mingling with the herd, till at length, like the owl, shutting himself up from society and daylight, he was hunted and hooted at like the owl whenever he chanced to appear, and was even assailed and disturbed in the haunts in which he held his solitary reign.' He was driven from college to college, and was subjected to a persecution the more harassing to a person of his indolent and retired habits. But he only shrunk the more within himself in consequence, read over his favorite authors, corresponded with his distant friends, was terrified out of his wits at the bare idea of having his portrait prefixed to his works, and probably died from nervous agitation at the publicity into which his name had been forced by his learning, taste, and genius." Such was the author of the immortal Elegy, which Daniel Webster died repeating, and of which Wolfe said he would rather be the author than be conqueror of Quebec.

Washington Irving's modesty and diffidence did not make him shut "himself up from society and daylight," but it made him a stranger to many of his neighbors, and even to the boys about Sunnyside. It will be a surprise to many to know that one morning he was ordered out of a field he was crossing-belonging to a neighbor of his, a liquor dealer, who threatened, if he found the "old vagabond" on his premises again, he would set his dogs on him! It will also be a surprise to know that the distinguished author of the Sketch Book was a confessed orchard thief. Once, when picking up an apple under a tree in his own orchard, he was accosted by an urchin of the neighborhood, who, not recognizing him as the

proprietor, offered to show him a tree where he could get better apples than those." "But," urged the boy, we must take care that the old man don't see us." "I went with him," said Irving, "and we stole a dozen of my own apples!"

IX.

PARADOXES.

Is there anything more curious or strange in fiction than the simple fact expressed by Thucydides, that ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved? or that by Thomas Fuller, that learning has gained most by those books by which the printers have lost? or that by Pascal, that it is wonderful a thing so obvious as the vanity of the world is so little known, and that it is a strange and surprising thing to say that seeking its honors is a folly? or that by John Selden, that of all actions of a man's life, his marriage does least concern other people, yet of all actions of his life 't is most meddled with by other people? or that by Goldsmith, that the most delicate friendships are always most sensible of the slightest invasion, and the strongest jealousy is ever attendant on the warmest regard? And what is more remarkable than that labor should be so scarce in China that vast tracts of land lie waste because there are no laborers to reclaim them? That in the pontifical army, not long before Victor Emanuel, Spain -"the bones of whose children for centuries had whitened every battle-field where she found it necessary to defend her religion"-should have been represented by but thirty-eight soldiers; while Holland, "which

protected the Reformation by its Princes of Orange, and introduced liberty of religious opinion into the modern world," was represented by hundreds and hundreds of volunteers? That the best building in Iceland should be the jail at Reikiavik (the capital), and that during the many years since its erection it should never have contained a prisoner? That in the Arctic region a smaller proportion of fuel should be consumed than in any other habitable part of the globe? That in the next voyage of the Mayflower after carrying the pilgrims (as Monckton Milnes told Hawthorne), she should have been engaged in transporting a cargo of slaves to the West Indies? That the plant papyrus, which gave its name to our word paper, first used for writing between three and four thousand years ago, of more importance in history than cotton and silver and gold, once so common in Egypt, should have become so scarce there that Emerson in his late visit searched in vain for it? That house-building, which ought to be among the most perfect of the arts, after the experience and efforts of myriads in every generation, should have produced no stereotyped models of taste and convenience? That the founder and editor of one of the great London periodicals should never have written a line for his journal? or that when he died the review which he had built up by his individual ability should not have made the slightest mention of the event? That those three books which have been so widely read, and which have exercised incalculable influence upon morals and politics, the Imitation of Christ, the Whole Duty of Man, and the Letters of

Junius, — should be of unknown or disputed authorship? That the Bible - the incomparably wisest and best book, the Book of books, the guide of life, the solace in death, the way to heaven-should be so little read by the many and so little understood by the few? How difficult it is to realize that Dr. Johnson, the great Cham of English literature, spent more than one half of his days in penury; that the "moral, pious Johnson," and the "gay, dissipated Beauclerc," were companions; or that they should ever have spent a whole day together, "half-seas over,” wandering through the markets, cracking jokes with the fruit and fish women, on their way to Billingsgate. It is hard to believe that that great moralist ever wandered whole nights through the streets of London, with the unfortunate, gifted Savage, too miserably poor to hire lodgings. And it is still harder to believe that the best biography of that great man, and the best biography in our language, was written by a gossiping literary bore the "bearleader to the Ursa Major," as Irving calls him whom Johnson pretended to despise, and of whom he once said, "if he thought Boswell intended to write his (Johnson's) life he would take Boswell's." We wonder that the great, strong-minded Luther ever flung an inkstand at the devil's head. We cannot conceive that Wesley and Johnson and Addison believed in ghosts. It looks strange to us that Socrates, who taught the doctrines of the one Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul, should have bowed down to a multiplicity of idols; and after he had swallowed the fatal hemlock, should have directed