Sunnyside, or pacing, in quiet solitude, the streets of New-York, at all
times, a fair young form hovered over him and beckoned him heavenward.
Years passed on, until a half-century had been told. All things had
changed, the scenes and characters of early life had passed away. The
lover had become a kindly old man. The young essayist had become a great
author and an heir of fame. The story of life was complete. The hour of
his departure was at hand, when suddenly the same hand which had
separated the lovers reuenited them forever. Who shall say that the last
image which flitted across his mind at the awful moment of dissolution,
was not that fresh and lovely form which he had cherished in unchanging
affection for fifty years?

I have stated my opinion that it was Irving's disappointment which made
him the great American author, and to this opinion I now return with
increased confidence. Had the plans of his youth been carried out; had
he become a partner of Mr. Hoffman, and had the hands of the lovers been
united, the whole tenor of his life would have been changed. He would
have published some fine things, in addition to the Knickerbocker
history, and would have ranked high as a gentleman of elegant humor; but
where would have been his enduring works? We sympathize with the
disappointed lover; but we feel thankful that from his sorrow we gather
such precious fruit. The death of Matilda led him abroad--to Spain,
where he compiled his _Columbus_ and gathered material for his
_Alhambra_--and to England, where the _Columbus_ was finished and
published, and where his name became great, in spite of national
prejudice. Beside this, the sorrow which cast its sacred shadow upon him
gave his writings that endearing charm which fascinates the emotional
nature and enabled him to touch the hidden chords of the heart.

If Ogilvie could congratulate him on the bankruptcy which drove him from
the details of trade to the richer fruition of literary promise, we may
consider it a beneficent working of Providence, which afforded to Irving
a still earlier emancipation from the law, cheered as it might have been
by the kindness of Mr. Hoffman and the society of Matilda.

Such being the remarkable chain which unites the names of the author and
his love, we can not but consider her as a part of his character through
the best years of his life and amid all the splendid success of his
literary career. Indeed, through coming generations of read