hington Irving._ By his Nephew, PIERRE M.
IRVING. Vols. I and II. New York: G.P. Putnam.

If to be loved and admired by all, to have troops of personal friends,
to enjoy a literary reputation wide in extent and high in degree, to
be as little stung by envy and detraction as the lot of humanity will
permit, to secure material prosperity with only occasional interruptions
and intermissions, make up the elements of a happy life, then that of
Washington Irving must be pronounced one of the most fortunate in the
annals of literature. It is but repeating a trite remark to say that
happiness depends more upon organization than upon circumstances, more
upon what we are than upon what we have. Saint-Simon said of the Duke of
Burgundy, father of Louis XV., that he was born terrible: it certainly
may be said of Washington Irving that he was born happy. Some men
are born unhappy: that is, they are born with elements of character,
peculiarities of temperament, which generate discontent under all
conditions of life. Their joints are not lubricated by oil, but fretted
by sand. The contemporaries of Shakspeare, who for the most part had
little comprehension of his unrivalled genius, expressed their sense
of his personal qualities by the epithet gentle, which was generally
applied to him,--a word which meant rather more then than it does now,
comprising sweetness, courtesy, and kindliness. No one word could
better designate the leading characteristics of Irving's nature and
temperament. No man was ever more worthy to bear "the grand old name
of gentleman," alike in the essentials of manliness, tenderness, and
purity, and in the external accomplishment of manners so winning and
cordial that they charmed alike men, women, and children. He had the
delicacy of organization which is essential to literary genius, but it
stopped short of sickliness or irritability. He was sensitive to beauty
in all its forms, but was never made unhappy or annoyed by the shadows
in the picture of life. He had a happy power of escaping from everything
that was distasteful, uncomfortable, and unlovely, and dwelling in
regions of sunshine and bloom. His temperament was not impassioned; and
this, though it may have impaired somewhat the force of his genius,
contributed much to his enjoyment of life. Considering that he was an
American born, and that his youth and early manhood were passed in a
period of bitter and virulent political strife, it is remarkable how
fre