decimo volumes, until the whole series was completed, at such intervals as the publisher might find most for the mutual interest of the parties. He had the right also to publish one or more of the works in a larger size and illustrated. Mr. Putnam was to be at the whole charge of publication, "including all the expenses thereto incident," and was to pay Mr. Irving twelve and a half per cent. on the retail price of all the copies sold. The accounts of sales were to be balanced at the end of the year, commencing with July, 1849; and the author was to receive, in notes at four months, the amount accruing to him at the above rate; but, in anticipation of such general adjustment, Mr. Putnam agreed to pay him, in quarterly payments, one thousand dollars for the first year, fifteen hundred for the second, and two thousand for the third, fourth, and fifth years; all of which payments were to be made on account of the percentage above specified, in the confident expectation of the publisher that the year's receipts would overrun the amount advanced, and that the author would have a surplus to receive at the stated period of settlement. In case of a disappointment in this particular, and that the percentage within the year should not amount to the sum or sums advanced, the author was not to be called upon to refund any part of the advance. In other words, by this agreement, Mr. Putnam was answerable for the payment of eight thousand five hundred dollars,—the sum provided for in the several annual advances,-what

ever be the amount of the percentage; but, whenever this guarantee of eight thousand five hundred dollars should be covered by the gross amount of profits received by Mr. Irving, the advances were to cease; or, if continued at the stipulated rate, and at the annual settlement it should appear that they had overrun the percentage, the author was to refund the difference.

The arrangement redounded to the advantage of both.

On the 18th of August, during a holiday visit I was making at Sunnyside, Mr. Irving brought to the cottage, from the city, a copy of the revised edition of "Knickerbocker's History of New York," printed, and to be published on the 1st of September. I turned over the pages, and observed to him that there appeared to be considerable additions besides the Author's Apology, which he had written expressly for this new edition. He replied that he had made some changes, and, he hoped, improvements; thought that he had mellowed and softened a good deal that was overcharged; had chastened the exaggerated humor of some portions-the effect of age and improved taste combined; and tempered the rawness of other parts without losing any of the raciness. If he had the work to write anew, he thought he could have brought out many things in a finer and higher vein of humor; but some of the jokes had got so implanted, he was afraid to disturb them.

The undertaking of Mr. Putnam was greeted with a

cordial welcome by many of our literary luminaries. "A new edition of Washington Irving's works," writes the polished essayist, H. T. Tuckerman, on the first putting forth of "Knickerbocker," "has long been in contemplation; but perhaps it is not so generally known, that the writings of this elegant pioneer of American literature have long been out of print in his own country. A stray volume or two of the cheap Philadelphia edition, wholly unfit to grace a library shelf, or the bulky octavo published in Paris, may occasionally be encountered; but, strange as it may seem, a complete, readable, and authorized edition of 'Geoffrey Crayon' has long been a desideratum. Since the dawn of his popularity, thousands of a new generation have sprung up in the far West, and along the Atlantic, who know this ornament to their country's genius only by fragments, and from the voice of renown. Accordingly, the enterprise of Mr. Putnam was not only required as a convenience, but almost as a necessity. The series is very appropriately commenced with 'Knickerbocker's New York'-one of the most original and elaborate pieces of humor to which our language has given birth."

Another unknown but evidently practiced pen, after descanting on the beauty of the volume in its type and finish, remarks:

If any works of our language are worthy of such choice embalming, and such an honored place in all libraries as these volumes are destined to fill, it is those of Washington Irving. Their quaint and exhaustless hu

mor, rich, graceful, and exuberant fancy, and the pure and natural vein of feeling, deepening into pathos, which runs through them, make them, in an eminent sense, household works-works to be read by the winter fireside, or in the calm of summer twilight, always cheering and soothing in their influence, and conveying strengthening and instructive lessons in a form which the mind is always ready to receive. To the writings of Diedrich Knickerbocker, especially, may be applied the words of Sir Philip Sidney: "He cometh to you with a tale that holdeth children from play, and an old man from the chimney corner."

The volume before us has been thoroughly revised, and now wears the final form in which posterity will receive it. Its interest is increased by a curious history of the manner in which the work was first published. The adroitness with which the public was first prepared for the appearance of the book, is very amusing; and we wonder not that foreigners should have been puzzled in what manner to understand it.

It is an amusing fact in connection with this allusion to the difficulty of foreigners in what manner to understand Knickerbocker, that a learned German commentator, in some notes to a German edition of Thucydides, has a grave reference to Knickerbocker's history of the old factions of the Long Pipes and Short Pipes, as an illustration of the profound remarks of Thucydides on the evils arising from the prevalence of factions throughout Greece. "Laughable as this undoubtedly is," writes Tuckerman, in noticing the fact, "it is probable that a more flattering testimony was never borne to the inimitable skill displayed in every page of 'Knickerbocker's History of New York.' It is highly amusing, however, to think of the utter mystification and bewilderment in

which Goeller must have been, while laboriously perusing the soi-disant history, and endeavoring to treasure up in his memory the well-authenticated and instructive facts with which it abounds."*

On the same day that Mr. Irving brought to the cottage this first volume of the revised edition of his works, his most humorous composition, he brought home also a picture which had strongly touched his religious sensibilities. This was Dupont's engraving of Ary Schaeffer's "Christus Consolator," which he had recently bought, and left to be mounted and framed. The engraving first caught his eye, as he told me, in the window of a German shop in Broadway, and he then gazed at it until the tears gathered in his eyes without knowing whose it was. Finding it was from Schaeffer, he went in at once and bought it, and ordered it to be framed. After tea he took mallet and chisel, and proceeded to unbox it. It was indeed an exquisite thing full of the deepest sentiment; and as Mr. Irving continued to look at it, the tears started again to his eyes. He thought he had never seen anything so affecting-"there was nothing superior to it in the world of art;" then he burst out into an expression of regret at not having seen more of Schaeffer. He had met him at Paris on his last visit to Europe, at a house where he used to meet Lamennais and others, and had been

* The instance occurs in Goeller's Thucydides, in a note on the 82d chapter of the 3d book, and the reference is to Washington Irving's History of New York, lib. vii. cap. 5.

VOL. III.-10