be questioned; but we need not feel any distrust of
his declaration, that little learning of any kind found its way into
his head. Least of all will he be inclined to doubt it whom extended
experience in the class-room has taught to view with profoundest
respect the infinite capability of the human mind to resist the
introduction of knowledge.

Far better than study, Cooper liked to take solitary walks about (p. 008)
the wooded hills surrounding New Haven, and the shores of the bay upon
which it lies. These nursed the fondness for outdoor life and scenery
which his early associations had inspired. In these communings with
nature, he was unconsciously storing his mind with impressions and
images, in the representation and delineation of which he was afterward
to attain surpassing excellence. But the study of scenery, however
desirable in itself, cannot easily be included in a college
curriculum. No proficiency in it can well compensate for failure in
studies of perhaps less intrinsic importance. The neglect of these
latter had no tendency to recommend him to the regard of those in
authority. Positive faults were in course of time added to negative. A
frolic in which he was engaged during his third year was attended by
consequences more serious than disfavor. It led to his dismissal. The
father took the boy's side, and the usual struggle followed between
the parents and those who, according to a pretty well worn-out
educational theory, stand to the student in place of parents. In this
particular case the latter triumphed, and Cooper left Yale. In spite
of his dismissal he retained pleasant recollections of some of his old
instructors; and with one of them, Professor Silliman, he kept up in
later years friendly personal relations and occasional correspondence.

It had been a misfortune for the future author to lose the severe if
somewhat wooden drill of his preparatory instructor. It was an
additional misfortune to lose the education, scanty and defective as
it then was, which was imparted by the college. It might not and
probably would not have contributed anything to Cooper's intellectual
development in the way of accuracy of thought or of statement. It (p. 009)
would not in all probability have added materially to his stock of
knowledge. But with all its inefficiency and inadequacy, it would very
certainly have had the effect of teaching him to aim far more than he
did at perfection of form. He possibly gained more