406 Audvbon. 



the mangled corpses on the field of battle, compared^ with the integrity of 

 living men. These difficulties and disappointments irritated me, but never 

 for a moment destroyed the desire of obtaining perfect representations of na- 

 ture. The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did I see the orio-i- 

 nals. To have been torn from the study would have been as death to me. 

 My time was entirely occupied with it I produced hundreds of these rude 

 sketches annually; and for a long time, at my request, they made bonfires on 

 the anniversaries of my birth-day." 



As the bent of such inclmations could not be mistaken, he was 

 sent to France, when very young, and applied himself with great 

 patience and industry to drawing. But at the age of seventeen, 

 when he returned to his native country, although he was familiar 

 with those rudiments of the higher branches of the art, heads 

 and noses of giants and horses ; and although the celebrated 

 David had guided his hand, he cast them all aside at the sight 

 of his native woods, and with great ardour commenced that un- 

 rivalled collection of drawings, " The Birds of America," which 

 Cuvier has pronounced " the most magnificent moniiine7it zchich has 

 hitherto heeji raised to orfiithology.'''' 



" In Pennsylvania, a beautiful state, almost central on the line of our At- 

 lantic shores, my father, in his desu-e of proving my friend through life, gave 

 me what Americans call a beautiful ' plantation,' refreshed during the summer 

 heats by the waters of the Schuylkill river, and traversed by a creek called 

 Perkioming. Its fine woodlands, its extensive fields, its hills crowned with 

 evergreens, offered many subjects to my pencil. It was there that I com- 

 menced my simple and agreeable studies, with as little concern about the 

 future as if the world liad been made for me. My rambles invariably com- 

 menced at break of day ; and to return wet with dew, and bearing a feathered 

 prize, was, and ever will be, the highest enjoyment for which I have been 

 fitted. 



" Yet think not, reader, that the enthusiasm which I felt for my favourite 

 pursuits was a barrier opposed to the admission of gentler sentiments. Na- 

 ture, which had turned my young mind towards the bird and the flower, soon 

 proved her influence upon my heart." 



He married ; passed twenty years of his life in vain commer- 

 cial attempts to become rich, " after the ways of men," and after 

 many unhappy struggles with the opinions of his friends, and ir- 

 ritated at the restraint they sought to impose upon his inclinations, 

 he broke away from them all, and gave himself up to his own 

 favourite pursuits. Unknown, without fortune, and in opposition 

 to the wishes of his friends, he abandoned every thing for nature ; 

 led by that irresistible passion, which, at a ripened age, and in 

 possession of those advantages which usually bind men to society. 



