im a still more distorted
view of the country to which he had come back. So completely had (p. 149)
his feelings swung around that he now had an eye for little but the
worst features of the national character. Passion had largely unbalanced
his judgment. Ancient fable has pointed out the danger of falling under
the fascinations of the sirens; but even that seems preferable to
becoming bewitched by the furies.

Still he could not well make a book out of this one event. It could be
used to suit all his purposes, however, by being introduced as an
incident of an ordinary tale. In this way his side of the story would
travel as far as the false assertions about his conduct in the matter
which had been circulated not only over America but over Europe. He also
set out to bring together in the work he was contemplating all the
things that he looked upon with disapprobation and dislike in the social
life of this country. His original intention was to begin a story with
the landing here of an American family long resident in Europe. Happily
he was induced to give an account of the voyage home, and this in the
end necessitated the division of the work into two parts. Accordingly on
the 16th of August, 1837, appeared the novel of "Homeward Bound,"
followed in November of the same year by its sequel, entitled "Home as
Found." The leading characters are the same in both tales, but the
events are entirely unlike. The scene of the first is laid wholly on the
water. In its movement, its variety of incidents, and the spirit and
energy with which they are told, it is one of the best of Cooper's
sea-novels. Nor is this estimate seriously impaired by the fact that it
is in some places marred by controversial discussions on liberty and
equality, and by the withering exposure of views that no man maintained
whose opinions were worth regarding. But these are only occasional (p. 150)
blemishes. They do not materially interfere with the progress of the
story, which moves on with little variation of interest to the end. On
the other hand, the characters are generally as uninteresting as the
events are exciting. The chief ones among them have all reached that
supreme refinement which justifies them in feeling and decisively
pronouncing that whatever is done by anybody but themselves is coarse.
But in this work the personages are so subordinate to the scenes that
any failure in representing the former is more than counterbalanced by
the success s