New-York tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1841-1842, 1841-11-17

and when he came to give it local habitation
and mans" that controlling power was mani
fest.
But who Of Scots readers has not sometimes
regretted that he did not give US more Of the men
and manners Of the day If he had thought a.
much Of them a. OF baronal and other periods
and if having studied, he had attempted TO paint
them when his mind in lis vigor, he would
have succeeded rs we'll as in lyanhoe Ros Roy.
or the Crusaders. Fielding could only describe
the manners around INN, because he had only
thought OF them SCOTS Imagination had feu-
dal bias and consequently he painted that peri
cd best when, as he describes it
sThev laid down to rest,
Win the corslet laced
Pilowcd buckcr cold and hard
They carved at the meal
With gloves of steel
And drank the red wine through the helmet barr u
How delightful If Scott had given some Of the
scenes which he witnessed among the different
circles with whom he mingled In such scenes
he studied human nature, it is true but he APP
piled his knowledge in describing how men act
ed in other circumstances than those in which
he saw them net. for he well knew that The
truthtu portrature finds sympathy in every breast
He learned the whole history # the humas heart.
and then gave US volumes Of the olden time
because there his Imagination toasted He should
sometimes have shown US ourselves are.
Il seems to me that not only in our early history
Is there wide field for the novelist. but that in
our own times, there Is both wider and better.
! What great variety of characters III our country!
Men from all cmes of all opinions parties, sects.
The German, Frenchman, EnslishrAan. Russian.
the backwoodsman, the Yankee, and the South
erncr, are each and all often found in the bar
room Of country tavern To one who likes to
observe character. what enjoyment Why, as
Fals,ah would say, ait is play extemPore.
And then to quit II scene like this. pass few miles
from one of these towns, and be right into the vii
acrness for it seems wilderness to look round
on the deep woods and the wild praire, and see no
marks of civilization. but the road on which you
travel How the mind expands You look up,
and fancy some far-oif cloud, the Great Spirit
looking down on His primeyal world, in all the
freshness and beauty of its FIRST years. The imagl-
nation glows the feelings freshen, the affections
become intense. Rapidly then, the scenes OF our
bovhood rush upon u, our early manhood, our
hopes, our fears the lady of our love, the objects
OF our ambition. We see some brilliant bird that
we have started from its perch, dart of in the blue
ether and thus before US seems the world, all our
own. And then We enter the town, and behold the
vast varie.y of human beings among whom and with
whom we have TO struggle. Here, too we often
find wemen !oyeliest nnd most fascinating flower
in the wilderness, and beautiful both in bud ana
bloom And here are generous and free spirits,
who wear no disguise about them, whose feelings
spring up like the eagle from Its eyre, in natura:
fearlessness. The change is enjoyment: one hts
Us for the other. In solitude think over, exa-
NINE and analyzc what We see in the world; and
in the world, the reflections and resolutions Of soil
tude strike US like a parental admonition
That simplicity which Cooper has described so
well in the character of Misunderstanding, seems to
have been the characteristic of the early Pioneers
Ii has been my good luck TO meet with several OF
them. One, who is now country squire, and, OF
course, far advanced in years, with whom / be-
came acquasted in the interior of Ohio trequcn'ly
in conversation with me, dwclt upon the pecuiari-
tics of the Pioneers, lamenting with simplicity,
energy, and natural eloquence, which told that he
was one OF them, the falling oil, he called il,
of the present times.
"Why," said he TO me, If YOU will believe me,
there is not ono halt the confidence between man
and man that there used TO be, when was IN tho
Wilderness here, and used 10 travel 10 the different
stations. 1t was long tramp, tell YOU; butyou
might rely on the who went with you, 10 life
and to death Just you would on Your rite and
then you rested upon your rife, and looked round
upon the beauties OF the wdcrness-and the viii
derness is beautiful TO them tina, like it-and felt
that YOU were a man. WHY, | could do every
thing for myself in those days; needed no help
no how | tell YOU have snug farm, and may
be some things that you call comforts but shall
never be as happy as | was when | was here in
the wilderness with my doc and rifle, and nothing
else. No, shall never be as happy again. and
that ; fact. Mr.. -. our preacher breaches
good sermon. batirg . spice of Calvinlsm, that
somehow can't relish or believe natural bu, he
III.
such reliance sn Providence did when
reused up in the morning, and looked out on the
beauties of nature jus, as God made them. You
find fault with these roads know the travelling
5 bad | thought myself as | came to town;
and vet | used TO travel through the wilderness
when there was no road or town | sometimes
Eel, tired, it is true bu il was not the WEAKNESS
feel now No. no | never shall be as happy as
was in the wilderness, and that a fact"
believe have repeated the very words as they
fell from the lips of the fine old man, was much
amused with his opinion OF novels
"Why. ana told" he said, . that man viii
write two big books, ard not word of truth in
EN- from beginning TO end. Now amt that ab-mi
nable To tell lie. any how, IS great shame;
bur TO write, and then 10 print it, Is what | never
thought of How can you tell ii from truth, If
ne an ingenus man 1t looks just like truth
when It's printed. 1t destroys all confidence in
books. Judge Jones tells me that there was man
called Scott. who has written whole shelves OF
eu--what do you call EN- novels! He tells NE
that ne was pretty good s-rt of a man too, with
good deal OF the brisr abou, him. read one
OF them books once, that liked. | suppose. from
the name; they called it the Pioneers that. the
reason read it. think there must be some mis-
take YOU may depend upon it, that man Leather
stocking. never could have known SO much abou,
the wilderness, and the ways of Ingias. without be-
lag in il, and among en-
Whata fine compliment to the powers OF Coop
err The scenery was striking and as we passed
along our conversation turned. Of course upon il;