fourteen he
gave up the ship. By this time he had begun to fancy that he could
write, but there is nothing preserved which shows the least promise.

"When I was young," he said long afterward, "I was led to think that
somehow or other everything that was pleasant was wicked." The
theatre was one of the forbidden sweets, and he naturally seized every
chance to taste it. Family prayers at nine were something of an
interruption, but he had managed a private exit by way of the roof
which got him back to the theatre in time for the after-piece. This
early liking for the stage he never outgrew. In the meantime he was
going through with the ordinary schooling of the New York boy of that
period. He learned a little Latin; he hated mathematics, and had very
little love for dull books of any sort. At sixteen his formal
education was over. Two of his elder brothers had studied at Columbia
College, and no doubt Irving might have done the same. He was too
lazy, or, to put it more gracefully, too little interested in set
tasks. Later he expressed regret for the lost chance, but the loss
cannot have been very great for him or for us. If we could imagine
that he might have gained any sort of scholarship, its effect upon his
writing would still be more than doubtful. His order of genius gains
little from bookishness. Addison was supposed to be a classical
scholar, but the "De Coverley Papers" are not a product of
scholarship, and we could better spare anything else that he wrote.

At sixteen Irving entered a law office, and for the next five years
was understood to be studying law. He had no real aptitude for such
study, to be sure, and must have known it; certainly he learned very
little law. He had other things to be interested in. He was an eager
reader in his own way, and a handsome, well-mannered boy, already fond
of society. And I doubt if very much was expected of him in the way of
steady application, for during this whole period his health was
uncertain. More than once he had to give up study entirely, and go to
this watering-place or that for weeks or months. His family and
friends were afraid of consumption, and it was against all forecasts
that he held his own till manhood.

In 1800 he made his first voyage up the Hudson. "A voyage to Albany
then," he wrote in 1851, "was equal to a voyage to Europe at present,
and took almost as much time." The journey was made in a sloop manned
by slaves, and commanded by a native of Alba