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52 52

James

Fem’morc

JAMES FENIMORE THE publication, now

brought

to

s

of the novels of fair occasion for dis

close, of a new edition

Cooper‘

gives us a

charging a duty which Maga has too long neglected,

and

saying

something

upon

of this great writer, and, inci dentally, upon the character of a man who would have been a noticeable, not to say remarkable person, had he never written a line. These novels stand be fore us in thirty-two goodly duodecimo volumes, well printed, gracefully illus trated, and, in all external aspects, wor With thy of generous commendation. the genius

strong propriety, the publishers dedicate this edition of the “ﬁrst American novel ist” to “the American People.” No one of our great writers is more thorough ly American than Cooper; no one has caught and reproduced more broadly and accurately the spirit of our institutions,

[J anuary,

Cooper.

COOPER.

He was the ﬁrst writer who made foreign nations acquainted with the characters and incidents of American frontier and wood land life; and his delincations of Indian manners and traits were greatly superior

in freshness and power, if not in truth, to any which had preceded them. His nov els opened a new and unwrought vein of interest, and were s revelation of hu manity under aspects and inﬂuences hith erto unobserved by the ripe civilization of Europe. The taste which had become cloyed with endless imitations of the feu dal and mediaeval pictures of Scott turn ed with fresh delight to such original ﬁg ures—so full of sylvan power and wild wood grace — as Natty Bumppo and Un European readers, too, received with an unqualified, be We, who cause an ignorant admiration. more criti had better knowledge, were cas.

these sketches

the character of our people, and even the aspects of Nature in this our Western

cal, and could

world. He was a patriot core of his heart; he loved with a fervid, but not an love: it was an intelligent,

liant than those of life. The acute observer can detect a par allel between the relation of Cooper to America and that of Scott to Scotland.

to the very his country

undiscerning vigilant, dis

criminating affection that bound his heart to his native land; and thus, while no man defended

ly

his country more vigorous

it was in the right, no one re proved its faults more courageously, or gave warning and advice more unreserv when

edly, where he felt that they were needed. This may be one reason why Cooper has more admirers,

or at least fewer dis On the

paragers, abroad than at home.

Continent of Europe his novels are ev erywhere read, with an eager, unquestion

His popularity is at least equal to that of Scott; and we think a considerable amount of testimony could be collected to prove that it is even But the fact we have above greater. ing delight.

stated is not the only explanation of this.

‘

We refer to the new edition of the novels of Cooper by Messrs. W. A. Townsend 8: CO., with illustrations by Darley.

see

that the drawing was

sometimes faulty, and the colors more bril

Scott was as hearty a Scotchman as Coop er an American: but Scott was a Tory in polities and an Episcopalian in relig ion; and the majority of Scotchmen are Whigs in polities and Presbytcrians in

religion. In Scott, as in Cooper, the ele ments of passion and sympathy were so strong that he could not be neutral or silent on the great questions of his time Thus, while the Scotch are and place. proud of Scott, as they well may be,— while he has among his own people most intense and enthusiastic admirers,— the proportion of those who yield to his genius a cold and reluctant homage is prob ably greater in Scotland than in any oth “ The rest er country in Christendom. of mankind recognize the essential truth of his delineations, and his loyalty to all the primal instincts

humanity ”; but

and sympathies

of

the Scotch cannot forget