Year: 1860

his style were owing TO Nt:l early prac-
tice, the reading of good authors and the
native elegance of his mind, and not, in
my opinion, owing to any special study of
the graces Of manner, or any anxious care
in the use of terms and phrases. Words
and combinations of words are sometimes
found in his writings, to which a flstidi-
Gus taste might object; hut these do not
prevent his style from being one OF the
most agreeable in the whole range Of our
literature. 1t is transparent aS tho light,
sweetly modulntcd, unaffected, the native
expression of u fertile fancy, IL benignant
temper, and mind which. delighting i'll
the noble and the beautiful, turned invol-
UNFAIRLY away from their opPosites. His
peculiar humor was, in great measure,
the offspring OF this constitution of his
mind. This '.fanciful playing with COM
mon things" as Mr.. Dana calls it, is never
always in harmony with our better sympa-
thies. It not only tinged his writings, but
overhowed in his delightful conversation.


I have thus set before you, my friends,
with such measure of ability AS posses, a
rapid and imperfect sketch of the life and
genius of Washington Irving. Other
hands will yet give the world a bolder, n
more vivid and exact, more distinctive
portraiture. In the meantime, when
consider for how many years. lie stood
before the world rs an author, with still
increasing famc-hNlf century in this
most changed of centurcs-I cannot hesi-
tate to predict for him a denth!ess renown.
Since he began to write, empires have
risen and passed away; mighty captains
have appeared on the stage Of the world,
performed their part, and been called to
their account; wars have been fought and
ended which have changed the destinieS of
the human race. New arts have been in
vented and adopted, and have pushed the
old ont of use; the household economy of
half mankind has undergone a revolution.
Science has learned new dialect and
forgotten the old: the chemist of 1909
would be vain babblcr among his
brethren OF the present day, and would in
turn become bewildered in the attempt to
understand them. Nation utters speech
to nation in words thnt pass from realm
to realm with the speed ofliEht. Distant
countries have been made neighbors: the
Atlantic Ocean has become n narrow firth,
and the old World aud the New shake
hands across it, the East and the Westlook
in each others windows. The new invcn-
tions bring new culamitics, and men perish
in crowds by the recoil of their own de-
vices. War has learned more trighttnl
modes of havoc, and armed himself with
dcadlier weapons; armies are borne to the
battle field on the wings of the wind, and
dashed against each other and destroyed
with infinite bloodshcd. We grow giddy
with these rapid and ccasclcss mutations;
the earth seems to reel under our feet, and
we turn to those who write like Irving. for
some assurance that We arc still in the
world into which VIC were boru; we read
and are quietcd and consOlcd. In his
pages we see that the language of the
heart never becomes obsolete; that Truth,
Good and Beauty, the offspring of God are
not subject to changes which beset the in
vcntions of men. We become satisfied that
he whose works were the delight of our til-
thcrs, and are still ours, will be read with
the same pleasure by those who come after
US.


If it were becoming at this time and
in this place to address our departed friend
ms if in his immediate presence, | would
say: FAREWELL thou who hast entered into
the rest prepared. from the foundation of
the world, for serene and gentle spirits


like thine. Farewell, happy in thy life,
happy in thy death, happier in the life to
which that death was the assured passage;
fortunate in attracting the admiration OF
the world to thy beautiful writings; still
more fortunate in having written nothing
which did not tend to promote the reign
OF magnanimous forbcarance and generous
sympathics among thy fellow men. The
brightness of that enduring fame which
thou hast won on earth, is but shNdowy
symbol of that glory to which thou hast
been admitted in the world beyond the
grave. Thy erraud on earth was an errand
of peace and good will to men, and thon
art now in region where hatred and
strife never enter, and where the hnrmOni-
Gus activity of those who inhabit it ac-
knowledges no impulse less noble or less
Durn than that of love