says a great American esa provision in nature for the - that is, the acute observer itis, that it is perfectly necesthe writer to exist, because he -xalts, enobles, and instructs, Ian race; he chronicles the notices the chances and he defines and characterises ty-al for these last qualities writers, the novelist holds his With these, the name at the t. ur article is of no mean value, Ly on account of his position as a vrer, but as being the very first of Lean novelists. ME are only seen in their true by comparison; one comVirito Homer, and Dante to : and, following this out, flatcall the prosaic Klopstock the Maton, and, more truly, Béthe Burns of France, and the of the present paper the AmeRecently this great man - that bourne from which un return, and in the fulness of a which few will reach, although 1. many will aspire.

these accomplishments. Certain it is that he made a very respectable progress, which he was careful afterwards to improve. For six years, or thereabouts, Cooper's life was bustling and full of activity, various adventures occurring which afforded him excellent materiel, hereafter to be worked up in his various novels. He was brought thoroughly into contact with scenes of which he afterwards gave so faithful and glowing a rescript. In one of his latest novels," Afloat and Ashore," he has embodied many of these scenes. The book is pronounced, by those who best knew him, to be essentially autobiographical, and one of the incidents is an anecdote in which the author figures in propriâ personâ. It will not be trespassing to quote it. The hero is in an American vessel, when a hostile French privateer approaches; being in the maintop, he observes the movements of the enemy, and gives notice of them to his captain by dropping a copper wrapped in a piece of paper, on deck, on which was written, “The brig's forecastle is filled with armed men, hid behind the bulwarks."

"Captain Digges heard the fall of the copper, and looking up-nothing takes an officer's eyes aloft quicker than to find anything coming out of a top-he saw me pointing to the paper. I was rewarded for this liberty by an approving nod. Captain Digges read what I had written, and I soon observed Neb and the cook filling the engine with boiling water. This job was no sooner done than a good place was selected on the quarter-deck for this singular implement of war, and then a hail came from the brig.

"Vat zat sheep is?' demanded some one from the brig.

"The Tigris of Philadelphia, from Calcutta home. What brig is that?' "La Folie-corsair Français. From vair you come?'

"From Calcutta. And where are you from?' "Gaudaloupe. Vair you go, eh ?'

B

666

'Philadelphia. Do not luff so near me; some accident may happen.'

666

'Vat you call' accident? Can nevair hear, eh? I will com tout prés.' "Give us a wider berth, I tell you! Here is your jib-boom nearly foul of my mizzen-rigging.'

"Vat mean zat bert' vidair, eh? Allons, mes enfants; c'est le moment !'

"Luff a little, and keep his spar clear,' cried our captain. Squirt away, Neb, and let us see what you can do!'

"The engine made a movement just as the French began to run out on their bowsprit, and, by the time six or eight were on the heel of the jib-boom, they were met by the hissing hot stream, which took them en echelon, as it might be, fairly raking the whole line. The effect was instantaneous. Physical nature cannot stand excessive heat, unless particularly well supplied with skin; and the three leading Frenchmen, finding retreat impossible, dropped incontinently into the sea, preferring cold water to hot-the chances of drowning to the certainty of being scalded. I believe all three were saved by their companions on board, but I will not vouch for the fact. The remainder of the intended boarders, having the bowsprit before them, scrambled back upon the brig's forecastle as well as they could; betraying by the random way in which their hands flew about, that they had a perfect consciousness how much they left their rear exposed on the retreat. A hearty laugh was heard in all parts of the Tigris, and the brig, putting her helm hard up, wore round like a top, as if she were scalded herself."

Adventures of this sort he had sufficient during the short time he was at sea, to furnish his memory and to aid his invention.

In 1811 he retired into private life, and he soon after rendered this retirement more agreeable, and riveted more firmly his ties to the shore, by marrying Miss Lancey, a lady of great accomplishments, whose brother is one of the New York bishops. On his marriage Mr. Cooper settled at his patrimonial estate, named Cooper's Town, or in American parlance Cooper's-ville.

Horace's rule of keeping one's first production nine years may have well been indulged in by our author, for he

let slip by ten years, in this quiet retirement before he came before the public. When he had once broken the ice, which was in 1821, by publishing a novel called "Precaution;" his rise in favour was rapid, although the preliminary work was an unsuccessful one; but the same year produced "The Spy," "The Pioneers, and "The Pilot." Of the origin of the latter novel Mr. Griswold tells the following anecdote, which at the late meeting in New York, to erect a monument to Cooper, Mr. Bryant, the American poet, repeated:—

"Talking with the late Charles Wilkes, of New York, a man of taste and judgment, our author heard extolled the universal knowledge of Scott, and the sea portions of "The Pirate" cited as a proof. He laughed at the idea, as most seamen would, and the discussion ended by his promising to write a sea story, which could be read by landsmen, while seamen should feel its truth.*

From this the "Pilot" resulted, which lifted Cooper at once into celebrity. Sir Walter Scott himself, in a letter to Miss Edgeworth, bore testimony to its truth and excellence. "The novel," he writes, "is a very clever one, and the sea scenes and characters in particular, are admirably drawn. I advise you to read it as soon as possible." The novel was worthy of the panegyric, and a higher still has been bestowed, and worthily, upon it. It became immediately popular, and was eagerly read in England, translated into the various European languages, and, stranger still to relate, into Persian, an honour, as far as we know, as regards novels, reserved for the "Spy" and the "Pilot." "This novel," says a critic, speaking of the "Spy," "was the first which brought Cooper into notice, which gave him his earliest reputation, and which will continue to preserve it."+ His descrip tions of marine scenery, of the moving, restless ocean, and of the ever varying changes of the sky, were at once seen to be unsurpassed in freshness and truth. They rivalled his word pictures of American woods and savage man, and, as Mr. Prescott truly remarks are "alive with the breath of poetry." "Witness," says the last-quoted autho

The Prose Writers of America. + North American Review, Jan. 1852.

finitely-various pictures of or stil more, of the beautiwich rides upon it-the

was, for the time, the first Coper's novels. That his shall love a novel wherew bravery was prominently sure them, and whereof the vers American, none can wonthe Lovel-readers of England ur prejudices succumb to their but, more than this, it da reflected fame, for an EngZazatst, a Mr. Fitzball, seizing the work, cleverly turned its nst the Americans, by proa drama of the same name, (the wherein Long Tom Coffin persnated by Mr. T. P. Cooke, ad an extraordinary long run the Alphi Theatre. Sir Walter i went, amongst others, to see this ni in his diary notices "the a etatery" of the dramatist, in the 5 nsive parts of the story the Yankees. Let us aid, that still popular. *y after these publications, Mr. Vited Europe, where he reime years, and became one of ay us of the day. In Eng- ie was introduced to Sir Walter then at the zenith of his poputhus notices his fellow

r. 23, 1826.—Visited Princess and also Cooper, the Ameri.ist. This man, who has much genius, has a good fe manners or want of manpaliar to his countrymen. He ei to me a mode of publishing Anerica, by entering a book as the et of s ́citizen. I will think of Every little helps, &c." - N. &-Cooper came to breakfast, we were obsevics partout. Such a er of Frenchmen bounced in sucely i exploded, or, I should charged their compliments, that 1 hardly find an opportunity to awn, or to entertain Mr.

the other side of the Channel, when first brought to light, they are worthy of some notice.

In the first place, the "mode of publishing," noticed by Sir Walter, does great honour to Cooper. It was, of course, nothing less than the copyright bill in embryo, which Cooper endeavoured zealously to introduce, and which would have been, if introduced, one of the greatest boons to American literature, and without which that literature is now suffering, and has become dwindled, dwarfish, and imitative. * Sir Walter, who regarded literature-as a late critic has said-as a "mere money-making machine," did not see the patriotism of the proposal, but clutched at the idea of making more; "every little helps," he writes, and, we believe, let the matter drop. Not so Cooper; he wrote at once to Messrs. Carey and Lea, the great American publishers, and, in a manly letter which we have before us, set forth the advantages which such a measure would be to American literature. "The whole range of English literature," he writes, "is thrown open to the American publisher. He chooses his book, after it has gone through the ordeal of a nation of publishers, and offers it to his countrymen, supported by the testimony and praise of reviews. Against this array of names the American writer has to make head, or fail."+

Cooper suggested, as a remedy, the law of copyright; but the booksellers were too strong for him, and they still triumph, and fortunes have been made, and still are being made, out of the works of Dickens, Scott, Bulwer, and Macaulay, for which the English author has never received one penny from the American publisher; English booksellers are now making reprisals upon American authors; but that only aggravates the evil. Cooper did not

* The writer is not ignorant of the many excellent American authors, but is constrained to adopt the opinions expressed, from his own observations, and from the The "North American Review," the first opinions of the Americans themselves. critic of that continent, expressed itself both severely and sorrowfully on the ques

tion a few months since.

"The Knickerbocker,"-New York magazine, April, 1838.