The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-12-23
Bancroft on Irving.

Bancroft on Irving.
AT recent meeting of the New York
Historical Society, GEORGE BANCROFT deliv-
cred the following address,.
Memory cherishes the lovely qualities
and beautiful career of our friend who has
just ceased to be mortal but words are
wanting to portray his genius and his vir-
tues. No American since Washington has
taken with him to the grave the undivided
affection of the American people like Irving.
And it is right that it should be so. He
came into the world, just as the treaty with
England gave our Republic recognized ex
istence among the nations and he was
lulled in his cradle by the pleasant songs Of
returning peace. The first great sole unity
that he gazed upon in his childhood was the
Inauguration of our Constitution so that
the early life of him who was called to take
the foremost part in creating an American
literature, was bathed in the purest dews of
genial humor was nursed by the traditions
and inspirations Of his own native State ;
he opened his heart to all the pleasant infu-
ences that surrounded him he made himself
one with nature as she reveals herself in her
glory along the Hudson and when he was
scarce six and twenty years old he had writ
ten what the world will not suffer to be for
gotten.
Thus far his literary activity had been
the outgoing of the joyousness of youth;
his mind was to be ripened, his character
to be matured, his rightlul career to be
made plain by the trials of affliction. He
had loved and been beloved !; and he watch
ed, to use his own words, "beauty and inno
cence languish into the tomb" The being
was departed whom he had loved as he
never again was to love in this world, who
had loved him as he was never again to be
loved and the gladstone humor that
marked his entrance into life had become,
not subdued, but tinged by sweet-souled
melancholy, and a large and more earnest
sympathy with his kind. Now, when he
stood midway in the path of human life, of
a sudden his outward fortune was swept
away and disappeared, and he was left in
possession Of nothing but his own mind.
Blessed adversely! that ope' ed to him the
treasures which lay heaped up within his
soul. Sorrow and misfortune only brought
out in its brightness the purity of his nature,
and were but as clouds that reflect the SUM-
shine in thousand hues.
In foreign land, alone, impoverished,
bereaved, he was so good and true, we might
also say angels ministered to him. He
looked with serene wisdom upon the angry
waves that threatened him, and they passed
under him without harm.
The career of letters now claimed him for
its service. He had not been deeply read
in books but his mind was richly stored
with imagies of beauty and primal truths,
and he knew nature by heart. The English
language, which, better than any other, can
express the sincerity of affection, the delica-
cy of sentiment, the freshness of rural scenes,
spread out its boundless wealth, as his own
and at that period of what he himself calls
"his troubled life," he conquered for himself
fame and good will wherever that language
is spoken.
1t was at this period of his life that.
during a summer at Paris, l formed with
him that relation of friendly intimacy which
grew in strength to the last. Time has in a
measure effaced the relative difference of our
years, but then he was almost twice as old
as l. AS we rOamed together over the
fields round Paris, many an earnest, and
noble, and encouraging word fell from him
for my behalf; and sometimes he would
speak to me of his own occupations. How
he proceeded with descriptions, 1 cannot
say but 1 found that where he gave ex-
preston to feeling, he would write continu-
Of al
he intended to give forth. One evening,
after we had heen many hours together, he
took me to his room and read to- me what
he had written at one sitting, without pause,
under one inspiration, and almost without
interineatiOn or erasure.
I remember it to this day: 1t was his
81. Marks Eue, from the words 81 am now
alone in my chamber" to the end. He that
studies such passages closely will find con-
LESSONS of Irving's own inward experience
and affections.
AS an historian, Irving stands in the front
rank. His life of Columbus has all kinds of
merit-researcb, critical judgment, interest
in the narrative, picturesque description and
golden style exquisite in the melody of its
cadences and its choice of words. His life of
Washington which is still dear to the Ameri
can people, is marvel. No one has so painted
the Father of his Country to the lite mod
estly disclaiming great extent of original
research, he has yet added much that was
not known before. But what distinguishes
him is the grace and facility of his move
ment. He writes American history, as it
were, by the aid of special endowments he
takes with him candor that never fails :;
a clear, impartial judgment, and an unriv-
allied keenness of insight into character. He
may err in minor details, but never in the
general effect. And no one has drawn so
true, and touching, and vivid picture of
Washington. in his retirement as Irving,
who published it while suffering from pros
tration of the nerves, depression of spirits,
and that attack of asthma, which troubled