THE EPITAPH. Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere ; He gave to misery all he had, a tear; He gained from heaven ('twas all he wished) a friend. No further seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, (There they alike in trembling hope repose) The bosom of his Father and his God. -THOMAS GRAY. Of all the thoughts of God that are PART V. 1. WASHINGTON IRVING. Washington Irving, America's first great writer, was born in New York City in 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary War, and just one year after the birth of Daniel Webster. He was named after General Washington, the hero whose name was then on the lip of every American. His Scotch nurse, meeting the famous general one day, presented his little namesake to him saying, "Here's a bairn that's named for you." Washington, placing his hand on the baby brow, blessed him, little thinking that the child would give to the world as his last and greatest work, the "Life of Washington." Irving's father was a Scotchman of a distinguished family in the Orkney Islands; he was very strict with his large family of eleven children. His mother, an English lady, was very gentle and of sweet temper. At four, Irving went to a New York school where he learned his letters. At six, he went to another New York school, taught by a sturdy old soldier who used to call him "General" when he was pleased with him. The juvenile Irving was full of mischief, yet so truthful that his teachers loved him nevertheless. He had little love for real study, though “Robinson Crusoe" and "Sindbad the Sailor" were his delight. He wanted to go to sea and learn the world. His school life ended at sixteen, but he always regretted that he did not go to college with his brothers. He now studied law with Judge Hoffman. At seventeen he went with the Hoffman family up the Hudson, through the wonderful Highlands of Saratoga, and thence to the fur-trading stations at Montreal and Quebec. This was a journey of intense delight. He now began to write spicy articles signed Jonathan Oldstyle, for a New York newspaper. But at twenty-one consumption threatening him, he was obliged to go abroad. So bad was his cough that his fellow passengers declared he would never reach Europe. But the sea air cured him. He visited Marseilles, Genoa, and Sicily; climbed Vesuvius; met the English naval officer, Nelson, and formed the acquaintance of the American painter, Washington Allston, then in Rome. With him he zealously studied painting for three days, but concluded he had no talent for that art. After two years of delightful study and travel, he returned well and happy. He now resumed his law studies with Judge Hoffman. He became warmly attached and finally engaged to the Judge's daughter, Miss Matilda Hoffman. Death removed the beautiful young woman at seventeen. Irving mourned her death a lifetime, for he never married. In his touching sketch, "Rural Funerals," one learns how sore his heart was over his loss. Law practice was not to be Irving's life work. With his brother William and his friend Mr. Paulding, he now published a witty periodical called Salmagundi, which everybody enjoyed. He was evidently a humorist. His first lengthy work was "Knickerbocker's History of New York," a comical account of New York under the old Dutch governors. It pretended to be written by Diedrich Knickerbocker. The book is rich in fun. Yet some of the solemn old Dutch families of New York, failing to see its jokes, were seriously offended at it. At the age of thirty-two he again sailed to Europe, this time to be absent seventeen years. Rambling through England and Scotland he gathered some of the materials for his "Sketch Book," which contains the three noted sketches, "Westminster Abbey," "Sleepy Hollow," and Rip Van Winkle." 66 He became acquainted with Sir Walter Scott, who welcomed Irving to his beautiful home at Abbotsford, and recommended his works to London publishers. Irving, warmed by the sympathy of Scott, confided to him the story of Miss Hoffman, whose beautiful character, as Irving described it to him, appears in Rebecca, the heroine of Scott's Ivanhoe. Here also he wrote "Tales of a Traveller"; in Paris he wrote "Bracebridge Hall." He was now invited to go to Spain to translate some newly found Spanish documents concerning Columbus. This led to his "Life and Voyages of Columbus," a renowned work which brought him immediately fifteen thousand dollars; for it he also received one of the two prizes which George IV. of England had offered for the best historical work. The English historian, Hallam, received the other. While in Spain he lived in a wonderful old Moorish palace called the Alhambra, whose beauty and poetry he could well appreciate. The result was "The Alhambra," a work which is a guide-book to Spain as Longfellow's "Hyperion" is to the Rhine. Continuing to delve in the Spanish archives, he produced "The Conquest of Granada," which, with his later "History of Mahomet," rendered him an authority on Spain. Prescott, the American historian, was also deeply |