Anything Good

After Ichabod Crane disappears, Hans Van Ripper burns Ichabod’s “magic books and poetic scrawl” and is determined “to send his children no more to school; observing, that he never knew any good come of this same reading and writing.” Irving’s diction closely parallels Nathanael’s response to Philip’s claim to have found the Messiah named Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (JOHN 1:46).