CHAPTER XXV 



In early life Audubon gave himself to the people of the 

 woods for the sake of his studies in bird-life and botany. 

 Abraham Lincoln once said, when asked how he came to 

 have such varied knowledge, " I am ready to learn of every 

 one who can teach me anything." If a man know one thing 

 better than another, he can well teach any one who does 

 not know that one thing. Audubon studied in his early 

 life among those who could best open to him the book of 

 the woods. 



His associations later in life were with the same class of 

 men, but there were new scientists and statesmen who had 

 discovered in themselves a love of nature, and so gravitated 

 toward him as a brother. Charles Bonaparte was one of 

 these; Cuvier and Humboldt were others. We have told 

 you of Wilson and of the Greek naturalist. 



Among the friends of his later years was — not Webster, 

 the statesman, as a statesman — Farmer Webster, of Marsh- 

 field. 



Strangely enough, Webster was a lover of birds and ani- 

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