366 



It must, however, be observed that our illustrious author was even 

 thus acquiring that freedom of motion, that momentum, which was 

 to launch him upon a prosperous, an unchecked career. 



In 1809 he again appeared before the world, and this time he took 

 it by storm. In connection with his brother, Dr. Peter Irving, he 

 had sketched the plan of ^^ Knickerbocker's History of New York." 

 He elaborated and finished it himself To test its character and 

 merits, we may refer to two results, antithetical indeed, but equally 

 significant. 



If it raised up troops of friends, it awakened the self-righteous 

 indignation of all the Knickerbockers of New York, the family of 

 Vans, from Van Brummel, the inventor of Suppaun, to the Van 

 Kortlands and Van \yinkles, who thus indicated its power, and its 

 truth also, for it proved them the lineal descendants of Walter the 

 Doubter, William the Testy, and stout old Peter Stuyvesant, who 

 hated the English and Swedes, and who believed nothing good but 

 what was Dutch, and nothing Dutch but what was good. Sir Walter 

 Scott laughed over it until his sides ached, and his laughter was 

 contagious, for the whole party at Abbotsford was made merry by it 

 as it was read aloud. 



Irving made a good-natured apology in print when he found that 

 he had hurt the feelings of the living representatives of the Dutch 

 families, as was indicated, among other ways, by Mr. Verplanck's 

 pained and sorrowful allusion to it in one of his historical discourses; 

 but, I believe, the later generations of Knickerbockers, accepting the 

 apology, and, in part, becoming ashamed of this puerile testiness, 

 now claim the work with pride, as the first fruits of New York 

 genius. 



From 1810 to 1817, Irving, having relinquished the law, was a 

 merchant, — partner with his two brothers in an establishment con- 

 ducted both in New York and Liverpool. 



In this copartnership, Washington Irving was, however, not a 

 very active member. He was already the favorite of his brothers, 

 on account of his great literary promise, and he was admitted to the 

 mercantile house as a means of eventually securing to him an inde- 

 pendence which would give him literary leisure. 



Success as a merchant, independence secured by invoices and 

 commissions, might have paralyzed his pen : indeed, during the 

 period just mentioned, his right hand seemed in some degree to 

 forget its cunning. 



He wrote a few sketches, principally naval biographies, in just 



