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[88] were not small. In spite of his long absences abroad, his true patriotism never wavered. The mere existence of such a figure, calm, simple, incorruptible, honored wherever he was known, and known prominently throughout Europe, was a valuable stay to the young republic in that perilous first half of the nineteenth century. But all his career in statesmanship and, perhaps we may add, the very books on which his fame seemed to himself to be founded, have now become a wholly secondary fact as regards the basis of his fame. They obtained for him his degree at Oxford, but Mr. Warner has well pointed out that the students were more far-seeing when they shouted, by way of applause, on that occasion, the names of Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. It is after all, in Edmund Quincy's phrase, not “specific gravity,” but “specific levity” which often serves to keep a reputation afloat. When Irving came back to New York he might be seen, as George Curtis describes him, about 1850, “on an autumnal afternoon, tripping with an elastic step along Broadway, with low-quartered shoes neatly tied, and a Talma cloak — a short garment ”
Boston, New York and Chicago. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1903.
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