MEMOIR OF JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 199* 



bon was distinguished. In fact, as a draughtsman of the feathered 

 tribes he never had an equal ; for his works in this department breathe 

 all the freshness, character, and vigour of Nature. His own account 

 of his first attempts and his progress in this way is interesting. 



Desirous to possess every one of the featliered creation, together 

 with her other productions, but desiring life with them, he turned U> 

 his father and made known to him this anxiety. His father brought 

 forward a book of illustrations ; and although what the young natural- 

 ist saw was not what he longed for, it infused into him a new life and 

 hope ; it suggested and created the ambition to copy Nature. To 

 Nature accordingly he went, and he strove to imitate her, as in the 

 days of his childhood he had at first tried to raise himself from the 

 ground and stand erect, before he possessed the strength necessary for 

 the success of such an undertaking. Nothing but disappointments 

 attended the efforts of his pencil for many years. His productions 

 were even worse than those which he regarded as imperfect in the 

 book given him by his father. He gave birth, to use his own words, 

 to a familyof cripples. Su maimed were mostof the figures, that theyre- 

 sembled the mangled bodies on a field of battle, compared with the in- 

 tegrity of living men. But still, such was the ardour and firmness of 

 his ingenuous spirit, that though irritated by disappointments and the 

 difficulties attending his efforts, he never for a moment relinquished 

 the desire of obtaining perfect representations of nature. The worse 

 his drav^'ings were, the more beautiful did the originals appear to hira, 

 and the more passionate his ambition to accomplish his object. His 

 time was entirely occupied in this way; hundreds of rude sketches 

 were annually produced by him, and for a long time, they made bon- 

 fires on the anniversaries of his birth-day. 



Audubon's conduct throughout his noviciate, so to express his 

 early progress as an ornithologist, and an artist, is worthy of univer- 

 sal imitation. He never desponded amid difficulties, but received 

 new impulses from every obstacle with which he was beset: and if 

 any reflecting and enlightened person at that period watched narrow- 

 ly his proceedings and feelings, it is imjwssible that they should not 

 have predicted most favourably of his future career. He possessed 

 all the genius and all the qualifications for a first-rate explorer of the 

 treasures and beauties of creation, and for expatiating upon these, to 

 he delight and improvement of mankind. We cannot suppose that 

 .lis father was not such such a considerate spectator, but webhallsoon 

 see that there were not many of his friends that possessed an encou- 

 raging taste or judgment on the subject. 



P.itiently, and with great industry, did the young ornithologist ap- 

 ply himself to his pencil. Many plans were successfully adopted to 

 forward his efforts ; many masters guided his hand. At the age of 

 seventeen, he retirrned from France, whither he had gone to receive 

 the rudiments of his education, and by this time his drawings had 

 assumed a form which, we may presume, though modestly alluded to 

 by himseif, approached near to perfection, when we learn that D.ivid, 

 the most celebrated historical painter of his day in France, had guided 

 his hand. The skill vvhich the youth had acquired in drawing the 

 " eyes and noses belonging to giants, and heads of horses represented 

 in ancient sculpture," as he describes the models which David gave 



