e many, and not for the
few; he hit the common mind between wind and water; a delicate and
fastidious literary appetite may not be attracted to his productions, but
the healthy taste of the natural man finds therein food alike convenient
and savory.

In a manly, courageous, somewhat impulsive nature like Cooper's we should
expect to find prejudices; and he was a man of strong prejudices. Among
others, was an antipathy to the people of New England. His characters,
male and female, are frequently Yankees, but they are almost invariably
caricatures; that is, they have all the unamiable characteristics and
unattractive traits which are bestowed upon the people of New England by
their ill-wishers. Had he ever lived among them, with his quick powers of
observation and essentially kindly judgment of men and life, he could not
have failed to correct his misapprehensions, and to perceive that he had
taken the reverse side of the tapestry for the face.

Cooper, with a very keen sense of injustice, conscious of inexhaustible
power, full of vehement impulses, and not largely endowed with that safe
quality called prudence, was a man likely to get involved in
controversies. It was his destiny, and he never could have avoided it, to
be in opposition to the dominant public sentiment around him. Had he been
born in Russia, he could hardly have escaped a visit to Siberia; had he
been born in Austria, he would have wasted some of his best years in
Spielberg. Under a despotic government he would have been a vehement
Republican; in a Catholic country he would have been the most
uncompromising of Protestants. He had full faith in the institutions of
his own country; and his large heart, hopeful temperament, and robust soul
made him a Democrat; but his democracy had not the least tinge of
radicalism. He believed that man had a right to govern himself, and that
he was capable of self-government; but government, the subordination of
impulse to law, he insisted upon as rigorously as the veriest monarchist
or aristocrat in Christendom. He would have no authority that was not
legitimate; but he would tolerate no resistance to legitimate authority.
All his sentiments, impulses, and instincts were those of a gentleman; and
vulgar manners, coarse habits, and want of respect for the rights of
others were highly offensive to him. When in Europe, he resolutely, and at
no little expense of time and trouble, defended America from unjust
imputations and i