376 



simply absurd, that he who would acquire a fine English style must 

 give his days and nights to the study of Addison. 



Mr. Irving comes upon the literary stage just in this period. He 

 adopts Dr. Johnson's advice : he models his style, I had almost said 

 unconsciousli/, upon the English essayists; but, writing amid new 

 circumstances and modern accessories, he is not trammelled by their 

 dicta ; he becomes less and less Addisonian, and more and more 

 his own excellent and unequalled self. His English was pure and 

 vigorous Saxon. Mr. Marsh, in stating his vocabulary, finds in 

 " the Stout Gentleman'' eighty-five per cent of Saxon words, and in 

 "Westminster Abbey" seventy-seven per cent; — the additional 

 number of Latin words in the latter, being due to the description 

 of armorial hearings^ chivalrous exploits, and pageantry of the 

 crusaders."^ His style became less ornate as he advanced in years. 



Let any one compare the stately ornaments and studied construc- 

 tion of his " Columbus," which are criticised by Hazlitt, with the 

 conciseness and almost severity of his '' Washington." In the one, 

 his fancy finds vent in epithets superlative and sonorous, but not 

 always carefully chosen : in the other, he is a purist, using words 

 which express the exact meaning and no more ; and yet never be- 

 coming bald in expression, or losing the harmony of his periods. 

 In all his works, his style is like the flow of a noble river, whose 

 surface is not of lake-like smoothness, but is ever changing with the 

 beautiful ripples and varying color of the waters, as they flow be- 

 neath the light of a noonday sun. 



Of him, more than in any American writer, Buffon's aphorism is 

 true : "The style is the man himself." He stands as the connecting 

 link between the present and the past of English literature, nobly 

 acknowledging the demands and the pressure of the present stirring 

 period, but checking with the truest conservatism that great revo- 

 lution which was sweeping away all former English poetry, with 

 Wordsworth and the Lakers, and ignoring all the essayists as anti- 

 quated and outlandish. 



We are struck with the fact that much of his reputation is a home 

 reputation; his honor, unprophet-like, began in his own country, 

 and was based upon the simplest legends and stories. Perhaps this 

 was one secret of his success. The legend of Sleepy Hollow, is 

 an old tradition of the early fiirmers. His " Rip Van Winkle" is 

 from the German of Grimm, and Grimm found it among the pea- 

 sants of Germany. 



* Lectures on " English Language," 126. 



