ctually inspired, the attitude and tone the
author assumed would have prevented his making a convert. To some extent
this had been true of "Homeward Bound." Greenough expostulated with
Cooper, after reading that novel. "I think," he wrote from (p. 156)
Florence, "you lose hold on the American public by rubbing down their
shins with brickbats as you do." The most surprising thing connected
with "Home as Found," however, is Cooper's unconsciousness, not of the
probability, but of the possibility, that he would be charged with
drawing himself in the character of Edward Effingham, and to some extent
in that of John Effingham. The sentiments advanced were his sentiments,
the acts described were in many cases his acts. The absence in a foreign
land, the return to America, the scene laid at Templeton, with a direct
reference to "The Pioneers," the account of the controversy about the
Three Mile Point,--all these fixed definitely the man and the place.
Variations in matters of detail would not disturb the truth of the
general resemblance. Still Cooper not only did not intend to represent
himself, he was unaware that he had done so. Nearly three years after in
the columns of a weekly newspaper he stoutly defended himself against
the imputation. It was useless. From this time forward the name of
Effingham was often derisively applied to him in the controversies in
which he was engaged.

It was not merely the intemperate spirit exhibited, which destroyed the
effect of the shrewd and just comments often appearing in "Home as
Found." This was full as much impaired by the display of personal
weaknesses. Cooper's foible about descent he could not help exposing. No
thoughtful man denies the desirability of honorable lineage, or
undervalues the possession of it; but not for the reasons for which the
novelist regarded it and celebrated it. There was much in this single
story to justify Lowell's sarcasm, uttered ten years later, that (p. 157)
Cooper had written six volumes to prove that he was as good as a
lord. He traces his families up to remote periods in the past. He
thereby shows their superiority to the newly-created family of the
English baronet who is brought into the tale. It was to correct the
erroneous impression, prevalent in Europe, that there was no stability,
no permanent respectability in the society of this country, that he
enlarged upon the date to which ancestry could be traced. The difficulty
was to persuade