f them never forgot. He
told his publisher that to him alone he should look for the only true
account of the reception of his book. "The critics," said he in
continuation, "may write as obscurely as they please, and look much
wiser than they are; the papers may puff and abuse as their (p. 044)
changeful humors dictate; but if you meet me with a smiling face I
shall at once know that all is essentially well."

Little notice, however, was taken at the time of Cooper's preference
of the public opinion which showed itself in buying his books, to that
which made it its chief aim to teach him how they ought to be written.
The country was too pleased with him and too proud of him to pay any
special attention to these momentary ebullitions of dissatisfaction.
On his part so great had now become his literary activity, that before
"The Pioneers" was published he had set to work upon a new novel, of a
kind of which he can justly be described as the creator, and in which
he was to be followed by a host of imitators.

At a dinner party in New York in 1822, at which Cooper was present,
the authorship of the Waverley Novels, still a matter of some
uncertainty, came up for discussion. In December of the preceding year
"The Pirate" had been published. The incidents in this story were
brought forward as a proof of the thorough familiarity with sea-life
of him, whoever he was, that had written it. Such familiarity Scott
had never had the opportunity to gain in the only way it could be
gained. It followed, therefore, that the tale was not of his composition.
Cooper, who had never doubted the authorship of these novels, did not
at all share in this view. The very reasons that made others feel
uncertain led him to be confident. To one like him whose early life
had been spent on top-gallant yards and in becketing royals, it was
perfectly clear that "The Pirate" was the work of a landsman and not
of a sailor. Not that he denied the accuracy of the descriptions so
far as they went. The point that he made was that with the same (p. 045)
materials far greater effects could and would have been produced,
had the author possessed that intimate familiarity with ocean-life
which can be his alone whose home for years has been upon the waves.
He could not convince his opponents by argument. He consequently
determined to convince them by writing a sea-story.

We who are familiar with the countless hosts of novels of this nature
that have swa