first child ever named after the father of his country, and the touching incident of Lizzie’s presenting the chubby, bright-eyed boy to Washington, is hit off in a few touches.  It was, however, in itself a sublime thing.  Nearly seventy years afterward, that child, still feeling the hand of benediction resting upon him, concludes his Life of Washington by a description of his reception in New-York, of which he had been a witness.  Why does he not (it would have been a most pardonable allusion) bring in the incident referred to above?  Ah! modesty forbade; yet, as he penned that description, his heart must have rejoiced at the boldness of the servant who broke through the crowd and presented to the General a boy honored with his name.  Glorious incident indeed!

As the family grew up, the young men took to their different professions, which we have briefly designated.  Peter read medicine, and hence received the title of ‘doctor;’ though he hated and finally abjured it, yet, as early as 1794, he had opened an office at 208 Broadway.  This, however, was more a resort for the muses than for Hygeia, notwithstanding its sign, ‘Peter Irving, M.D.’  In 1796, William Irving, who had been clerk in the loan office, established himself in trade in Pearl—­near Partition—­street, and from his energy and elegance of manners, he became immediately successful, while farther up the street, near Old Slip, John T. opened a law office, which was subsequently removed to Wall street, near Broadway.  We mention these facts to show that Irving entered life surrounded by protecting influences, and that the kindness which sheltered him from the world’s great battle had a tendency to increase his natural delicacy and to expose him to more intense suffering, when the hand of misfortune should visit him.  One who had ‘roughed it’ with the world would have better borne the killing disappointment of his affections; but he was rendered peculiarly sensitive to suffering by his genial surroundings.

This fact sets off in remarkable contrast, the noble resolution with which such an one as he, when he had buried all the world held in the tomb with the dead form of his beloved, rose above his sorrows.  It is well observed by his biographer, that ’it is an affecting evidence how little Mr. Irving was ever disposed to cultivate or encourage sadness, that he should be engaged during this period of sorrow and seclusion in revising and giving additional touches to his History of New-York.’  Those who may smile at the elegant humor which pervades the pages of that history, will be surprised to learn that they were nearly complete, yet their final revision and preparation for the press was by one who was almost broken of heart, and who thus cultivated a spirit of cheerfulness, lest he should become a burden to himself and others.  As he writes to Mrs. Hoffman:  ’By constantly exercising my mind, never suffering it to prey upon itself, and resolutely determining to be cheerful, I have, in a manner, worked myself into a very enviable state of serenity and self-possession.’