Such are the works so widely read, and so universally admired, in all
the zones of the globe, and by men of every kindred and every tongue;
works which have made of those who dwell in remote latitudes, wanderers
in our forests, and observers of our manners, and have inspired them
with an interest in our history. A gentleman who had returned from
Europe just before the death of Cooper, was asked what he found the
people of the Continent doing. "They all are reading Cooper," he
answered; "in the little kingdom of Holland, with its three millions of
inhabitants, I looked into four different translations of Cooper in the
language of the country." A traveller, who has seen much of the middle
classes of Italy, lately said to me, "I found that all they knew of
America, and that was not little, they had learned from Cooper's novels;
from him they had learned the story of American liberty, and through him
they had been introduced to our Washington; they had read his works till
the shores of the Hudson, and the valleys of Westchester, and the banks
of Otsego lake, had become to them familiar ground."
Over all the countries into whose speech this great man's works have
been rendered by the labors of their scholars, the sorrow of that loss
which we deplore is now diffusing itself. Here we lament the ornament of
our country, there they mourn the death of him who delighted the human
race. Even now, while I speak, the pulse of grief which is passing
through the nations has haply just reached some remote neighborhood; the
news of his death has been brought to some dwelling on the slopes of the
Andes, or amidst the snowy wastes of the North, and the dark-eyed damsel
of Chile, or the fair-haired maid of Norway, is sad to think that he
whose stories of heroism and true love have so often kept her for hours
from her pillow, lives no more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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