Bryant, W: Discourse on the Life, Character and Genius of Wa

Excerpt from A Discourse on the Life, Character and Genius of Washington Irving: Delivered Before the New York Historical Society, at the Academy of Music in New York, on the 8d of April, 1860

It was not long after the publication of the History of New York that Irving abandoned the profession of law, for which he had so decided a distaste as never to have fully tried his capae city for pursuing it. Two of his brothers were engaged in com merce, and they received him as a silent partner. He did not, however, renounce his literary occupations. He wrote, in 1810, a memoir Of Campbell, the poet, prefaced to an edition of the writings of that author, which appeared in Philadelphia; and in 1813 and the following year, employed himself as editor Of the Analectic Magazine, published in the same city making the experiment of his talent for a vocation to which men of decided literary tastes in this country are strongly inclined to betake themselves. Those who remember this magazine cannot have forgotten that it was a most entertaining miscellany, partly compiled from English publications, mostly periodicals, and partly made up of contributions of some of our own best writers. Paulding wrote for it a series of biographical accounts of the naval commanders of. The United States, which added greatly to its popularity and Verplanck contributed memoirs of Commodore Stewart and General Scott, Barlow, the poet, and other distinguished Americans, which were received with favor.

The Life of Campbell, with the exception perhaps Of some less important contributions to the magazine, is the only published work of Irving between the appearance of the History of New York, and that of the Sketch Book, in 1819.

It was during this interval that an event took place which had a marked in¿uence on Irving's future life, affected the char acter of his writings, and, now that the death of both parties allow it to be Spoken of without reserve, gives a peculiar inter est to his personal history. He became attached to a young lady whom he was to have married. She died unwedded, in the ¿ower Of her age there was a sorrowful leave-taking between her and her lover, as the grave was about to separate them on the eve of what should have been her bridal and Irving, ever after, to the close of his life, tenderly and faithfully cherished her memory. In one of the biographical notices published immediately after Irving's death, an old, well-worn copy Of the Bible is spoken of, which was kept lying on the table in his chamber, within reach of his bedside, bearing her name on the title page in a delicate female hand - a relic which we may presume to have been his constant companion. Those who are fond of searching, in the biographies of eminent men, for the circumstances which determined the bent Of their genius, find in this sad event, and the cloud it threw over the hopeful and cheerful period of early manhood, an explanation of the transi tion from the unbounded playfulness of the History of New York to the serious, tender and meditative vein of the Sketch Book.

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