190 Public Lectures
He was magnanimous, unenvɪous of anyone’s reputation
or undertaking. It was like him, saturated in Spanish lore,
to forebear writing a book on the conquest of Mexico when
he learned that Prescott contemplated the task and to aid
Prescott with information at his hand. It was a pinching
sacrifice, for, as Irving told his nephew, this had been a
favorite subject with him from boyhood and he relinquished
it when he had no other literary project in mind and was
in sore financial need, but he added:
I am not sorry for having made it. Mr. Prescott has justi-
fied the opinions I expressed at the time, that he would treat
the subject with more close and ample research than I should
probably do, and would produce a work more thoroughly
worthy of the theme.
Literary generosity could not go much farther.
One of the secrets of Irving’s Iovingness and belovedness
was his rare gift of understanding people everywhere. Had
a Spaniard written the opening pages of The Alhambra he
could not have expressed finer appreciation of the people
of Spain who dwell in the mountain regions. Irving was
impressed by the “stern and melancholy country with rugged
mountains and long naked sweeping plains destitute of trees,”
and he thought he found in the habitat an explanation of
“the proud hardy frugal Spaniard, his manly defiance of
hardship and contempt of effeminate indulgence.”
England fascinated him by its solidity, its traditions, its
ancient monuments. His mind reverted to the Dutch country
adjacent to New York, its scenery, its legends and he wrote
of Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. He invaded New
England and wrote of the Devil and Tom Walker. He
went West as far as Arkansas and wrote A Tour of the
Prairies.
He went to Canada, became acquainted with the heads
of the Northwest Fur Company, and after subsequent talks