e memory of the narrator. "This is literally," said
Myers, "my own story, logged by an old shipmate."

In 1842 Cooper had entered into an engagement to write regularly for
"Graham's Magazine." This periodical, which had been formed not long
before by the union of two others, had rapidly risen to high reputation,
and claimed a circulation of thirty thousand copies. In the first four
numbers of 1843 Cooper published the shortest of his stories. It was
entitled "The Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief." For some reason
not easy to explain, this has never been included in the regular (p. 249)
editions of his novels. In it he made in some measure another effort to
reproduce the social life of New York city. The previous failure was
repeated. An air of ridiculous unreality is given to this part of the
story in which the impossible talk of impossible people is paraded as a
genuine representation of what takes place in civilized society. The
autobiographical form which he had first adopted in this tale he
continued in the two series of "Afloat and Ashore." These appeared
respectively in June and in December, 1844. They are essentially one
novel, though the second part goes usually in this country under the
title of "Miles Wallingford," the name of its hero; and in Europe under
that of "Lucy Harding," the name of its heroine.

This work, the first part more particularly, is a delightful story of
adventure. As usual there are startling incidents, perilous situations,
and hairbreadth escapes enough to furnish sufficient materials for a
dozen ordinary fictions. Yet the probabilities are better preserved than
in many of Cooper's novels where the events are far fewer, as well as
far less striking. But it is interesting, not merely for the incidents
it contains, but for the revelation it makes of the man who wrote it.
Expressions of personal feeling and opinion turn up unexpectedly
everywhere, and make slight but constantly recurring eddies in the
stream of the story. Everything is to be found here which he had ever
discussed before. The inferiority of the bay of New York to that of
Naples; the miserable cooking and gross feeding of New England; the
absolute necessity of a liturgy in religious worship; the contempt he
felt for the misguided beings who presume to deny the existence of (p. 250)
bishops in the primitive church; his aversion to paper money; his
disdain for the shingle palaces of the Grecian temple school; his scorn