Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/89

 COOPER S LITERARY OFFENSES

[]We cannot imagine such a thing as a veteran Scotch Commander-in-Chief comporting himself in the field like a windy melodramatic actor, but Cooper could. On one occasion Alice and Cora were being chased by the French through a fog in the neighbor hood of their father s fort :

&quot;Point de quartier aux coquins!&quot; cried an eager pursuer, who seemed to direct the operations of the enemy.

&quot; Stand firm and be ready, my gallant 6oths!&quot; suddenly exclaimed a voice above them; &quot; wait to see the enemy; fire low, and sweep the glacis.&quot;

&quot; Father! father.&quot; exclaimed a piercing cry from out the mist; &quot;it is I! Alice! thy own Elsie! spare, 0! save your daughters!&quot;

&quot; Hold!&quot; shouted the former speaker, in the awful tones of parental agony, the sound reaching even to the woods, and rolling back in solemn echo. &quot; Tis she! God has restored me my children! Throw open the sally-port; to the field, 6oths, to the field! pull not a trigger, lest ye kill my lambs! Drive off these dogs of France with your steel!&quot; Ii

Cooper s word-sense was singularly dull. When a person has a poor ear for music he will flat sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near the tune, but it is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, the result is a literary flatting and sharping ; you perceive what he is intend ing to say, but you also perceive that he doesn t say it. This is Cooper. He was not a word-musician. His ear was satisfied with the approximate word. I will furnish some circumstantial evidence in support of this charge. My instances are gathered from half a dozen pages of the tale called Deerslayer. He uses &quot;verbal&quot; for &quot;oral&quot;; &quot;precision&quot; for &quot;facility&quot;;
 * phenomena &quot; for &quot; marvels &quot; ; &quot; necessary for

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