8 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



the historical background, furnished in part by his con- 

 temporaries, some of whom were rivals with whom he 

 had often to struggle to make his way. In recounting 

 this history, in many cases hitherto unwritten, we must 

 recognize the proverbial difficulty of tracing human 

 motives to their proper source, and endeavor to form 

 no harsh judgments without ample basis in docu- 

 mentary or other evidence. 



No more ardent and loyal American than John 

 James Audubon ever lived. His adopted country, 

 which he would fain have believed to have been that 

 of his actual birth, was ever his chief passion and pride, 

 and for him the only abode of sweet content. Few 

 have seen more of it, of its diversified races, climates 

 and coasts, its grand mountains, its noble lakes and 

 rivers, its virgin forests and interminable prairies, with 

 all the marvelous stores of animal and plant life which 

 were first truly revealed to the pioneer woodsman, 

 artist and naturalist. None has been more eager to 

 hand down to posterity, ere it be too late, a true tran- 

 script of its wild and untameable nature while, as he 

 would say, still fresh from the Creator's own hand. 

 Audubon's beneficent influence during his long en- 

 forced residence abroad, as a representative of Ameri- 

 can energy and capacity, can hardly be measured, while 

 in his own land few were more potent in bringing the 

 nation to a consciousness of its unique individuality and 

 power. 



Audubon, as has been said, saw nature vividly col- 

 ored by his own enthusiasm, and he never looked at 

 her "through the spectacles of books." His writings, 

 however unpolished or written with whatever degree 

 of speed, have the peculiar quality of awakening en- 

 thusiasm in the reader, who, like the youth poring over 



