"He is the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart"
About this Quote
Irving’s “true enchanter” isn’t a wizard with smoke and mirrors; it’s an artist who knows the cheapest tricks are the ones that stop at spectacle. The line draws a clean border between sensory novelty (the thing that dazzles and fades) and the deeper, stickier kind of influence that rearranges what you feel is possible. “Spell” is doing double duty here: it’s both magic and language, the act of spelling, implying that the writer’s sorcery is made of words disciplined into rhythm, image, and suggestion.
The subtext is almost a manifesto for early American literary ambition. Irving was writing in a culture still anxious about whether it could produce art that wasn’t merely derivative or didactic. By elevating imagination and the heart, he stakes out a space where American writing can compete without copying Europe’s grand institutions: the mind and emotion are democratic territory. Anyone can be “enchanted” there, regardless of education or class, which is precisely why it’s power worth courting.
There’s also a gentle warning folded into the compliment. If the “true enchanter” works past the senses, he bypasses your defenses. Irving romanticizes that surrender, but he also hints at its ethical edge: the most effective art persuades you before you realize you’re being persuaded. In an era of sermons, pamphlets, and nation-building narratives, that’s not escapism. It’s influence with a velvet glove.
The subtext is almost a manifesto for early American literary ambition. Irving was writing in a culture still anxious about whether it could produce art that wasn’t merely derivative or didactic. By elevating imagination and the heart, he stakes out a space where American writing can compete without copying Europe’s grand institutions: the mind and emotion are democratic territory. Anyone can be “enchanted” there, regardless of education or class, which is precisely why it’s power worth courting.
There’s also a gentle warning folded into the compliment. If the “true enchanter” works past the senses, he bypasses your defenses. Irving romanticizes that surrender, but he also hints at its ethical edge: the most effective art persuades you before you realize you’re being persuaded. In an era of sermons, pamphlets, and nation-building narratives, that’s not escapism. It’s influence with a velvet glove.
Quote Details
| Topic | Romantic |
|---|
More Quotes by Washington
Add to List
