above-comparison, causality, and gaiety-are equally remarkable. His eyes, which are deeply set, have a wild, stormy, and restless expression, as if they scorned sleep, and were perpetually in search of something. A female friend describes them as the most vigilant eyes ever encountered-yet their flashing is not continual, but softens, at times, into milder and gentler feeling. But it is his mouth that has the strongest pretensions to singularity of character. An inflexible firmness forms its expression when silent, but when he speaks, it seems as though he held all the passions and feelings of the heart under his command, and could summon them to his lip at pleasure. It is then that he rivets the attention more than any living writer-not excepting Wordsworth. David, the French sculptor, in his fine bust of the novelist, has given this character admirably. His head altogether is strikingly intellectual; its severity is relieved by simplicity. Nature moulded it in majesty, yet denied it not the gentler graces that should ever adorn greatness.

His manners are a pleasant mixture of the mariner and the gentleman. The austerity, observable in them at first, wears off after a few minutes, and you feel that you are conversing with a man who has seen and understands the world, and who listens with calmness, almost with indifference, to its good and evil report. Years have brought to him the philosophic mind.' He is an American, even in our English sense of the term; the amor patriæ is in him a passion that never subsides; he is devotedly attached to his country, to its institutions, and (as is apparent from his works) to its rugged but magnificent scenery. His republicanism he does not attempt to conceal; he conceives that Kings are very expensive superfluities, and that a lord is a luxury which no sensible government ought to sanction. However repugnant these views may be to us, we must at least allow him to be a candid and unselfish reasoner. He has preferred the loss of popularity in certain circles of English society to disguising his principles, and his indifference to men's opinions has added to the sacrifice. It is not very easy to say whether this indifference arises from a consciousness of his own value, or a rational notion of equality--but it may at least be regarded as sincere. Of some of his reviewers, as we gather from one or two of his prefaces, he holds no very elevated opinion; though in a recent conversation, he professed himself entirely ignorant of what the English critics had said of his works-delicately accounting for it, by intimating, that his wandering life had afforded him but few opportunities of ascertaining their opinions. If he is neglectful, however, of these criticisms, he is, also, neglectful of the subjects of them; for he declares, that he never once looked into any of his works after they had been printed. He casts them upon the world, and from that moment they are sealed books to him.

The family of Mr. Cooper was originally from Buckingham in England, settled in America in 1679, and about a century afterwards became established in the State of New York. He was born at Burling ton, on the Delaware, in 1789, and was removed at an early age to Cooper's Town-a place, of which he has given an interesting account

in The Pioneers.' At thirteen, he was admitted to Yale College, New Haven, and three years afterwards went to sea-an event that gave a character and a color to his after-life, and produced impressions, of which the world has already reaped the rich result. On his marriage with a daughter of John Peter De Lancey, of West Chester County, New York, he quitted the navy, and devoted himself to composition. Mr. Cooper's first work was published in 1821, and every year since that period has brought its new novel. He has already printed and become popular in many cities-in London, Paris, Florence, and Dresden. In 1826, his health having suffered considerably from a fever that attacked him two years before, he was induced to visit Europe; this has restored him, and he now thinks of returning to a home which his heart has never abandoned. We had omitted to mention, that Mr. Cooper was appointed, chiefly to protect his papers, to the Consulship at Lyons-a nominal post, which he resigned about three years ago.

In Paris, where Mr. Cooper at present resides, no man is more sought after, and few so much respected. Under the old regime it might have been different. The whisperings of prejudice, jealousy, and national dislike, that were occasionally audible here, do not reach him there. He appears to be perfectly at his ease-sensible of the estimation, but not over-estimation, in which he is held by all sects and parties. Yet, he seems to claim little consideration on the score of intellectual greatness; he is evidently prouder of his birth than of his genius; and looks, speaks, and walks, as if he exulted more in being recognised as an American citizen, than as the author of The Pilot' and the 'Prairie.'

* We may avail ourselves of this opportunity to state, that Coopers novels will become known in England even more extensively than they have been. They are now publishing by Messrs. Colburn and Bentley-each work in one small and cheap, but clear and beautiful printed volume-and form parts of a series of Standard Novels,' that will, in time, contain all the best productions from those of Smollet and Fielding, to those of our own day-the most valuable of which it is intended to include,

My father was what is called an eminent attorney; for I believe that is the highest title to which the gentlemen who practise this branch of jurisprudence can arrive, since we never hear of an illustrious or a distinguished attorney. However, if not distinguished in one way, my father was so in another; for he had seven daughters, and I was the eighth son, or fifteenth child. When I was about sixteen years of age, and half educated, with little Latin and less Greck, my father said it was high time that I should do something to obtain a living; and accordingly he prevailed on his friend Mr. Grubbins, a medical practitioner, likewise eminent, in a neighboring village on the banks of the Severn, to take me as his lawful and dutiful apprentice, to learn the art and craft of an apothecary, for the term of seven long years. I ought rather to say, the art; for the craft could hardly be acquired in a life-time. I need not relate the extent of my suffering during this period; for the fee my father paid being less than that generally given, I had to pay in

person, and to perform pretty nearly the work of two apprentices. I will not tell the number of paupers I poisoned, before I learnt the art of compounding medicine. I will not say a word of mangling arms before I acquired the art of phlebotomy; neither will I confess to the number of teeth I drew by mistake, before an extensive practice taught me the art of fixing the instrument. These all belong to the secret of my profession, and must on no account be divulged. How I made love to my master's niece, when on a visit, and nearly got kicked out of the house, is not so much of a mystery; but how I repaid the relation would tire my friends; therefore I shall pass on to the grand feature of that perilous servitude-my apprenticeship.

There are few apothecaries' apprentices, I believe, who do not think more of the art of making love, than that of making physic. I recollect the name of one of my fair enchanters, which I had for some time vainly endeavored to twist into a sonnet, so haunted me, that I wrote it by mistake on some half dozen packets of draughts, embrocations, and pills, which the boy of course conveyed to the house, and the poor girl narrowly escaped with her life. Love was the regular business of my life— not a pretty pair of eyes for miles round, that I had not eulogised in verse; and rosy cheeks, and flowing tresses, were endless subjects for my muse but a climax was about to arrive to my tender aspirations, as well as to the term of my apprenticeship, which, as forming the principal event in this epoch of my existence, I cannot do better than

recount.

There came to reside, close to our village, a German gentleman of large fortune, with an only daughter, who appeared to be a very amiable girl. She was very pretty; therefore it is needless to say that she became the object of my warmest adoration. My master, Mr. Grubbins, was the ordinary medical attendant in the family; and when he was not in the way, I occasionally visited in his place. We received one day an urgent message, to go instantly to Mr. Von Tromp's as Miss Von Tromp had fallen from her horse. Mr. G. was, luckily for me, tied by the leg with another case. Away I started, pleased with having an opportunity of coming into more immediate intercourse with the family. The first person I met was Mr. Von Tromp himself, in his morninggown, smoking his pipe. He addressed me in his usual dry manner. Vel, sar, you make speed for to take de bloode from my daughter.' I found the young lady a good deal alarmed, and suffering also from a severe sprain of the ancle. I saw that there was no necessity for bleeding, but advised leeches to the sprained joint. Mr. Von Tromp flew into a German passion; swore I was not well acquainted with my profession; and that any man who knew anything of his profession, always took blood. He then left the room, but soon returned with an instrument that is used in Germany for bleeding, which acts by means of a spring; an instrument now only used among farriers. I could not keep my countenance when he handed to me this barbarous implement, in order to procure blood from the delicate arm of a female. Vat you laugh for?' he exclaimed, and looked very angry. During the absence

of Mr. Von Tromp, I had explained to the young lady, that it was quite unnecessary to bleed her; and by a little patience, we gained the victory. After remaining an hour or two, to see the effect of the leeches, I returned home, not a little pleased at the opportunity I had enjoyed, of seeing so much of the young lady; and in the evening I visited her again, to see what effect a cold lotion had produced. Mr. Von Tromp was in a better humor, and I made myself as agreeable as I could paying particular attention to my patient. I made the most I could of the sprained ancle, and called upon my patient quite as often as was necessary, to see how she went on. She appeared pleased by my great attention to the case; and even old Von Tromp himself said I had, after all, done very well; and as a proof of his sincerity in this opinion, he presented me with an old German tobacco pipe, which I received with apparent gratitude.

All the world knows that ladies have a quick eye in detecting any partiality towards themselves; and I soon perceived that I had made an impression in the proper quarter. But I was most anxious that others should not see it; and was therefore obliged to be most circumspect; for old Von Tromp was quite a devil when he became passionate, and on several occasions he had some kind of fits after these violent passions. He used to become rigid and blue in the face; and then an old German butler, who had lived with him for years, was accustomed to rub him with brandy, and put salt into his mouth; and I believe he used to swear at him in German. I was sadly afraid that my attachment to Miss Von Tromp might be betrayed; and I well knew that there would then soon be an end to the affair. My hopes would assuredly be crushed, if the fact should ever reach the ears of the old German.

I had the pleasure of overtaking Miss Von Tromp one day, riding out on her little poney, when, to my infinite delight, I discovered that I was right in my conjectures with regard to my predilection. After much interesting conversation, it was agreed that Miss Von Tromp should visit and relieve the poor of the village, among whom my business principally lay. I was to send her a list of those poor persons who were ill and in distress, and I advised her to visit them after breakfast.

There was one thing I never liked during my apprenticeship. As soon as I was about eighteen years of age, my master always appointed me his deputy at funerals; and in the country it is the custom to make the medical man head the procession. Often and often have I, to my great annoyance, had to walk with solemn step, and rueful face, before the melancholy pageant, and to brave the sarcastic remarks of the village wags. Sometimes a most expressive look from some friend, and a whisper loud enough to be heard, 'Aye, aye, you are taking home your work, would be darted at me from some corner. Besides, on these occasions, I used occasionally to meet Miss Von Tromp ; and the situation by no means told to my advantage.

My attention to this young lady now began to be observed by several persons in the village, and, indeed, her partiality to me had not escaped observation, insomuch that I was now and then joked on the subject.