Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/79

 COOPER S LITERARY OFFENSES

of the forest before the reader. These mislaid peo ple are hunting for a fort. They hear a cannon- blast, and a cannon-ball presently comes rolling into the wood and stops at their feet. To the females this suggests nothing. The case is very different with the admirable Bumppo. I wish I may never know peace again if he doesn t strike out promptly and follow the track of that cannon-ball across the plain through the dense fog and find the fort. Isn t it a daisy r] If Cooper had any real knowledge of Nature s ways of doing things, he had a most deli cate art in concealing the fact. For instance: one of his acute Indian experts, Chingachgook (pro nounced Chicago, I think), has lost the trail of a person he is tracking through the forest. Appar ently that trail is hopelessly lost. Neither you nor I could ever have guessed out the way to find it. It was very different with Chicago. Chicago was not stumped for long. He turned a running stream out of its course, and there, in the slush in its old bed, were that person s moccasin tracks. The current did not wash them away, as it would have done in all other like cases no, even the eternal laws of Nature have to vacate when Cooper wants to put up a delicate job of woodcraft on the reader.

We must be a little wary when Brander Matthews tell us that Cooper s books &quot;reveal an extraordi nary fullness of invention.&quot; As a rule, I am quite willing to accept Brander Matthews s literary judg ments and applaud his lucid and graceful phrasing of them; but that particular statement needs to be taken with a few tons of salt. Bless your heart,

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