g went to Madrid, and by good fortune got lodgings with the
American consul Rich, who had made an extensive private collection of
documents dealing with early American history. Presently Navarrete's
work was published, and found to be "rather a mass of rich materials
for history than a history itself." This was in February, 1826. Irving
at once began to take notes and sift materials for an original history
of Columbus. For six months he worked incessantly. "Sometimes," says
his biographer, "he would write all day and until twelve at night; in
one instance his note-book shows him to have written from five in the
morning until eight at night, stopping only for meals."

IV

MAN OF LETTERS--SECOND PERIOD

There is something interesting, and in a sense pathetic, in this
sudden steady diligence from the man of desultory habits, who had
never written but by whim, whose finger had always been lifted to
catch the lightest literary airs. Here, at last, was the firm trade
wind, and the satisfaction of steady and methodical progress. The
qualified success of the "Tales of a Traveler" had led him to feel
that his vein was running out. The prospect of producing a solid work
gave him keen pleasure. One cannot be always building castles in the
air; why not try a pyramid, if only a little one? Since the world is
perfectly delighted with our pretty things, very well, let us show
that we can do a sublime thing. As for history--"Whatever may be the
use of this sort of composition in itself and abstractedly," says
Walter Bagehot, "it is certainly of great use relatively and to
literary men. Consider the position of a man of that species. He sits
beside a library fire, with nice white paper, a good pen, a capital
style--every means of saying everything, but nothing to say. Of course
he is an able man; of course he has an active intellect, besides
wonderful culture: but still, one cannot always have original ideas.
Every day cannot be an era; a train of new speculation very often will
not be found: and how dull it is to make it your business to write, to
stay by yourself in a room to write, and then to have nothing to say!
It is dreary work mending seven pens, and waiting for a theory to
'turn up.' What a gain if something would happen! then one could
describe it. Something has happened, and that something is history."

There is no doubt that Irving's early delicate sallies in literature
represent his best. In a single department