iced at the boldness of the servant who broke through the crowd and
presented to the General a boy honored with his name. Glorious incident
indeed!

As the family grew up, the young men took to their different
professions, which we have briefly designated. Peter read medicine, and
hence received the title of 'doctor;' though he hated and finally
abjured it, yet, as early as 1794, he had opened an office at 208
Broadway. This, however, was more a resort for the muses than for
Hygeia, notwithstanding its sign, 'Peter Irving, M.D.' In 1796, William
Irving, who had been clerk in the loan office, established himself in
trade in Pearl--near Partition--street, and from his energy and elegance
of manners, he became immediately successful, while farther up the
street, near Old Slip, John T. opened a law office, which was
subsequently removed to Wall street, near Broadway. We mention these
facts to show that Irving entered life surrounded by protecting
influences, and that the kindness which sheltered him from the world's
great battle had a tendency to increase his natural delicacy and to
expose him to more intense suffering, when the hand of misfortune should
visit him. One who had 'roughed it' with the world would have better
borne the killing disappointment of his affections; but he was rendered
peculiarly sensitive to suffering by his genial surroundings.

This fact sets off in remarkable contrast, the noble resolution with
which such an one as he, when he had buried all the world held in the
tomb with the dead form of his beloved, rose above his sorrows. It is
well observed by his biographer, that 'it is an affecting evidence how
little Mr. Irving was ever disposed to cultivate or encourage sadness,
that he should be engaged during this period of sorrow and seclusion in
revising and giving additional touches to his _History of New-York_.'
Those who may smile at the elegant humor which pervades the pages of
that history, will be surprised to learn that they were nearly complete,
yet their final revision and preparation for the press was by one who
was almost broken of heart, and who thus cultivated a spirit of
cheerfulness, lest he should become a burden to himself and others. As
he writes to Mrs. Hoffman: 'By constantly exercising my mind, never
suffering it to prey upon itself, and resolutely determining to be
cheerful, I have, in a manner, worked myself into a very enviable state
of serenity and self-possession.'

How t