(p. 231)

1840-1850.

No man could go through the conflicts which Cooper had been carrying on
for so many years unharmed or unscarred. For the hostility entertained
and expressed toward him in England he cared but little. But though too
proud to parade his sufferings, the injustice done him in his own land
aroused in his heart an indignation which had in it, however, as much
pain as anger. He could not fail to see that he was in a false position,
that his motives were misunderstood where even they were not
deliberately misrepresented. The generation which had shared in his
early triumphs and had gloried in his early fame had largely passed
away. From some who survived he had been parted by a separation bitterer
than that of death. To the new generation that had come on he appeared
only as the captious and censorious critic of his country. His works
were read in every civilized country. To many men they had brought all
the little knowledge they possessed of America; to certain regions they
could almost be said to have first carried its name. But the land which
he loved with a passionate fervor seemed largely to have disowned him.
It would be vain to deny his sensitiveness to this hostility. Traces of
his secret feeling crop out unexpectedly in his later works. They reveal
phases of his character which would never be inferred from his acts;
they show the existence of sentiments which he would never have (p. 232)
directly avowed. "There are men," says the hero of "Afloat and Ashore,"
"so strong in principle as well as in intellect, I do suppose, that they
can be content with the approbation of their own consciences, and who
can smile at the praise or censure of the world alike: but I confess to
a strong sympathy with the commendation of my fellow-creatures, and a
strong distaste for their disapprobation." Especially marked is the
reference to himself in the words he puts into the mouth of Columbus in
his "Mercedes of Castile." "Genoa," says the navigator, "hath proved but
a stern mother to me: and though nought could induce me to raise a hand
against her, she hath no longer any claim on my services.... One cannot
easily hate the land of his birth, but injustice may lead him to cease
to love it. The tie is mutual, and when the country ceases to protect
person, property, character, and rights, the subject is liberated from
all his duties."

It was the attacks connected with the controve