The native American. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1840, 1839-06-01
THE NATIVE AMERICAN.
WASHINGTON IRvING's- STYLE


author of the Sketch-Book was more pure than
that of any living English or other writer, and
worthy to be compared and estimated with Gold
smith, Steele, and the best of the English classics.
The Edinburgh Review has repeatedly expressed
the same opinions and they have been recently
called to mind, by the delightful articles which
Mr.. Irving is contributing to the pages of the
Knickerbocker Magazine. He has three or four
in the number of that popular periodical for May
which serve to show, that the rich graces OF his
style spring from an exhausiless fountain. Beaut-
fully as he has always written, quotation or two
from the articles in question, will show, that he,
ut least can "excel himself" Take the following
picture Of the American Boblink, which is con-
tanned in his birds of Spring. 1t succeeds an
equally charming description of the season at
which the bird arrives;
"this is the chosen season of revelry Of the
Boblink. He comes amidst the pomp and fra
GRANGE ofthe season.; his life seems all sensibility
and enjoyment, all song and sunshine. He is to
be found in the soft bosoms of the freshest and
sweetest meadows; and is most in song, when
the clover is in blossom He perches on the top
most twlg OF tree, long Haunting
weed, ana as ne rises anu SILKS Win the breeze,
pours forth succession of rich tinkling notes
crowding one upon another, like the ouipouring
melody of the sky lark, and possessing the same
rapturous character Sometimes he pitches from
the summit of tree, begins his song as soon as
he gets upon the wing. and futters TREMENDOUSLY
down to the earth, as if overcome with ecstacy
at his own muslc.-Sometimes he is in pursuit
of his paramount; always in full song, as if he
would win her by his melody; and always with
the same appearance of inoxication and delight"
In describing to the readers of the Knickerbock-
er his frs, visit to Sleepy Hollow, in company
with the renowned Dedrch, whose name the
Magazine bears, he gives us the following, and
amore perfect sketch never came from the writer's
pen:
"The genius of the place seemed to hail its
future historian All nature was alive with
graduation. The quail whised greeting from
the corn-feld: the robin carolled song Of praise
from the orchard; the loquacious third flew from
bush to bush with restless wing proclaiming his
approach in every variety of note land anon would
whlsk about, and perk inqusitively into his face,
as if TO get knoledge Of his physiognomy the
wood pecker, also, tapped tattoo on the hollow
appe-tree, and then peered knowingly round the
trunk, to see how the great Diedrch relshed his
salutation; while the ground squirrel scampered
along the fence, and occasionally whisled his tai!
over his head by way of a huzza!'
The same characteristics are observable in an
other passage. How many modern novelists
would have written page after page to depict this
simple scene:
y ''But | have said enough Of the good
old times Of my youthful days; let me speak Of
the hollow as found il after an absence Of many
years, when it kindly given me once more
to revisit the haunts of my boyhood. 1t was
genial day, as | approached that fated region.
The warm sunshine tempered by slight
haze, SO as to give dreamy effect to the land
scape. Not q breath Of air shook the foliage.
and the sloops nth dropping sails, slept on its
classy bosom. Columns Of smoke, from burn
ing brushmool, rose la2iIy from Ike folds of the
hills, on the opposite site Of the rirer and sloacly
Expanded IN mil air. The distant lo,cing of a
cor, or the noontide cro,oing ofa cock, coming
family to the ear, seemed TO illustrate, rather
than disturb, The droarsy quiet ofMe scene"
Human nature, and domestic scenes are alike
happily placed before us. Glance, for instance,
at this picture Of the interior of Sleepy-Hollow
Church
GAS the dominic generally preached by the
p hour, Duckel OF Walter was pfOVldently placed
on a bench near the door, in summer with tin
cup beside it, for the soace for those who might
be athirst, either from heat Of the weather. or the
drought of the sermon.
Around the pulpit, and behind
the communion table, sat The elders Of the church,
reverend. gray-neaeed, Ieathernvlsaged men whom
regarded with awe. as so many apostles. They
were stern in their sanotity, kept a vigilant eye
upon my gggllng co npanlons and myself, and
shook rebuking finger at any boyish device to
relieve the tediousness of compulsory devotion.
VAIN however were all their efforts at vigilance
Scarcely had the preacher held forth for half an
hour, IN one of his intermnable sermons, than
u seemed as if the drowsy influence of Sleepy
Hollow breathed into the place: one by one the
congregation sank into slumber the sancti6ed Ell.
ders leaned back in their pews spreading their
handkerchets over their faces as if to keep off the
flies; while the locus,s in the neighborinr trees
would spin out their sultry summer notes, vieing
with the sleep provoking tones of the dominic
With such model in prose, as Irving, and in
poetry as Halleck, we look to the influence of
the Il nickebocker as most saluta.v upon orr