him long to remain in New York, but now carried him into the far West of his own country-the prairies and wilds of the vast regions stretching from the Missouri River west and south to the Rocky Mountains. These experiences he has chronicled in his usual fascinating style, in Crayon Miscellany (published in 1835), Astoria (1836), and the Adren tures of Captain Bonneville, U. S. A. (1837).. For two years from 1839 he contributed to the Knickerbocker Magazine a series of articles, consisting chiefly of recollections of foreign travel, and of romantic and marvelous tales, which were collected in 1855 into book form, under the name of Wolfert's Roost. The distinction of United States Minister to the court of Spain was conferred on Irving in 1842, in which position he continued for the next four years. He then returned home, and took up his residence at "Sunnyside,” a beautiful spot on the banks of the Hudson. Here he lived “in the midst of a family circle composed of his brother and his nieces, hospitably entertaining his friends, occasionally visiting different portions of the country, and employing his pen in the composition of his Life of Washington.' This work, elaborated through five volumes, was published from 1855 to 1859. "It proved, as all anticipated who knew the author, an eminently judicious work, with no excitement of false heat or exaggeration of any kind, but with a steady, patriotic purpose, true to the national life, and an instinctive appreciation of character responsive to every noble and generous trait, and condemnatory of every unworthy motive of the many personages of that busy era who flocked to his pages. The Life of Washington is in fact a history of the Revolution, which his genius and disposition did so much to shape. . . . Nothing is sacrificed to those literary temptations which might be supposed to beset an author whose natural disposition led him to the fanciful in composition, and an easy indulgence in the picturesque and humorous.”* *Duyckinck's Cyclopædia of American Literature. Retracing our narrative a step, we must not omit to merr tion Irving's Oliver Goldsmith, issued in 1849. It is an interesting, sympathetic, and yet severely truthful tribute to the life and name of the great English poet and writer. Irving survived the summer following the completion of his Washington; "and as the autumnal season of the American climate, so fondly dwelt upon in his writings, was drawing to its end, he was suddenly called away, as he was retiring to rest, on the night of November 28, 1859."* Speaking of his writings in general, "the charm is in the proportion, the keeping, the happy vein which inspires happiness in return. It is the felicity of but few authors, out of the vast stock of English literature, to delight equally young and old. The tales of Irving are the favorite authors of childhood, and their good humor and amenity can please where most literature is weariness, in the sick room of the convalescent. Every influence which breathes from his writings is good and generous. Their sentiment is always just and manly, without cant or affectation; their humor is always within the bounds of propriety. "They have a fresh inspiration of American nature, which is not the less nature for the art with which it is adorned. The color of personality attaches us throughout to the author, whose humor of character is always to be felt. This happy art of presenting rude and confused objects in an orderly, pleasurable aspect, every where to be met with in the pages of Irving, is one of the most benef icent in literature. "The philosopher Hume said a turn for humor was worth to him ten thousand a year, and it is this gift which the writings of Irving impart. To this quality is allied an active fancy and poetic imagination, many of the choicest passages of Irving being interpenetrated by this vivifying power."* * Duyckinck's Cyclopædia of American Literature. PRESCOTT. WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT was born, May 4, 1796, at Salem, Massachusetts. When nearly twelve years of age he removed to Boston, and here and in Cambridge was educated, graduating at Harvard College in 1814. While in his junior year at college, an accident, singularly trivial in its origin, but most serious in its effects, changed the whole plan of his life. A fellow student playfully threw a crust of bread across the table where Prescott and some of his class-mates were dining. The apparently harmless missile struck young Prescott in the eye with such violence as utterly to destroy its sight. The inflammation arising from the wounded member seriously affected his remaining eye, and threatened total blindness. This misfortune compelled Prescott, after completing his course at college, to relinquish his cherished design of following the profession of law; and he travelled abroad in search of medical relief. Two years were consumed in visiting the most noted parts of England, France, and Italy, when he returned home, improved in general health, but unrestored in his unhappy vision. Not content, however, to indulge in that ease which both his means and his infirmity invited, he resolved, with a purpose truly heroic, to become a historian. Ten years of the most systematic and persevering preparatory study supplemented this resolution, through all of which, though experiencing intense pain from inflammation of his eye, and though often obliged to depend upon the friendly services of other eyes, "his industry never flagged, his courage never faltered; his spirits, buoyant by nature, never sank under the burden imposed upon them. It was the period when he laid deep and sure foundations of his coming successes.” * The result of these years of study was the production of The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The object of this work is to indicate and fairly estimate the political movements which conspired in making Spain at one time a mighty, compact monarchy, namely, the overthrow of Moslem power in Western Europe, and the discovery of America and its wealth. The work first appeared in 1838, and not only has it passed through a number of editions in this country and in England, but it has also been translated into the leading modern languages of the Continent. One of the most astute of reviews † has remarked of this work, "With all its errors and omissions of manner and matter, Mr. Prescott's is by much the first historical work which British America has as yet produced, and one that need hardly fear a comparison with any that has issued from the European press since this century began." Pursuing the same rich vein of study, with a view to describing the effects upon Spain and on Europe generally of the Spanish conquests on the American continent, Prescott published, in 1843, his Conquest of Mexico, and, four years later, his Conquest of Peru. "The first, from the very nature of its subject, is the most effective and popular; comprehending that marvelous series of military adventures, which read more like a cruel romance than the results of sober history; while the last, so full of philosophy in its accounts of the early traditions of Peru, and so full of wisdom in its explanation of the healing government of Gasca, is no less important for its teachings to the world. Both are written in Mr. Prescott's most attractive and brilliant style."I From the former of these works, Volume II., we make the following extract: * Duyckinck's Cyclopædia of American Literature. CHAPTER IX. WITH the first faint streak of dawn, the Spanish general was up, mustering his followers. They gathered, with beɛ ting hearts, under their respective banners, as the trumpet sent forth its spirit-stirring sounds across water and woodland, till they died away in distant echoes among the mountains. The sacred flames on the altars of numberless teocallis, dimly seen through the grey mists of morning, indicated the site of the capital, till temple, tower, and palace were fully revealed in the glorious illumination which the sun, as he rose above the eastern barrier, poured over the beautiful valley. It was the eighth of November, 1519; a conspicuous day in history, as that on which the Europeans first set foot in the capital of the Western World. Cortés with his little body of horse formed a sort of advanced guard to the army. Then came the Spanish infantry, who in a summer's campaign had acquired the discipline, and the weatherbeaten aspect, of veterans. The baggage occupied the centre; and the rear was closed by the dark files of Tlascalan warriors. The whole number must have fallen short of seven thousand, of which less than four hundred were Spaniards. Everywhere the Conquerors beheld the evidence of a crowded and thriving population, exceeding all they had yet seen. The temples and principal buildings of the cities were covered with a hard white stucco, which glistened like enamel in the level beams of the morning. The margin of the great basin was more thickly gemmed, than that of Chalco, with towns and hamlets. The water was darkened by swarms of canoes filled with Indians, who clambered up the sides of the causeway, and gazed with curious astonishment on the strangers. And here, also, they beheld those fairy islands of flowers, overshadowed occasionally by trees of considerable size, rising and falling with the gentle undulation of the billows. At the distance of half a league from the capital they encountered a solid work or curtain of stone, which traversed the dike. It was twelve feet high, was strengthened by towers at the extremities, and in the centre was a battlemented gate-way, which opened a passage to the troops. It was called the Fort of Xoloc, and became memorable in aftertimes as the position occupied by Cortés in the famous siege of Mexico. Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came |