
 well as handsome about him. Of this a word anon. 
 
 I do not presume to write of the home-details of Sun- 
 nyside, further than to say that this delightful visit of 
 three or four days gave us the impression that Mr. Ir- 
 ving's element seemed to be at home, as head of the fam 
 ily. He took us for a stroll over the grounds, some 
 twenty acres of wood and dell, with babbling brooks, 
 pointing out innumerable trees which he had planted 
 with his own hands, and telling us anecdotes and remin 
 iscences of his early life : of his being taken in the Med 
 iterranean by pirates; of his standing on the pier at 
 Messina, in Sicily, and looking at Nelson's fleet sweeping 
 by on its way to the battle of Trafalgar ; of his failure 
 to see the interior of Milan Cathedral, because it was be 
 ing decorated for the coronation of the first Napoleon ; 
 of his adventures in Rome with Allston, and how near 
 Geoffrey Crayon came to being an artist ; of Talleyrand, 
 and many other celebrities ; and of incidents which 
 seemed to take us back to a former generation. Often at 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 139 
 
 this and subsequent visits I ventured to suggest (not 
 professionally), after some of these reminiscences, "I 
 hope you have taken time to make a note of these ; " 
 but the oracle nodded a sort of humorous No. A drive to 
 Sleepy Hollow Mr. Irving again managing the ponies 
 himself crowned our visit ; and with such a coachman 
 and guide, in such regions, we were not altogether unable 
 to appreciate the excursion. 
 
 You are aware that in " Knickerbocker," especially, Mr. 
 Irving made copious revisions and additions, when the 
 new edition was published in 1848. The original edition 
 (1809) was dedicated with mock gravity to the New York 
 Historical Society ; and the preface to the revision ex 
 plains the origin and intent of the work. Probably some 
 of the more literal-minded grandsons of Holland were 
 somewhat unappreciative of the precise scope of the 
 author's genius and the bent of his humor ; but if this 
 " veritable history " really elicited any " doubts " or any 
 hostility, at the time, such misapprehension has doubt 
 less been long since removed. It has often been re 
 marked that Diedrich Knickerbocker had really enlisted 
 more practical interest in the early annals of his native 
 State than all other historians together, down to his time. 
 But for him we might never have had an O'Callaghan or 
 a Brodhead. 
 
 The "Sketch-Book" also received considerable new 
 matter in the revised edition ; and the story, in the pre- 
 
140 WASHINGTON IR VING. 
 
 face, of the author's connection with Scott and with Mur 
 ray added new interest to the volume, which has always 
 been the favorite with the public. You will remember 
 Mr. Bryant's remark about the change in the tone of Mr. 
 Irving's temperament shown in this work as contrasted 
 with Knickerbocker, and the probable cause of this 
 change. Mr. Bryant's very delicate and judicious refer 
 ence to the fact of Mr. Irving's early engagement was un 
 doubtedly correct. A miniature of a young lady, intel 
 lectual, refined, and beautiful, was handed me one day by 
 Mr. Irving, with the request that I would have a slight 
 injury repaired by an artist and a new case made for it, 
 the old one being actually worn out by much use. The 
 painting (on ivory) was exquisitely fine. When I re 
 turned it to him in a suitable velvet case, he took it to a 
 quiet corner and looked intently on the face for some 
 minutes, apparently unobserved, his tears falling freely 
 on the glass as he gazed. That this was a miniature of 
 the lady Miss Hoffman, a sister of Ogden Hoffman it 
 is not now perhaps indelicate to surmise. It is for a 
 poet to characterize the nature of an attachment so loyal, 
 so fresh, and so fragrant, forty years after death had 
 snatched away the mortal part of the object of affection. 
 
 During one of his visits to the city, Mr. Irving sud 
 denly asked if I could give him a bed at my house at 
 Staten Island. I could. So we had a nice chatty even 
 ing, and the next morning we took him on a charming 
 drive over the hills of Staten Island. He seemed to 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 
 
 enjoy it highly, for lie had not been there, I believe, since 
 he was stationed there in a military capacity, during the 
 War of 1812, as aid of Governor Tompkins. He gave us 
 a humorous account of some of his equestrian perform 
 ances, and those of the Governor, while on duty at the 
 island ; but neither his valor nor the Governor's was 
 tested by any actual contact with the enemy. 
 
 In facility of composition, Mr. Irving, I believe, was 
 peculiarly influenced by "moods." When in his usual 
 good health, and the spirit was on him, he wrote very 
 rapidly ; but at other times composition was an irksome 
 task, or even an impossible one. Dr. Peters says, he 
 frequently rose from his bed in the night and wrote for 
 hours together. Then again he would not touch his pen 
 for weeks. I believe his most rapidly written work was 
 the one often pronounced his most spirited one, and a 
 model as a biography, the "Life of Goldsmith." Sitting 
 at my desk one day, he was looking at Forster's clever 
 work, which I proposed to reprint. He remarked that 
 it was a favorite theme of his, and he had half a mind to 
 pursue it, and extend into a volume a sketch he had once 
 made for an edition of Goldsmith's Works. I expressed 
 a hope that he would do so, and within sixty days the 
 first sheets of Irving's " Goldsmith " were in the printer's 
 hands. The press (as he says) was "dogging at his 
 heels," for in two or three weeks the volume was published. 
 
 Yisiting London shortly after the " Life of Mahomet " 
 was prepared for the press, I arranged with Mr. Murray, 
 
142 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 on the author's behalf, for an English edition of " Ma 
 homet," "Goldsmith," etc., and took a request from 
 Mr. Irving to his old friend Leslie, that he would make a 
 true sketch of the venerable Diedrich Knickerbocker. 
 Mr. Irving insisted that the great historian of the Man- 
 hattoes was not the vulgar old fellow they would keep 
 putting on the omnibuses and ice-carts ; but that, though 
 quaint and old-fashioned, he was still of gentle blood. 
 Leslie's sketches, however (he made two), did not hit 
 the mark exactly ; Mr. Irving liked Parley's better. 
 
 Among the briefer visits to Sunnyside which I had the 
 good-fortune to enjoy was one with the estimable compiler 
 of the " Dictionary of Authors." Mr. Irving's amiable 
 and hospitable nature prompted him always to welcome 
 visitors so kindly, that no one, however dull, and however 
 uncertain his claims, would fail to be pleased with his vis 
 it. But when the genial host was in good health and in 
 his best moods, and the visitor had any magnetism in his 
 composition, when he found, in short, a kindred spirit, 
 his talk was of the choicest. Of Sir Walter Scott, es 
 pecially, he would tell us much that was interesting. 
 Probably no two writers ever appreciated each other 
 more heartily than Scott and Irving. The sterling good 
 sense, and quiet, yet rich humor of Scott, as well as his 
 literary tastes and wonderful fund of legendary lore, 
 would find no more intelligent and discriminating ad 
 mirer than Irving ; while the rollicking fun of the veri- 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 143 
 
 table Diedrich and the delicate fancy and pathos of 
 Crayon were doubtless unaffectedly enjoyed by the great 
 Scotsman. I wish I could tell you accurately one-half of 
 the anecdotes which were so pleasantly related during 
 those various brief visits at " the cottage ; " but I did not 
 go there to take notes, and it is wicked to spoil good 
 stories by misquotation. One story, however, I may ven 
 ture to repeat. 
 
 You remember how the author of the "Pleasures of 
 Hope " was once hospitably entertained by worthy peo 
 ple, under the supposition that he was the excellent 
 missionary Campbell, just returned from Africa, and 
 how the massive man of state, Daniel Webster, had re 
 peated occasion, in England, to disclaim honors meant 
 for Noah, the man of words. Mr. Irving told, with great 
 glee, a little story against himself, illustrating these un 
 certainties of distant fame. Making a small purchase at 
 a shop in England, not long after his second or third 
 work had given currency to his name, he gave his address 
 (" Mr. Irving, Number," etc.,) for the parcel to be sent to 
 his lodgings. The salesman's face brightened : " Is it 
 possible," said he, " that I have the pleasure of serving 
 Mr. Irving ? " The question, and the manner of it, indi 
 cated profound respect and admiration. A modest and 
 smiling acknowledgment was inevitable. A few more re 
 marks indicated still more deferential interest on the 
 part of the man of tape; and then another question, 
 about Mr. Irving's " latest work," revealed the pleasant 
 
14A WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 fact that he was addressed as the famous Edward Irving, 
 of the Scotch Church, the man of divers tongues. The 
 very existence of the " Sketch-Book " was probably un 
 known to his intelligent admirer. "All I could do," 
 added Mr. Crayon, with that rich twinkle in his eye, 
 "all I could do was to take my tail between my legs and 
 slink away in the smallest possible compass." 
 
 A word more about Mr. Irving's manner of life. The 
 impression given by Thackeray, in his notice (genial 
 enough, and well-meant, doubtless) of Irving's death, is 
 absurdly inaccurate. His picture of the " one old horse," 
 the plain little house, etc., would lead one to imagine 
 Mr. Irving a weak, good-natured old man, amiably, but 
 parsimoniously, saving up his pennies for his "eleven 
 nieces," (!) and to this end stinting himself, among other 
 ways, to " a single glass of wine," etc., etc. Mr. Thack 
 eray's notions of style and state and liveried retinues are 
 probably not entirely un-English, notwithstanding he 
 wields so sharp a pen against England's snobs ; and he 
 may naturally have looked for more display of greatness 
 at the residence of an ex-ambassador. But he could 
 scarcely appreciate that simple dignity and solid comfort, 
 that unobtrusive fitness, which belonged to Mr. Irving's 
 home-arrangements. There were no flunkies in gold and 
 scarlet ; but there were four or five good horses in the 
 stable, and as many suitable carriages. Everything in 
 the cottage was peculiarly and comfortably elegant, with- 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 145 
 
 out the least pretension. As to the "single glass of 
 wine," Mr. Irving, never a professed teetotaller, was 
 always temperate on instinct both in eating and drink 
 ing ; and in his last two years I believe he did not taste 
 wine at all. In all financial matters, Mr. Irving's provi 
 dence and preciseness were worthy of imitation by all 
 professional literary men ; but with exactness and punc 
 tuality he united a liberal disposition to make a suitable 
 use of money, and to have all around him comfortable and 
 appropriate. Knowing that he could leave a handsome 
 independence for those nearest to him, he had no occasion 
 for any such anxious care as Mr. Thackeray intimates. 
 
 Thackeray had been invited to Yonkers, to give his lec 
 ture on " Charity and Humor." At this "Ancient Dorp " 
 he was the guest of Cozzens, and I had the honor of 
 accompanying the greater and lesser humorist in a drive 
 to Sunnyside, nine miles. (This call of an hour, by the 
 way, was Thackeray's only glimpse of the place he de 
 scribed.) The interview was in every way interesting. 
 Mr. Irving produced a pair of antiquated spectacles, 
 which had belonged to "Washington, and Major Penden- 
 nis tried them on with evident reverence. The hour was 
 well filled with rapid, pleasant chat; but no profound 
 analysis of the characteristics of wit and humor was 
 elicited either from the Stout Gentleman or from Vanity 
 Fair. Mr. Irving went down to Yonkers, to hear Thack 
 eray's lecture in the evening, after we had all had a slice 
 of bear at Mr. Sparrowgrass's, to say nothing of sundry 
 10 
 
146 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 other courses, with a slight thread of conversation be 
 tween. At the lecture, he was so startled by the eulogis 
 tic presentation of the lecturer to the audience, by the 
 excellent chief of the committee, that I believe he did 
 not once nod during the evening. We were, of course, 
 proud to have as our guest for the night such an embodi 
 ment of " Charity and Humor " as Mr. Thackeray saw in 
 the front bench before him, but whom he considerately 
 spared from holding up as an illustration of his subject. 
 
 Charity, indeed, practical "good-will towards men," 
 was an essential part of Mr. Irving's Christianity, and in 
 this Christian virtue he was sometimes severely tested. 
 Nothing was more irksome to him than to be compelled 
 to endure calls of mere curiosity, or to answer letters 
 either of fulsome eulogy of himself, or asking for his 
 eulogy of the MSS. or new work of the correspondent. 
 Some letters of that kind he probably never did answer. 
 Few had any idea of ike fagging task they imposed on the 
 distinguished victim. He would worry and fret over it 
 trebly in anticipation, and the actual task itself was to 
 him probably ten times as irksome as it would be to most 
 others. Yet it would be curious to know how many let 
 ters of suggestion and encouragement he actually did 
 write in reply to solicitations from young authors for his 
 criticism and advice, and his recommendation, or, per 
 haps, his pecuniary aid. Always disposed to find merit, 
 even where any stray grains of the article lay buried in 
 rubbish, he would amiably say the utmost that could just- 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 147 
 
 ly be said in favor of " struggling genius." Sometimes his 
 readiness to aid meritorious young authors into profitable 
 publicity was shamefully abused, as in the case of Mait- 
 land, an Englishman, who deliberately forged an absurd 
 ly distorted paraphrase of a note of Mr. Irving' s, besides 
 other disreputable use of the signature which he had en 
 ticed from him in answer to urgent appeals. But these 
 were among the penalties of honorable fame and influence 
 which he might naturally expect to pay. The sunny as 
 pect on the " even tenor of his way " still prevailed ; and 
 until the hand of disease reached him in the last year of 
 his life, very few probably enjoyed a more tranquil and 
 unruffled existence. 
 
 It became almost a proverb, that Mr. Irving was a near 
 ly solitary instance of a long literary career (half a cen 
 tury) untouched by even a breath of ill-will or jealousy 
 on the part of a brother-author. The annals of the genus 
 irritdbile scarcely show a parallel to such a career. The 
 most prominent American contemporary of Mr. Irving in 
 imaginative literature, I suppose, was Fenimore Cooper, 
 whose genius raised the American name in Europe 
 more effectively even than Irving' s, at least on the Conti 
 nent. Cooper had a right to claim respect and admiration, 
 if not affection, from his countrymen, for his brilliant crea 
 tions and his solid services to American literature ; and he 
 knew it. But, as we all know, for it was patent, when 
 he returned from Europe, after sending his " Letter to his 
 Countrymen," and gave us " Home as Found," his recep- 
 
148 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 tion was much less marked with warmth and enthusiasm 
 than Mr. Irving's was; and while he professed indiffer 
 ence to all such whims of popular regard, yet he evidently 
 brooded a little over the relative amount of public atten 
 tion extended to his brother-author. At any rate, he per 
 sistently kept aloof from Mr. Irving for many years ; and 
 not unfrequently discoursed, in his rather authoritative 
 manner, about the humbuggery of success in this country, 
 as exhibited in some shining instances of popular and offi 
 cial favor. With great admiration for Cooper, whose na 
 tional services were never recognized as they deserved to 
 be, I trust no injustice is involved in the above sugges 
 tion, which I make somewhat presumptuously, especial 
 ly as Mr. Irving more than once spoke to me in terms of 
 strong admiration of the works and genius of Cooper, and 
 regretted that the great novelist seemed to cherish some 
 unpleasant feeling towards him. One day, some time af 
 ter I had commenced a library edition of Cooper's best 
 works, and while Irving's were in course of publication in 
 companionship, Mr. Irving was sitting at my desk, with 
 his back to the door, when Mr. Cooper came in (a little 
 bustlingly as usual), and stood at the office entrance, 
 talking. Mr. Irving did not turn (for obvious reasons), 
 and Cooper did not see him. Remembering his "Mr. 
 Sharp, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Sharp," I had ac 
 quired caution as to introductions without mutual con 
 sent ; but with a brief thought of how matters stood (they 
 had not met for several years), and a sort of instinct that 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 14Q 
 
 reduced the real difference between the parties to a base 
 less fabric of misapprehension, I stoutly obeyed the im 
 pulse of the moment, and simply said, " Mr. Cooper, 
 here is Mr. Irving." The latter turned, Cooper held out 
 his hand cordially, dashed at once into an animated con 
 versation, took a chair, and, to my surprise and delight, 
 the two authors sat for an hour, chatting in their best 
 manner about almost every topic of the day and some of 
 former days. They parted with cordial good wishes, and 
 Mr. Irving afterwards frequently alluded to the incident 
 as being a very great gratification to him. He may have 
 recalled it with new satisfaction, when, not many months 
 afterwards, he sat on the platform at the " Cooper Com 
 memoration," and joined in Bryant's tribute to the genius 
 of the departed novelist. 
 
 Mr. Irving was never a systematic collector of books, 
 and his little library at Sunnyside might have disappoint 
 ed those who would expect to see there rich shelves of 
 choice editions, and a full array of all the favorite authors 
 among whom such a writer would delight to revel. Some 
 rather antiquated tomes in Spanish, indifferent sets of 
 Calderon and Cervantes, and of some modern French and 
 German authors, a presentation-set of Cadell's "Waver- 
 ley," as well as that more recent and elegant emanation 
 from the classic press of Houghton, a moderate amount 
 of home-tools for the "Life of Washington" (rarer m&- 
 terials were consulted in the town-libraries and at Wash- 
 
150 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 ington) and the remainder of his books were evidently 
 a hap-hazard collection, many coming from the authors, 
 with their respects, and thus sometimes costing the re 
 cipient their full (intrinsic) value in writing a letter of 
 acknowledgment. 
 
 The little apartment had, nevertheless, become some 
 what overcrowded, and a suggestion for a general renova 
 tion and pruning seemed to be gladly accepted, so I 
 went up and passed the night there for that purpose. 
 Mr. Irving, in his easy-chair in the sitting-room, after 
 dinner, was quite content to have me range at large in 
 the library and to let me discard all the " lumber " as I 
 pleased ; so I turned out some hundred volumes of un- 
 classic superfluity, and then called him in from his nap to 
 approve or veto my proceedings. As he sat by, while I 
 rapidly reported the candidates for exclusion, and he nod 
 ded assent, or as, here and there, he would interpose with 
 " No, no, not that" and an anecdote or reminiscence would 
 come in as a reason against the dismissal of the book 
 in my hand, I could not help suggesting the scene in Don 
 Quixote's library, when the priest and the barber entered 
 upon their scrutiny of its contents. Mr. Irving seemed 
 to be highly amused with this pruning process, and 
 his running commentary on my " estimates of value " in 
 weighing his literary collections was richly entertaining. 
 
 Observing that his library-table was somewhat anti 
 quated and inadequate, I persuaded him to let me make 
 him a present of a new one, with the modern conve- 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 151 
 
 niences of drawers and snug corners for keeping his stray 
 papers. When I sent him such a one, my stipulation for 
 the return of the old one as a present to me was pleas 
 antly granted. This relic was of no great intrinsic value ; 
 but, as he had written on this table many of his later 
 works, including "Mahomet," "Goldsmith," ""Wolfert's 
 Boost," and " Washington," I prize it, of course, as one 
 of the most interesting mementos of Sunnyside. 
 
 As an illustration of habit, it may be added, that, some 
 time after the new table had been installed, I was sitting 
 with him in the library, when he searched long and fruit 
 lessly for some paper which had been " so very carefully 
 stowed away in some very safe drawer " that it was not 
 to be found, and the search ended in a sort of half-hu 
 morous, half-earnest denunciation of all " modern conve 
 niences ; " the simple old table, with its primitive fa 
 cilities, was, after all, worth a dozen of these elegant 
 contrivances for memory-saving and neatness. 
 
 One rather curious characteristic of Mr. Irving was ex 
 cessive, unaffected modesty and distrust of himself and 
 of his own writings. Considering how many a debutant 
 in letters, not yet out of his teens, is so demonstratively 
 self-confident as to the prospective effect of his genius on 
 an expecting and admiring world, it was always remark 
 able to hear a veteran, whose fame for half a century had 
 been cosmopolitan, expressing the most timid doubts as 
 to his latest compositions, and fearing they were unequal 
 
152 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 to their position, so unwilling, too, to occupy an inch of 
 ground to which any other writer might properly lay 
 claim. Mr. Irving had planned and made some progress 
 in a work on the Conquest of Mexico, when he learned of 
 Mr. Prescott's intentions, and promptly laid his project 
 aside. His " Life of Washington," originating more than 
 thirty years ago, was repeatedly abandoned, as the suc 
 cessive works of Mr. Sparks, Mr. Paulding, and others, 
 appeared ; and though he was subsequently induced to 
 proceed with his long-considered plan of a more drama 
 tic and picturesque narrative from a new point of view, 
 yet he was more than once inclined to put his MSS. into 
 the fire, in the apprehension that the subject had been 
 worn threadbare by the various compilations which were 
 constantly coming out. When he ventured his first vol 
 ume, the cordial and appreciative reception promptly ac 
 corded to it surprised as much as it cheered and pleased 
 him ; for though he despised hollow flattery, no young 
 writer was more warmly sensitive than he to all discrim 
 inating, competent, and honest applause or criticism. 
 When " Wolfert's Boost" was published (I had to entice 
 the papers of that volume from his drawers, for I doubt 
 whether he would have collected them himself), I saw 
 him affected actually to tears, on reading some of the 
 hearty and well-written personal tributes which that vol 
 ume called forth. But though every volume was received 
 in this spirit by the press and the public, he was to 
 the last apprehensive of failure, until a reliable verdict 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 153 
 
 should again reassure him. The very last volume of his 
 works (the fifth of " Washington ") was thus timidly per 
 mitted to be launched; and I remember well his ex 
 pression of relief and satisfaction, when he said that Mr. 
 Bancroft, Professor Felton, and Mr. Duyckinck had been 
 the first to assure him the volume was all that it should 
 be. His task on this volume had perhaps extended be 
 yond the period of his robust health, it had fagged him, 
 but he had been spared to write every line of it with 
 his own hand, and my own copy is enriched by the auto 
 graph of his valedictory. 
 
 To refer, however briefly, to Mr. Irving's politics or 
 religion, even if I had intimate knowledge of both (which 
 assuredly I had not), would be, perhaps, to overstep de 
 corous limits. It may, however, properly be mentioned, 
 that, in the face of all inherent probabilities as to his com 
 fortable conservatism, and his earnest instincts in favor 
 of fraternal conciliation and. justice (which was as marked 
 a quality in him as in the great man whom he so faith 
 fully portrayed), in spite of all the considerations urged 
 by timid gentlemen of the old school in favor of Fillmore 
 and the status quo, he voted in 1856, as he told me, for 
 Fremont. In speaking of the candidates then in the 
 field, he said of Fremont, that his comparative youth and 
 inexperience in party-politics were points in his favor ; 
 for he thought the condition of the country called for a 
 man of nerve and energy, one in his prime, and unfettered 
 
154 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 by party-traditions and bargains for " the spoils." His 
 characterization of a more experienced functionary, who 
 had once served in the State Department, was more se 
 vere than I ever heard from him of any other person; 
 and severity from a man of his judicious and kindly im 
 pulses had a meaning in it. 
 
 Favored once with a quiet Sunday at "the Cottage," of 
 course there was a seat for us all in the family-pew at 
 Christ Church in the village (Tarrytown). Mr. Irving's 
 official station as church-warden was indicated by the 
 ex-ambassador's meek and decorous presentation of the 
 plate for the silver and copper offerings 4 of the parish 
 ioners. At subsequent successive meetings of the Gen 
 eral (State) Convention of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church (to which I had been delegated from a little par 
 ish on Staten Island), the names of Washington Irving 
 and Fenimore Cooper were both recorded, the latter 
 representing Christ Church, Cooperstown. Mr. Irving 
 for several years served in this capacity, and as one of the 
 Missionary Committee of the Convention. His name was 
 naturally sought as honoring any organization. He was 
 the last person to be demonstrative or conspicuous either 
 as to his faith or his works ; but no disciple of Christ, 
 perhaps, felt more devoutly than he did the reverential 
 aspiration of " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good-will towards men." 
 
 Passing a print-window in Broadway one day, his eye 
 rested on the beautiful engraving of "Christus Conso- 
 
QEORGE P. PUTNAM. 155 
 
 lator." He stopped and looked at it intently for some 
 minutes, evidently much affected by the genuine inspira 
 tion of the artist in this remarkable representation of 
 the Saviour as the consoler of sorrow-stricken humanity. 
 His tears fell freely. "Pray, get me that print," said 
 he ; "I must have it framed for my sitting-room." When 
 he examined it more closely and found the artist's name, 
 "It's by my old friend Ary Scheffer ! " said he, remark 
 ing further, that he had known Scheffer intimately, and 
 knew him to be a true artist, but had not expected from 
 him anything so excellent as this. I afterwards sent 
 him the companion, "Christus Bemunerator ; " and the 
 pair remained his daily companions till the day of his 
 death. To me, the picture of Irving, amid the noise and 
 bustle of noon in Broadway, shedding tears as he studied 
 that little print, so feelingly picturing human sorrow and 
 the source of its alleviation, has always remained asso 
 ciated with the artist and his works. If Irving could 
 enjoy wit and humor and give that enjoyment to others, 
 no other writer of books had a heart more tenderly sen 
 sitive than his to the sufferings and ills which flesh is 
 heir to. 
 
 Of his later days, of the calmly received premonitions 
 of that peaceful end of which only the precise moment 
 was uncertain, of his final departure, so gentle and so 
 fitting, of that ""Washington-Irving-day," so dreamily, 
 blandly still, and almost fragrant, December though it 
 
156 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 was, when with those simple and appropriate obsequies 
 his mortal remains were placed by the side of his broth 
 ers and sisters in the burial-ground of Sleepy Hollow, 
 while thousands from far and near silently looked for the 
 last time on his genial face and mourned his loss as that 
 of a personal friend and a national benefactor, yet could 
 hardly for Ms sake desire any more enviable translation 
 from mortality, of the many beautiful and eloquent trib 
 utes of living genius to the life and character and writ 
 ings of the departed author, of all these you have 
 already an ample record. I need not repeat or extend 
 it. If you could have " assisted " at the crowning " Com 
 memoration," on his birthday (April 3d), at the Academy 
 of Music, you would have found it in many respects 
 memorably in accordance with the intrinsic fitness of 
 things. An audience of five thousand, so evidently and 
 discriminatingly intelligent, addressed for two hours by 
 Bryant, with all his cool, judicious, deliberate criticism, 
 warmed into glowing appreciation of the most delicate 
 and peculiar beauties of the character and literary ser 
 vices he was to delineate, and this rich banquet fittingly 
 desserted by the periods of Everett, such an evening was 
 worthy of the subject, and worthy to be remembered. 
 The heartiness and the genial insight into Irving's best 
 traits which the poet displayed were peculiarly gratify 
 ing to -the nearer friends and relatives. His sketch and 
 analysis, too, had a remarkable completeness for an ad 
 dress of that kind, while its style and manner were mod- 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 157 
 
 els of chaste elegance. Speaking of Irving's contempo 
 raries and predecessors, he warms into poetry, thus : 
 
 "We had but one novelist before the era of the 
 ' Sketch-Book ; ' their number is now beyond enumera 
 tion by any but a professed catalogue-maker, and many 
 of them are read in every cultivated form of human 
 speech. Those whom we acknowledge as our poets 
 one of whom is the special favorite of our brothers in 
 language who dwell beyond the sea appeared in the 
 world of letters and won its attention after Irving had 
 become famous. We have wits and humorists and amus 
 ing essayists, authors of some of the airiest and most 
 graceful contributions of the present century, and we 
 owe them to the new impulse given to our literature in 
 1819. I look abroad on these stars of our literary firma 
 ment, some crowded together with their minute points 
 of light in a galaxy, some standing apart in glorious con 
 stellations ; I recognize Arcturus and Orion and Perseus 
 and the glittering jewels of the Southern Crown, and 
 the Pleiades shedding sweet influences ; but the Evening 
 Star, the soft and serene light that glowed in their van, 
 the precursor of them all, has sunk below the horizon. 
 The spheres, meanwhile, perform their appointed 
 courses ; the same motion which lifted them up to the 
 mid-sky, bears them onward to their setting ; and they, 
 too, like their bright leader, must soon be carried by it 
 below the earth." 
 
 Let me quote also Mr. Bryant's closing remarks : . 
 
158 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 " Other hands will yet give the world a bolder, more 
 vivid, and more exact portraiture. In the meantime, 
 when I consider for how many years he stood before the 
 world as an author, with still increasing fame half a 
 century in this most changeful of centuries I cannot 
 hesitate to predict for him a deathless renown. Since 
 he began to write, empires have arisen and passed away ; 
 mighty captains have appeared on the stage of the world, 
 performed their part, and been called to their account ; 
 wars have been fought and ended which have changed 
 the destinies of the human race. New arts have been 
 invented and adopted, and have pushed the old out of 
 use ; the household economy of half mankind has under 
 gone a revolution. Science has learned a new dialect 
 and forgotten the old ; the chemist of 1807 would be a 
 vain babbler among his brethren of the present day, 
 and would in turn become bewildered in the attempt to 
 understand them. Nation utters speech to nation in 
 words that pass from realm to realm with the speed of 
 light. Distant countries have been made neighbors ; 
 the Atlantic Ocean has become a narrow frith, and the 
 Old World and the New shake hands across it ; the East 
 and the "West look in at each other's windows. The new 
 inventions bring new calamities, and men perish in 
 crowds by the recoil of their own devices. War has 
 learned more frightful modes of havoc, and armed him 
 self with deadlier weapons ; armies are borne to the bat 
 tle-field on the wings of the wind, and dashed against 
 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 159 
 
 each other and destroyed with infinite bloodshed. We 
 grow giddy with this perpetual whirl of strange events, 
 these rapid and ceaseless mutations ; the earth seems to 
 be reeling under our feet, and we turn to those who write 
 like Irving, for some assurance that we are still in the 
 same world into which we were born ; we read, and are 
 quieted and consoled. In his pages we see that the lan 
 guage of the heart never becomes obsolete ; that Truth, 
 and Good, and Beauty, the offspring of God, are not sub 
 ject to the changes which beset the inventions of men. 
 We become satisfied that he whose works were the de 
 light of our fathers, and are still ours, will be read with 
 the same pleasure by those who come after us." 
 
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ 
 
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