, or
of adding somewhat in the way of improved taste and a more matured judgment, is
for others to decide.
    If anything from the pen of the writer of these romances is at all to
outlive himself, it is, unquestionably, the series of »The Leather-Stocking
Tales.« To say this, is not to predict a very lasting reputation for the series
itself, but simply to express the belief it will outlast any, or all, of the
works from the same hand.
    It is undeniable that the desultory manner in which »The Leather-Stocking
Tales« were written, has, in a measure, impaired their harmony, and otherwise
lessened their interest. This is proved by the fate of the two books last
published, though probably the two most worthy an enlightened and cultivated
reader's notice. If the facts could be ascertained, it is probable the result
would show that of all those (in America, in particular) who have read the three
first books of the series, not one in ten has a knowledge of the existence even
of the two last. Several causes have tended to produce this result. The long
interval of time between the appearance of »The Prairie« and that of »The
Pathfinder,« was itself a reason why the later books of the series should be
overlooked. There was no longer novelty to attract attention, and the interest
was materially impaired by the manner in which events were necessarily
anticipated, in laying the last of the series first before the world. With the
generation that is now coming on the stage this fault will be partially removed
by the edition contained in the present work, in which the several tales will be
arranged solely in reference to their connexion with each other.
    The author has often been asked if he had any original in his mind, for the
character of Leather-Stocking. In a physical sense, different individuals known
to the writer in early life, certainly presented themselves as models, through
his recollections; but in a moral sense this man of the forest is purely a
creation. The idea of delineating a character that possessed little of
civilization but its highest principles as they are exhibited in the uneducated,
and all of savage life that is not incompatible with these great rules of
conduct, is perhaps natural to the situation in which Natty was placed. He is
too proud of his origin to sink into the condition of the wild Indian, and too
much a man of the woods not to imbibe as much as was at all desirable, from his
friends and companions. In a moral point of view it was