of
narrating to that of expressing some opinion on the merits of the work
which has so delightfully detained us. We may add that there is also an
appendix, containing a narrative of a visit or pilgrimage, truly
American, made by the author to the little port of Palos, where Columbus
and so many of his followers embarked for America; it is in the happiest
style, and cannot be read without the strongest emotions; we can
scarcely refrain, notwithstanding its length, from presenting it entire
to the reader.

The copious quotations we have made, and the abstract of some of the
more interesting parts of the narrative, will be sufficient to relieve
us in a great degree from the necessity of criticism. Our readers will,
themselves, be able to form a just estimate of the power and skill of
the writer, and of the pleasure to be derived from the story he has
recorded. We venture to say, that by none will that estimate be
otherwise than favourable, either to the talents of the author, or the
interest of the work.

The style of Mr. Irving has been objected to as somewhat elaborate, as
sacrificing strength and force of expression, to harmony of periods and
extreme correctness of language. We cannot say that we have been
inclined to censure him for this. If he assumed a style more than
usually refined, it was in those works of fiction, those short but
agreeable narratives, in which he desired to win the fond attention of
the reader, but in which he never endeavoured to call up violent
emotions, to engage in the wild speculations of a discursive fancy, or
to treat topics requiring logical or historical correctness. For such
works as the Sketch Book, we believe the style adopted by Mr. Irving to
be eminently well fitted, and we do not hesitate to attribute much of
the success of those charming tales to this very circumstance. We
believe so the more readily, because we find him adopting in the Life of
Columbus, and in the volume before us, a different manner, but one
equally well suited to the different nature of the subject he treats.
Without losing the elegance and general purity by which it has been
always characterized, it seems to us to have acquired more freshness,
more vivacity; to flow on more easily with the course of the spirited
narrative; to convey to the reader that exquisite charm in historical
writing--an unconsciousness of any elaboration on the part of the
writer, yet a quick and entire understanding of every sentiment