s "sound American feeling," and for its hits at "the
conceited, disappointed, and Europeanized writer of 'Home as Found,'" it
passed so speedily to the paper-makers that antiquarian research would
now be tasked to find a copy. About the contemporary newspaper notices
there was a certain tiger-like ferocity which almost justified much that
Cooper said in denunciation of the American press. A specimen, though a
somewhat extreme one, of a good deal of the sort of criticism to which
the novelist was subjected, can be found in the "New Yorker" for the
1st of December, 1838. This journal was edited by Horace Greeley, (p. 159)
but the article in question came probably from the pen of Park Benjamin.
It defended Cooper from the charge of vilifying his country in order to
make his works salable in England, but it defended him in this way. No
motive of that kind was necessary to be supposed. He had an inborn
disposition to pour out his bile and vent his spleen. "He is as proud of
blackguarding," the article continued, "as a fishwoman of Billingsgate.
It is as natural to him as snarling to a tom-cat, or growling to a
bull-dog.... He is the common mark of scorn and contempt of every
well-informed American. The superlative dolt!" In this refined and
chastened style did the defenders of American cultivation preserve its
reputation from its traducer.

Criticism of the kind just quoted, hurts only the man who utters it and
the community which tolerates it. It injured the reputation of the
country far more than the work could that it criticised. "Home as
Found," as a matter of fact, was prevented from doing any harm, partly
by its excessive exaggeration but more by its excessive poorness. As a
story it stood in marked contrast to its immediate predecessor. It was
as difficult to accompany Cooper on land as it had been to abandon him
when on the water. The tediousness of the tale is indeed something
appalling to the most hardened novel-reader. The only interest it can
possibly have at this day is from the opportunity it affords of studying
one phase of the author's character, and of accounting for much of the
bitter hostility with which he was assailed.

While he was lecturing his countrymen on manners, his own were spoken of
in turn in a way that gave especial delight to the enemies he had (p. 160)
made by his criticisms. In 1837 Lockhart's "Life of Sir Walter Scott"
was appearing. In the diary of that novelist were some references to