134 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 



God that it was not my destiny to waste 

 and pine among those noisome congre- 

 gations of the city.' " 



Another visitor to Audubon during 

 his last days writes : "In my interview 

 with the naturalist, there were several 

 things that stamped themselves indelibly 

 on my mind. The wonderful simplicity 

 of the man was perhaps the most re- 

 markable. His enthusiasm for facts 

 made him unconscious of himself. To 

 make him happy you had only to give 

 him a new fact in natural history, or 

 introduce him to a rare bird. His self- 

 forgetfulness was very impressive. I 

 felt that I had found a man who asked 

 homage for God .and Nature, and not 

 for himself. 



"The unconscious greatness of the man 

 seemed only equalled by his child-like 

 tenderness. The sweet unity between his 

 wife and himself, as they turned over the 

 original drawings of his birds, and re- 

 called the circumstances of the drawings, 



