n. Honor to the strong man! He had traveled through
England and France, merely wetting his lips with wine. He wrote volumes
for British periodicals, and also his 'Brother Jonathan' in three
volumes. After looking over the catalogue of his labors for an hour, we
always want to draw a long breath and rest. There is no doubt that since
his return from Europe in 1826, he has written and published, in books
and newspapers, what would make at least one hundred volumes duodecimo.
It would be a hard fate for such an author to be condemned to read his
own productions, for he would never get time to read any thing else.

Neal's peculiar style caused many oddities and extravagances to be laid
at his door that did not belong there. From this fact of style, people
thought he could not disguise himself on paper. This is a mistake, for
his papers in Miller's _European Magazine_ were attributed to Washington
Irving. We transcribe the paragraph of a letter from Neal, promised
above, and which we received years since:

'The papers I wrote for Miller's _European Magazine_ have been
generally attributed to no less a person than Washington Irving--a
man whom I resemble just about as much in my person as in my
writing. He, Addisonian and Goldsmithian to the back-bone, and
steeped to the very lips in what is called classical literature, of
which I have a horror and a loathing, as the deadest of all dead
languages; he, foil of subdued pleasantry, quiet humor, and genial
blandness, upon all subjects. I, altogether--but never mind. He is
a generous fellow, and led the way to all our triumphs in that
'field of the cloth of gold' which men call the _literary_'.

Neal went to England a sort of Yankee knight-errant to fight for his
country. He had the wisdom to fight with his visor down, and quarter on
the enemy. He took heavy tribute from _Blackwood_ and others for his
articles vindicating America, which came to be extravagantly quoted and
read. His article for _Blackwood_ on the Five Presidents and the Five
Candidates, portraying General Jackson to the life as he afterward
proved to be, was translated into most of the European languages. I
transcribe another paragraph from an old letter. It is too
characteristic to remain unread by the public:

'For my paper on the Presidents, _Blackwood_ sent me five guineas,
and engaged me as a regular contributor, which I determined to be.
But