t
his crowning act of courage is introduced with the
statement that "he dared all _published_ opinion, and
in the very teeth of Cooper's supreme popularity
ventured upon saying" the remarks which have already
been referred to, and which are quoted in full by the
biographer, to whom is also to be given the credit of
the italicized word in the foregoing quotation. No
small share of the common belief in regard to
Cooper's character and career is based upon
assertions about as trustworthy as this.]

Full as marked and even more persistent were his attacks upon (p. 246)
New England. There was little specially characteristic of that portion
of the country with which he did not find fault. New England cooking of
the first class was inferior to that of the second class in the Middle
States. The New Yorker of humble life, not of Yankee descent, spoke the
language better than thousands of educated men in New England. This
dislike kept steadily increasing. As late as 1844, if he sent his heroes
to college at all, he sent them to Yale; after that year he transferred
them to Princeton. With all this there is constantly seen going on a
somewhat amusing struggle between his dislike and the thorough honesty
of his nature, which forced him to admit in the men of New England
certain characteristics of a high order. Their frugality, their
enterprise, their readiness of resource, he could not deny. Still, he
continued to imply that these qualities were used pretty generally for
selfish ends. In his later works, in consequence, his villains were very
apt to be New Englanders. They were not villains of a romantic type.
They were mean rather than vicious; crafty rather than bold; given to
degrading but at the same time cheap excesses. The first of these (p. 247)
these special representatives of the New England character is the
powerful but somewhat unpleasant creation of Ithuel Bolt in
"Wing-and-Wing," who finds a fitting sequel to a life passed largely in
committing acts of doubtful morality in becoming a deacon in a
Congregational church. After him follows a succession of personages who
represent nearly every conceivable shade of craft, meanness, and
dishonesty that is consistent with the respect of the Puritan community
about them, and with a high