It is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life; ’tis rather an embrio state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead: Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? – Benjamin Franklin, 22 February 1756

IT is mere coincidence that Cooper was born in the year which produced The Power of Sympathy and that when he died Uncle Toms Cabin was passing through its serial stage, and yet the limits of his life mark almost exactly the first great period of American fiction. – Carl Clinton Van Doren