Irving To Paulding

Here is a gejjial passage from a letter to Jas. K. Pauldinsr, written by Washington Irving when bc was seventy-two years old : " I am glad to receive Btich good accounts as you give of yourself and your brother, 'jogging on together in good humor with each other and with the world.' Happy is he who can grow smooth as an old shilling as he weara out; he has endured the rubs of life to some purpose. " You hope I am 'sliding smoothly down the hill.' I tbank you for the hope. I am better off than most old bachelors are, or deserve to be. I have a happy home ; the happier for being always woll stocked with womankind, without whom an old bachelor is a forlorn, dreary animal My brother, the 'General' is wearing out the serene evening of life with me ; alinost entirely deaf, but in good health and good spirits, more and more immersed in the study of newspapers (wiih which I keep him copiously supplied), and, through thtm, better acquaiotcd with what is going on in the world than I am, who mingle with it occasionally, and have ears as well as eyes open. " I have had many vivid enjoyments in the course of my life, yet uo portiou of it has been more equably and serenely happy than that which I have passed in my litrle nest in the country. I am just near enough to town to dip into it occasionally for a day or two, give my mind an airing, keep my notions a little up to thofashion of the times, and then return to my quiet little home with redoubled relish."