Everything is upward striving; 'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to be green or skies to be blue- 85 Who knows whither the clouds have fled? In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe ANALYSIS.-83. Name the modifier of it. 87. Give a synonym for wake. 91-93. Point out the figure in these lines. EXTRACT. ONCE to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, or blight, Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, And the choice goes by for ever 'twixt that darkness and that light. The Present Crisis. 14. WASHINGTON IRVING, 1783-1859. WASHINGTON IRVING, one of the most graceful and polished prose-writers of America, was born in New York, April 3, 1783. His ancestors on the father's side were Scotch, his mother being English. At the age of sixteen Irving left school to engage in the study of law, but literature had greater attractions for him, and in 1802 he began a series of papers for the Morning Chronicle under the signature of "Jonathan Oldstyle," choosing for his themes mainly social topics and local occurrences. Being threatened with consumption in 1804, he went to Europe, and spent several months in Italy and the south of France. At Rome he became intimately acquainted with Washington Allston, under whose tuition he made an attempt to become a painter, but three days' experience convinced him that he had not the talent to make him an artist. Having visited Switzerland, the Netherlands, Paris, and London, he returned to the United States in 1806, and was admitted to the bar, but he never practiced his profession. In 1807, in connection with his brother William and James K. Paulding, he began a serial entitled Salmagundi; or, The Whim- Whams and Opinions of Laur.celot Langstaff, Esq., and Others, which was issued at irregular intervals in 18mo form. It was full of personal allusions and humorous hits, which gave it immediate success. Irving's next literary venture was a History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. The book was begun by Peter and Washington Irving as a burlesque on a handbook of the city of New York then just published; but the elder brother having sailed to Europe, Washington elaborated the original plan and completed the book himself. In order to introduce it to the public, an advertisement was inserted in the Evening Post a few days before the appearance of the book, inquiring for “a small elderly gentleman, dressed in an old black coat and cocked hat, by the name of Knickerbocker," who was represented as having disappeared from the Columbia Hotel, and left behind "a very curious kind. of a written book." The book appeared in 1809, and met at once with a flattering and cordial reception. The style in which it is written somewhat resembles that of Swift. For a time the burlesque is said to have given serious offence to some of the New York families whose ancestors were caricatured, and Irving, to appease their wrath, finally inserted an apologetic preface. Being a silent partner in the mercantile house of his brothers, Irving sailed for Europe in 1815. But the house soon became bankrupt, and the author was compelled to write for a living. His rambles through England and Scotland had furnished him excellent material, and in 1818 the Sketch-Book appeared in the United States in pamphlet numbers. Some of these were copied in the London Literary Gazette, and Irving collected the various sketches and sought a publisher in England to issue them in book-form. Failing in this, he put the first volume to press in 1820 at his own expense, but the failure of the publisher prevented the issue. Sir Walter Scott now succeeded in having Murray, the London publisher, purchase the manuscript for two hundred pounds-a sum which he doubled when the book became successful. The Sketch-Book is considered Irving's best book. It is written in admirable style and in the purest of diction. It has proved to be the favorite work of the author in both England and America. It is the work, indeed, on which Irv ing's success as an author is based, and from the time of its publication to the present he has never lacked for a wide circle of appreciative readers, The Sketch-Book was followed in 1822 by Bracebridge Hall; or, The Humorists, for which the publisher paid one thousand guineas. Two years later The Tales of a Traveler followed, which Irving sold for fifteen hundred pounds. This book met with severe criticism in both Europe and America, but his History of Christopher Columbus, four volumes, published soon after, and which he sold to the publishers for three thousand guineas, was highly praised, and it restored to the author his popularity. The other works of Irving are-Chronicles of the Conquest of Grenada, two volumes; Voyages of the Companions of Columbus; The Alhambra, two volumes, a portion of it written in the old Moorish palace, where Irving stayed several months; The Crayon Miscellany; Astoria, two volumes; Adventures of Captain Bonneville of the U. S. A. in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West; Wolfert's Roost, a series of collected magazine articles; The Life of Oliver Goldsmith; Mahomet and his Successors, two volumes; and the Life of Washington, five volumes, the last of which was issued just three months before Irving's death. Much of Irving's life was spent in England, where he and his works were highly esteemed. In 1831 the University of Oxford conferred on him the degree LL.D. Besides other positions abroad, he held that of minis ter to Spain from 1842 to 1846. For several years preceding his death Irving, who was never married, resided near Tarrytown, New York, in an old Dutch mansion which he named "Sunnyside." Here he died suddenly, from a disease of the heart, in 1859, the funeral procession which bore his body to the grave at Tarrytown passing through the historical Sleepy Hol low which his genius had made famous. CRITICISM BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. I Do not know how to account, on principles of culture which we recognize, for our author's style. His education was exceedingly defective, nor was his want of discipline supplied by the subsequent desultory application. He seems to have been born with a rare sense of literary proportion and form; into this, as into a mould, were run his apparently lazy and really acute observations of life. That he thoroughly mastered such literature as he fancied there is abundant evidence; that his style was influenced by the purest English models is also apparent. But there remains a large margin for wonder how, with his want of training, he could have elaborated a style which is distinctively his own, and is as copious, felicitous in the choice of words, flowing, spontaneous, flexible, engaging, clear, and as little wearisome when read continuously in quantity, as any in the English tongue. This is saying a great deal, though it is not claiming for him the compactness, nor the re bust vigor, nor the depth of thought, of many other masters in it. It is sometimes praised for its simplicity It is certainly lucid, but its simplicity is not that of Benjamin Franklin's style; it is often ornate, not seldom somewhat diffuse, and always exceedingly melodious. It is noticeable for its metaphorical felicity. But it was not in the sympathetic nature of the author |