old man is enough to redeem the rest, and is perhaps the relic of a
better day, a Phocion among the Pawnees.

Schoolcraft's Algic Researches is a valuable book, though a worse use
could hardly have been made of such fine material. Had the mythological
or hunting stones of the Indians been written down exactly as they were
received from the lips of the narrators, the collection could not have
been surpassed in interest, both for the wild charm they carry with
them, and the light they throw on a peculiar modification of life and
mind. As it is, though the incidents have an air of originality and
pertinence to the occasion, that gives us confidence that they have not
been altered, the phraseology in which they were expressed has been
entirely set aside, and the flimsy graces, common to the style of
annuals and souvenirs, substituted for the Spartan brevity and sinewy
grasp of Indian speech. We can just guess what might have been there, as
we can detect the fine proportions of the Brave whom the bad taste of
some white patron has arranged in frock-coat, hat, and pantaloons.

The few stories Mrs. Jameson wrote out, though to these also a
sentimental air has been given, offend much less in that way than is
common in this book. What would we give for a completely faithful
version of some among them. Yet with all these drawbacks we cannot doubt
from internal evidence that they truly ascribe to the Indian a delicacy
of sentiment and of fancy that justifies Cooper in such inventions as
his Uncas. It is a white man's view of a savage hero, who would be far
finer in his natural proportions; still, through a masquerade figure, it
implies the truth.

Irving's books I also read, some for the first, some for the second
time, with increased interest, now that I was to meet such people as he