ity of his temperament, the pugnacity of his nature, the
illiberality and injustice of many of his opinions, the unreasonableness
as well as the imprudence of the course he often pursued. To his friends
and admirers these points will seem to have been insisted upon too
strongly. Their feelings may, to a certain extent, be just. Cooper is,
indeed, a striking instance of how much more a man loses in the
estimation of the world by the exhibition of foibles, than he will by
that of vices. In this work one side of the life he lived--the side he
presented to the public--is the only one that, owing to circumstances,
could be depicted. It does not present the most attractive features of
his character. That exclusiveness of temperament which made him
misjudged by the many, endeared him only the more to the few who were in
a position to see how different he was from what he seemed. In nothing
is the essential sweetness of Cooper's nature more clearly shown than in
the intense affection he inspired in the immediate circle which
surrounded him or that was dependent upon him. He could not fail to feel
keenly at times how utterly his character and motives were
misapprehended and belied. "As for myself," says the hero of "Miles
Wallingford," "I can safely say that in scarce a circumstance of my
life, that has brought me the least under the cognizance of the public,
have I ever been judged justly. In various instances have I been praised
for acts that were either totally without any merit, or at least the
particular merit imputed to them; while I have been even (p. 286)
persecuted for deeds that deserved praise."

His faults, in fact, were faults of temper rather than of character.
Like the defects of his writings, too, they lay upon the surface, and
were seen and read of all men. But granting everything that can be urged
against him, impartial consideration must award him an ample excess of
the higher virtues. His failings were the failings of a man who
possessed in the fullest measure vigor of mind, intensity of conviction,
and capability of passion. Disagree with him one could hardly help; one
could never fail to respect him. Many of the common charges against him
are due to pure ignorance. Of these, perhaps, the most common and the
most absolutely baseless is the one which imputes to him excessive
literary vanity. Pride, even up to the point of arrogance, he had; but
even this was only in a small degree connected with his