ry maze of the one and (p. 048)
tossed for week after week upon the billows of the other. Moreover, in
this particular case, while he satisfied his patriotic feeling in the
choice of the time, he displayed great judgment in the selection of
the hero. The pilot, though never named, we know to be the extraordinary
and daring adventurer, John Paul Jones, and the period is of course
the American Revolution. In his literary art, likewise, Cooper has never
been equaled by his imitators. Provided he could create the desired
effect, he dared to let the reader remain in ignorance of the details
he introduced. Enough of technicality was brought in to satisfy the
professional seaman, but not so much as to distract the attention of
the landsman from the main movement of the story. Contented with this
the author did not seek to explain to the latter what he could not
well understand without having served personally before the mast. From
this rule he never varied, save in the few cases where the interest of
the tale could be better served by imparting information than by
withholding it. He had a full artistic appreciation of the impressiveness
of the unknown. For, in stories of this kind, the vagueness of the
reader's knowledge adds to the effect upon his mind, because, while he
sees that mighty agencies are at work in perilous situations, his very
ignorance of their exact nature deepens the feeling of awe they are of
themselves calculated to produce. The wise reticence of Cooper in this
respect can be seen by contrasting it with the prodigality of information,
contained in more than one modern sea-novel, in which the whole action
of the story is arrested to explain a technical operation with the result
that the ordinary reader finds the explanation more unintelligible than
the technical operation itself.

Still, in spite of the excellence of the tales which had followed (p. 049)
it, "The Spy" continued with the majority of readers to be the most popular
of his works. This fact, coupled with his intense love of country, led
him to turn once more for a subject to his native land and to the period
in the description of which he had won his first fame. He formed, in
fact, a plan of writing a series of works of fiction, the scenes of
which should be laid in the various colonies that had shared in the
Revolutionary struggle. In pursuance of this scheme, his next work was
projected. In February, 1825, appeared "Lionel Lincoln, or the L