e things exactly as they are, which enables a
man to criticise his mother with the same impartiality with which he
does any other woman, can hardly be thought to mark a high development
of his loftier feelings, however creditable it may be to the judicial
tone of his mind. Undue preference of the scenery of one's own country
is an amiable weakness at which the philosopher may smile, but the
patriot can afford to rejoice.

There was, moreover, a certain vagueness about much of Cooper's
criticism that deprived it of effect. No more striking illustration of
this could be found than his constant charge of provincialism made
against this country. He repeated it in season and out of season. For
several years he hardly published a work which did not contain a number
of references to it or assertions of its existence. Provincial enough we
certainly were then, if looked at from the point of view of the present
time. We in turn may seem so to our descendants. This possibility shows
at once the somewhat unreal nature of the accusation. Provincialism,
like vulgarity, is a term that defies exact explanation. It is the
indefinite and, therefore, unanswerable charge that men constantly bring
against those whose standard of living and thinking is different from
their own. It depends upon the point of view of the speaker full (p. 165)
as much as upon the conduct and opinions of those spoken of. It
changes as manners change. Nations not only impute it to one another,
but even to themselves at different periods of their history. Made by
itself, therefore, it means nothing. Without a specific description of
what in particular is meant by provincialism, the charge cannot and
ought not to have any weight with those against whom it is directed.

Certain incidental facts mentioned in these observations bring also to
light another marked defect of Cooper's course. This was not in his
views but in his method of enforcing them. He could not refrain from the
constant repetition of the same censures. He had never learned literary
self-restraint; that special criticisms, in order to have their full
weight, must not be forced too often upon the attention, and especially
at unseasonable times. The mind revolts at having the same exhibition of
personal feeling thrust upon it in the most uncalled-for manner and in
the most unexpected places. Even when originally disposed to agree with
the view expressed, it will, out of a pure spirit of contradiction,