Although By 1851 Tales Of Adventure Had

Yes, It's Hard To Write. But It's Harder Not To.

It Is Mere Coincidence That Cooper Was Born In The Year Which Produced The Power Of Sympathy And That When He Died Uncle Tom's Cabin Was Passing Through Its Serial Stage, And Yet The Limits Of His Life Mark Almost Exactly The First Great Period Of American Fiction.

The Race Of Man, While Sheep In Credulity, Are Wolves For Conformity.

Familiar Life, Tending To Sordidness, Had Been Succeeded By Remote Life, Generally Idealized; Historical Detail Had Been Brought In To Teach Readers Who Were Being Entertained.

The Two Most Common Charges Against The Older Fiction, That It Pleased Wickedly And That It Taught Nothing, Had Broken Down Before The Discovery, Except In Illiberal Sects, That The Novel Is Fitted Both For Honest Use And For Pleasure.