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Romances are numerous; his foreign ones are isolated efforts. He should have cultivated this vein, and worked out more of the material, and not abandoned the field at the first defeat. But it appears that he was laboring under the impression that his genius lay the other way; and, consequently, Mr. Cooper tired his public somewhat, by writing Backwood novels too pertinaciously.

He should also have been guided more by the experience of Sir Walter Scott than by his own Impulse, or what is worse, Self-will. For, while we admit that the genius of the British Novelist walks more steadily and naturally on the Heaths and Moors of Scotland, and lives evidently more at ease with the characters of his native land, he nevertheless excels every other writer of Romance in general subjects likewise; with the sole exception of the Supernatural, where Mrs. Radcliffe and Monk Lewis are unapproached. Scott is indisputably the most successful of the writers of fiction; but even he too frequently allows the facility with which he wrote dialogues in genuine Scotch to seduce him into tedious conversations, which weaken very materially the effect of his best scenes, by wearying the reader before the emphatic moment has arrived. It is very unartistic to jade the attention, as it destroys the keenness of appreciation when it is most required to heighten the effect of a denouement.

We have heard some critics lay this charge to the "three volume system," which, they maintain, compels them to adopt this superfluous writing to fill up the space; but we do not think this at all a valid reason. A careless or incompetent dramatist might charge the tediousness or irrelevant nature of

his writing upon the established custom of a Play having Five Acts. Every Romance and every Drama has a natural length, and the true artist never need write a superfluous word; symmetry is the truest beauty, and, like a circle, is complete in itself without any reference to size; so has a work of art, whether in poetry, philosophy, or science, a relative propriety individual to itself. The child is as perfect in its way as the Giant, and it would be absurd for either to deny to the other the possession of beauty, simply on account of difference of stature. The real dramatist will so apportion the incidents that the critical eye will at once recognise their affinity to each other, and the necessity for the existence of each, with as much logical readiness as the eye passes over the human frame, and at once detects a deficiency or superfluity of the limbs composing it.

Some authors seem to consider that if they have a great or striking catastrophe, any amount of feeble or discursive matter will be tolerated; but the absurdity of this is evident. What would be said of a sculptor, who, conscious of the workmanship of the face of his statue, considered the drapery, or the rest of the figure, unworthy of his elaboration! A very slight defect spoils the general effect, and the masses are more moved by the tout-ensemble than by the surprising finish of any individual part.

The coherency of a book is, in short, its life as well as its beauty. However finely worked out some parts of Mr. Cooper's "Bravo" may be, the improbability of the plot is too glaring to allow it a permanent existence. It opens well, the attention is aroused, and when we come to the death of the old

fisherman, we are fully convinced the romance is of first-rate pretensions; but it dwindles as it progresses into a mere improbability, which irritates the more in proportion to the force and beauty of the opening scenes. Still, in these attempts, even a failure is more glorious than the successful achievement of countless sketches, which have nothing to recommend them beyond the carefulness of their finish; it is a very safe and a very easy way to found a reputation upon the fidelity of minute description. What powers of mind are required to describe an elaborate duck, or a fat man getting into a coach, or the thousand and one other inanities in which some writers are considered so perfectly classical? What heart is roused by all this laborious trifling? Literature degenerates into a foible, and becomes a frivolous plaything, and not a great organ of instruction. No amount of personal exaggeration or flattery can ever elevate the most successful writer of this description into anything beyond

a fifth-rate writer.

Mr. Cooper's wilfulness, which is apparent only by implication in his works of fiction, is very palpably developed in his travels. Here he places himself before the public as his own caricaturist, and insists upon his own condemnation by his readers. Still, even in this adverse position, the independence of his nature comes out nobly, and his republican steadiness contrasts very strongly with the placid amenities of Mr. Irving. Born ourselves under monarchical institutions, our national and natural prejudices are disposed to a favorable reception of any praise a foreigner -more especially a republican-may feel inclined to bestow upon England; but we must admit, that the smiling benignity with which Mr. Irving surveys every evidence of aristocratical

power, gives us but a very poor opinion of either his sincerity or his republican feelings. He describes, with evident delight, the royal state of the English nobility; he has no eye to see the foundation of wrong and oppression on which that magnificent superstructure is reared. The baronial castles of the aristocracy of England have been reared by crimes and cruelties as revolting to humanity as the pyramid of Cheops, and we feel bound to add, that they are maintained in the same manner. We will not be so invidious as to go through Mr. Irving's writings, and collect in one spot all the fulsome flatteries on that exclusive class which he has so plentifully bestowed; we merely appeal to the reader's impression, and may state, as a confirmation of the truth of our remarks, that this very peculiarity has been converted by many into a merit, and claimed as an evidence of this distinguished author's freedom from national prejudice, and willingness to do justice to all. As we shall enter more minutely into this subject when we come to treat of Mr. Irving under his proper head, we drop it for the present, remarking that we have here incidentally mentioned it as a contrast to the tone of Mr. Cooper's mind; and while one party claims freedom from nationality as a merit, we merely plead in behalf of Mr. Cooper his republican tendencies, as a possible extenuation in the eyes of the Americans.

This individuality has pursued our author through his life, and impelled him to some unpopular steps-among others, to his prosecution of the Press. We allow that it is a grievous trial of patience to be abused in the papers and held up to public scorn or censure, but the real parties to blame are not so much the journalists as their readers.

It is the public who is to blame; and the man who attacks the

press might as well run his head against a wall, or spring from Niagara. The true wisdom is not to heed it; nothing prolongs the barking of a cur at your heels so much as turning round to kick it, or to drive it away. Walk on unmoved, the dog will not bite, and the friends who are influenced by the barking are best got rid of, and belong to that class which Carlyle pronounces "the sham respectability of the world, but the real and true blackguards." The "gigmanity" of society is more ludicrous than potential; great allowance should be made for the equivocal position of most of the prudes and censors of mankind. As weak wines make good vinegar, so do reformed wantons and quondam bankrupts become naturally the guardians of public morals, and the retailers of slander.

Mr. Cooper reaped the usual fruits of assaulting so manyheaded a monster as the Press; and it is said by those who know him best, that few things have done so much to sour his temper as this crusade. Cervantes must have had a similar adventure in his mind when he made Don Quixote attack the windmills. It has always appeared to us a capital illustration of a battle with the Newspapers.

While, however, we deprecate the commission of so great a folly as a legal prosecution, we think we have a perfect right to turn round and criticise the critics; singular enough, they seem to consider this as a wonderful impertinence, and to resent it with additional bitterness.

We do not, however, intend here to enter into an elaborate essay upon the Despotism of the Press; we merely intend to offer a passing remark, as to the evil tendencies of the unli

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