save Walter Scott, who has risen to that
grandeur and serenity of colors." "Never," he said in another (p. 241)
place, "did the art of writing tread closer upon the art of the pencil.
This is the school of study for literary landscape-painters." Cooper
himself, if contemporary reports are to be trusted, was at the time in
the habit of saying that the palm of merit in his writings lay between
this novel and "The Deerslayer." He certainly reckoned them the best of
the five stories which have the unity of a common interest by having the
same hero, and these five he put at the head of his performances. "If
anything from the pen of the writer of these romances," he said, toward
the close of his life, "is at all to outlive himself, it is
unquestionably the series of 'The Leather-Stocking Tales.' To say this
is not to predict a very lasting reputation for the series itself, but
simply to express the belief that it will outlast any or all of the
works from the same hand."

But at this time no work of his was treated fairly by the American
press. His name was rarely mentioned save in censure or derision. Both
"The Pathfinder" and "The Deerslayer" on their first appearance were
violently assailed. It is giving praise to a good deal of the
contemporary criticism passed upon them to call it merely feeble and
senseless. Much of it was marked by a malignity which fortunately was as
contemptible intellectually as it was morally. Still, neither this
hostile criticism nor Cooper's own personal unpopularity hindered the
success of the books. He says, to be sure, in the preface to the revised
edition of the Leather-Stocking tales which came out towards the end of
his life, that probably not one in ten of those who knew all about the
three earlier works of the series had any knowledge of the existence of
the two last. This assertion seems exaggerated. It certainly struck many
with surprise at the time it was made; for both "The Pathfinder" (p. 242)
and "The Deerslayer" had met with a large sale.

Between the publication of these two novels appeared, on the 24th of
November, 1840, "Mercedes of Castile." The subject of this was the first
voyage of Columbus. It had several very obvious defects. It was marred
by that prolixity of introduction which was a fault that ran through the
majority of Cooper's tales. The reader meets with as many
discouragements and rebuffs and turnings aside in getting under way as
did the great navigator the