THE AMERICAN XOVKJ,
come of age with a tale of the recent Kt'voiuttnn. I^vc of

.igular purity

is not large, but the action takes place so near to ^tcaf events
that the characters are all invoked with something of the
dusky light of heroes, while the figure of Washington, dis-
guised as Mr. Harper and yet always bowing Kt#mtica!iy
through his disguise, moves among the other personages like
a half-suspected god Such a qualify in the novel might have
gone with impossible partiality for the Ameiie.tns had not
Cooper's wife belonged to a family which had been loyalist
during the struggle for independence, A* it was. Cooper
made his loyalists not necessarily knaves ami fools. It is clear
the British arc enemies worth fighting* Perhaps by chance.
Cooper here hit upon a type of plot at which he excelled, a
struggle between contending forces, not badly matched,
arranged as a pursuit in which the pursued ;m% as a rule,
favored by author and reader, In the management of such a
device Cooper's invention, which was naturally great $md
now was thoroughly aroused, worked easily, ami the flights of
Birch from friend and foe alike exhibit n power to carry on
plots with sustained sweep which belongs to none but the
masters of narration. To rapid movement Cooper added the
virtue of a very real setting, lie knew Wc&tchcster, where his
scene was laid, the Neutral Ground of the Revolution, as
Scott knew his own border; the topography of The Spy is
drawn with a firm and accurate hand. In the character* Cooper
was not so successful-by strict canons of realism was not
successful at all* Cherishing an aristocratic and traditional con-
ception of women, he accepted for his narrative the romantic
ideals of the day, the ideals of Scott and Byron, Writing of
violent events in which ladies could play but a small part, he
cast his heroines into the straitest mold of helplessness and
propriety. With the less sheltered classes, such as were repre*