ed of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of the mill-pond. The school-house being deserted, soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue; and the ploughboy, loitering homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm-tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow.

POSTSCRIPT.

FOUND IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKER.

THE preceding Tale is given, almost in the precise words in which I heard it related at a Corporation 125 meeting of the ancient city of the Manhattoes 126, at which were present many of its sagest and most illustrious burghers. The narrator was a pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow, in pepper-and-salt clothes, with a sadly 127 humourous face; and one whom I strongly suspected of being poor, he made such efforts to be entertaining. When his story was concluded, there was much laughter and approbation, particularly from two or three deputy aldermen, who had been asleep the greater part of the time. There was, however, one tall, dry-looking, old gentleman, with beetling eyebrows, who maintained a grave and rather severe face throughout: now and then folding his arms, inclining his head, and looking down upon the floor, as if turning a doubt over in his mind. He was one of your wary men, who never laugh, but upon good grounds when they have reason and the law on their side. When the mirth of the rest of the company had subsided, and silence was restored, he leaned one arm on the elbow of his chair, and sticking the other a-kimbo, demanded, with a slight, but exceedingly sage motion of the head, and contraction of the brow, what was the moral of the story, and what it went to prove.

-

125) Corporation hier = Mayor und Aldermen die städtischen Behörden.

126) New-York. (Note by W. Irving).

=

127) sadly wörtlich: betrübt, düster; sodann übertragen im Sinne der Verstärkung sehr, dessen ursprüngliche Bedeutung sich noch aus dem Worte versehren erkennen läfst; vergl. das deutsche herzlich in dem Ausdruck herzlich schlecht. Ebendahin gehört das lat. male vom hohen Mafse und Grade, z. B. male odisse, male raucus.

The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wine to his lips as a refreshment after his toils, paused for a moment, looked at his enquirer with an air of infinite deference, and lowering the glass slowly to the table, observed, that the story was intended most logically to prove:

"That there is no situation in life but 128 has its advantages and pleasures - provided we will but take a joke as we find it.

"That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers, is likely to have rough riding of it: 129

"Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand of a Dutch heiress, is a certain step to high preferment in the state."

The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after this explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination of the syllogism; while, methought, the one in pepper and salt eyed him with something of a triumphant leer. At length, he observed, that all this was very well, but still he thought the story a little on the extravagant there were one or two points

on which he had his doubts.

"Faith, Sir," replied the story-teller, "as to that matter, I don't believe one-half of it myself."

D. K.

L'ENVOY.1

Go, little book, God send thee good passage,
And specially let this be thy prayere,

Unto them all that thee will read or hear,
Where thou art wrong, after their help to call,
Thee to correct in any part or all.

CHAUCER'S Belle Dame sans Mercie.

In concluding this volume of the Sketch Book, the Author cannot but express his deep sense of the indulgence with which

128) but which not.

129) Zu of it vergl. S. 148, A. 13.

1) Envoy an explanatory postscript to a poem or essay (jetzt veraltet) = Nachschrift, Zuschrift. Envoi se dit, en Littérature, de Quelques vers mis à la suite d'une pièce de poésie, pour l'adresser, pour en faire hommage à quelqu'un. (Dictionnaire de l'Académie).

2) A former edition of this work was published in two volumes. (Note by W. Irving.)

his first has been received, and of the liberal disposition that has been evinced to treat him with kindness as a stranger. Even the critics, whatever may be said of them hy others, he has found to be a singularly gentle and good-natured race; it is true that each has in turn objected to some one or two articles, and that these individual exceptions, taken in the aggregate, would amount almost to a total condemnation of his work; but then he has been consoled by observing, that what one has particularly censured, another has as particularly praised; and thus, the encomiums being set off against the objections, he finds his work, upon the whole, commended far beyond its deserts.

He is aware that he runs a risk of forfeiting much of this kind favour by not following the counsel that has been liberally bestowed upon him; for where abundance of valuable advice is given gratis, it may seem a man's own fault if he should go astray. He only can say, in his vindication, that he faithfully determined, for a time, to govern himself in his second volume by the opinions passed upon his first; but he was soon brought to a stand by the contrariety of excellent counsel. One kindly advised him to avoid the ludicrous; another to shun the pathetic; a third assured him that he was tolerable at description, but cautioned him to leave narrative alone; while a fourth declared that he had a very pretty knack at turning a story, and was really entertaining when in a pensive mood, but was grievously mistaken if he imagined himself to possess a spark of humour.

4

Thus perplexed by the advice of his friends, who each in turn closed some particular path, but left him all the world beside to range in, he found that to follow all their counsels would, in fact, be to stand still. He remained for a time sadly embarrassed; when, all at once, the thought struck him to ramble on as he had begun; that his work being miscellaneous, and written for different humours, it could not be expected that any one would be pleased with the whole; but that if it should contain something to suit each reader, his end would be completely answered. Few guests sit down to a varied table with an equal appetite for every dish. One has an elegant horror of a roasted pig; another holds a curry or a devil in utter abomination; a

3) the encomiums being set off against the objections wenn Lobeserhebungen gegen den Tadel hält.

4) Zu sadly vergl. S. 217, A. 127.
5) devil

excessively

man die

a dish, as a bone with the meat, broiled and peppered gepfeffertes Fleisch; etwa = Gulasch.

third cannot tolerate the ancient flavour of venison and wild fowl; and a fourth, of truly masculine stomach, looks with sovereign contempt on those knick-knacks here and there dished up for the ladies. Thus each article is condemned in its turn; and yet, amidst this variety of appetites, seldom does a dish go away from the table without being tasted and relished by some one or other of the guests.

With these considerations he ventures to serve up this volume; simply requesting the reader, if he should find here and there something to please him, to rest assured that it was written expressly for intelligent readers like himself; but entreating him, should he find anything to dislike, to tolerate it, as one of those articles which the author has been obliged to write for readers of a less refined taste.

To be serious. The author is conscious of the numerous faults and imperfections of his work; and well aware how little he is disciplined and accomplished in the arts of authorship. His deficiencies are also increased by a diffidence arising from his peculiar situation. He finds himself writing in a strange7 land, and appearing before a public which he has been accustomed, from childhood, to regard with the highest feelings of awe and reverence. He is full of solicitude to deserve their approbation, yet finds that very solicitude continually embarrassing his powers, and depriving him of that ease and confidence which are necessary to successful exertion. Still the kindness with which he is treated encourages him to go on, hoping that in time he may acquire a steadier footing; and thus he proceeds, half venturing, half shrinking, surprised at his own good fortune, and wondering at his own temerity.

von.

6) refined verfeinert, cultiviert.

7) strange (altfr. estrange, neufr. étrange v. lat. extraneus) ist in der eigentlichen Bedeutung fremd (so hier) nicht mehr allgemein gebräuchlich; doch macht die Verbindung strange to eine Ausnahme hierIm Übrigen ist die Bedeutung seltsam, eigentümlich, sonderbar (unusual, odd, wonderful) jetzt die vorherrschende, ähnlich wie im französischen étrange in der Bedeutung fremd veraltet ist, wofür étranger, ère eingetreten ist. Der Begriffs übergang von strange remd zu strange eigentümlich, sonderbar ist klar.

THE END.

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