gleam in, With hue as red as the rosy bed Which a bee would choose to dream in. He sang of the Hudson in an exalted strain, in verse that may sound formal and, perhaps, a little pedantic to our modern ears; but the fashions change in fifty or sixty years, and it is certain that he celebrated her beauties as only a lover could. At West Point, during his early life, Hoffman wrote a poem called Moonlight on the Hudson, from which a brief quotation may be admitted here : What though no cloister grey nor ivied column Along these cliffs their sombre ruins rear? What though no frowning tower nor temple solemn Of despots tell and superstition here — What though that mouldering fort's fast crumbling walls Did ne'er enclose a baron's bannered halls. Its sinking arches once gave back as proud An echo to the war-blown clarion's peal, As gallant hearts its battlements did crowd, As ever beat beneath a vest of steel, When herald's trump on knighthood's haughtiest day Called forth chivalric host to battle fray. For here amid these woods did he keep court. Before whose mighty soul the common crowd Of heroes, who alone for fame have fought. Are like the patriarch's sheaves to Heaven's chosen bowed- He who his country's eagle taught to soar, And fired those stars which shine o'er every shore. Digitized by Microsoft® Literary Associations of the Hudson 255 And sights and sounds at which the world have wonder'd Within these wild ravines have had their birth ; Young Freedom's cannon from these glens have thunder'd And sent their startling echoes o'er the earth ; And not a verdant glade nor mountain hoary But treasures up within the glorious story. And yet not rich in high-soul'd memories only, Is every moon-kiss 'd headland round me gleaming, Each cavern'd glen and leafy valley lonely, And silver torrent o'er the bald rock streaming: But such soft fancies here may breathe around As make Vaucluse and Clarens hallow'd ground. There was something more than the ordinary ties of friendship to bind Irving and Hoffman. He was one of that nearer circle to which Matilda belonged, though at the time of her death he was but four years old. On one occasion Irving speaks of him in a letter as "little Charles." In early boyhood he was crippled for life by being crushed between a river steamboat and the wharf, an accident that may have driven him to more diligent study, by depriving him of many of the active sports of boyhood. He was sent to the old Poughkeepsie Academy, then a somewhat famous school, but ran away because of alleged harsh treat- ment, and prepared for college under private tuition. He entered Columbia at the early age of fifteen, leav- ing, however, before graduation. Having studied law with Mr. Hermanus Bleecker of Albany, he was admitted to the bar when he attained his majority. But after a short time he abandoned the profession of the law for the more alluring pursuit Digitized by Microsoft® 256 The Hudson River of literature, finding in the new field a congenial em- ployment for powers which, if not great, were at least of a high order. A tour of the West, undertaken in search of health, furnished material for numerous con- tributions to The American and other magazines ; and these were afterwards collected into one or two volumes. The Romance of Greyslaer followed after a few years, and several books of prose and verse, pub- lished at intervals, added to the writer's reputation. Some time before the publication of Greyslaer, Mr. Hoffman commenced the afterwards widely known Knickerbocker Magazine, and was also connected at different times with The Mirror, The Literary World, and The New York American Magazine. This editorial work threw him into agreeable relations with some of the most brilliant and celebrated men of his day. His familiar associates included William CuUen Bryant, Chancellor Kent, Lewis Gaylord Clarke, Colonel Wil- liam Leete Stone, and a score of others, some of whose names have a prominent place in this chapter. The honourary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Columbia College, his companions upon that occasion being Bryant and Halleck. We may be permitted one further quotation from this representative Hudson River poet. It is from a short poem called Indian Summer, written in 1828: Light as love's smiles, the silvery mist at morn Floats in loose flakes along the limpid river ; The blue bird's notes upon the soft breeze bofne, As high in air he carols, faintly quiver; Digitized by Microsoft® Literary Associations of the Hudson 257 The weeping birch, like banners idly waving, Bends to the stream, its spicy branches laving; Beaded with dew, the witch elm's tassels shiver;