One of Cooper’s steadfast friends exclaimed of him:—­“What a love he cherished for superior talents in every ennobling pursuit in life!” This characteristic no doubt led him into that day life of Pierre Jean David d’Angers, whose brave soul had battled its way to artistic recognition.  In M. Henry Jouin’s “David d’Angers et ses Relations Litteraires,” Paris, 1890, appear two letter records of this master-sculptor as to Cooper.  In that of David to Victor Pavie, November, 1826, is:  “Next week I am to dine with Cooper; I shall make his bust.  If you have not yet read his works, read them, you will find the characters vigorously traced.”  A note adds that the sculptor kept his word, and this bust of Cooper appeared in the “Salon of 1827.”  Paris, March 30, 1828, David again writes of Cooper to Victor Pavie:—­“Dear friend, in speaking of the sea, I think of ‘The Red Rover’ of my good friend Cooper.  Have you read it?  It interests me much.”  A note adds:  “Without doubt the author had presented his new book to the sculptor,” who gave to Cooper this bust, modeled in 1826.  Mrs. Cooper thought the bust and the Jarvis portrait of her husband were “perfect likenesses.”  Later on David’s genius again found expression in a bronze medallion of his “good friend Cooper.”  David has given the striking intellectual of Cooper’s head of which an authority of that time wrote:  “Nature moulded it in majesty, yet denied it not the gentler graces that should ever adorn greatness.”

[Illustration:  JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]

[Illustration:  MRS. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]

[Illustration:  JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]

“In Paris Cooper’s style of living gave his ideas of the duties and position of an American gentleman.  In a part of the handsome Hotel de Jumieges he lived, keeping his carriage and service required by a modest establishment; and his doors were always open to every American who had claims on his society.  Meanwhile nothing was allowed to break in upon his literary duties, for which a part of each day was set aside.”  So wrote one who became a friend staunch and true at this time in Paris.  Of their meeting he wrote:  “I shall never forget the first day I saw Cooper.  He was at good old General Lafayette’s, in the little apartment of the rue d’Anjou,—­the scene of many hallowed memories.”  Lafayette’s kind heart had granted an interview to some Indians by whom a reckless white man was filling his purse in parading through Europe.  With winning smile the great, good man told these visitors to return to their home while yet they could.  Mr. G. continued:  “As I was gazing at this scene I saw a gentleman enter whose appearance called off the General’s attention.  He was in the prime of life (thirty-five), and of that vigor which air and manly exercise give.  I had seen the heads of great men, and there were some close to me, but none with such a full, expansive forehead, such strong features, a mouth firm without harshness, and an eye whose clear gray seemed to read