Appcndi.r 397 



looked across the river to the Fishkill hills, and imagined 

 Switzerland. This soon ended. Raphael I loyle died. The 

 living book of travel and romantic experience, in which the 

 youth who had wandered no farther than to Montgomery 

 Academy and to the top of the South Beacon, - the highest 

 hill of the Fishkill range, - - had so deeply read of scenes 

 and a life that suited him, was closed forever. 



Little record is left of these years of application, of work, 

 and study. The Fishkill hills and the broad river, in whose 

 presence he had always lived, and the quiet country around 

 Newburgh, which he had so thoroughly explored, began to 

 claim some visible token of their influence. It is pleasant 

 to know that his first literary works were recognitions of 

 their charms. It shows the intellectual integrity of the 

 man, that despite glowing hopes and restless ambition for 

 other things, his first essay was written from his experience; 

 it was a description of the " Danskamer," or Devil's Dancing- 

 Ground - - a point on the Hudson, seven miles above New- 

 burgh - - published in the New York Rlirror. A description 

 of Beacon Hill followed. 



He wrote, then, a discussion of novel-reading, and some 

 botanical papers, which were published in a Boston journal. 

 Whether he was discouraged by the ill success of these 

 attempts, or perceived that he was not yet sufficient master 

 of his resources to present them properly to the public, does 

 not appear, but he published nothing more for several years. 

 Perhaps he knew that upon the subjects to which his nat- 

 ural tastes directed his studies, nothing but experience spoke 

 with authority. Whatever the reason of his silence, how- 

 ever,- he worked on unyieldingly, studying, proving, suc- 

 ceeding; finding time, also, to read the poets and the 

 philosophers, and to gain that familiarity with elegant lit- 

 erature which always graced his own composition. Of this 

 period of his life, little record, but great results, remain. 

 With his pen, and books, and microscope, in the red house, 

 and his priming-knife and sharp eye in the nursery and 

 garden, he was learning, adapting, and triumphing, - - and 

 also, doubtless, dreaming and resolving. If any stranger 



