140 Life of Audubon, 



have made in my life if I had begun painting in oil at hia 

 age and with his ability. It is a sad reflection that I 

 have been compelled to hammer and stammer as if I 

 were working in opposition to God's will, and so now am 

 .lothing but poor Audubon. I invited him to come to 

 my rooms daily, and to eat and drink with me, and give 

 me the pleasure of his company and the advantage of his 

 taste in painting. I told him of my ardent desire to im- 

 prove in the delightful art, and proposed to begin a new 

 picture, in which he should assist with his advice ; and 

 proposing to begin it to-morrow, I took down my port- 

 folio, to select a drawing to copy in oil. He had never 

 seen my works before, and appeared astonished as his 

 eyes ranged over the sheets. He expressed the warmest 

 admiration, and said, ' How hopeless must be the task of 

 my giving any instruction to one who can draw like this ? 

 I pointed out to him that nature is the great study for 

 the artist, and assured him that the reason why my works 

 pleased him was because they are all exact copies of the 

 works of God, who is the great Architect and perfect Ar- 

 tist ; and impressed on his mind this fact, that nature in- 

 differently copied is far superior to the best idealities. 



" March 3. For the last few days I have worked with 

 my brushes, while it has snowed and blown as if the devil 

 had cut the strings of the bags of ^olus, and turned all 

 its cold blasts down upon the mists of Scotland to freeze 

 them into snow. It is twenty years since I have seen 

 such a storm. Dined at Mr. Ritchie's, who is a well- 

 meaning man, and has a well-doing wife. The company 

 was mixed, and some of the ingredients were raw ; there 

 were learned and ignorant, wise and foolish, making up 

 the heterogeneous assembly. I enjoyed myself; but 

 there was an actor, named Vandenhoff, who performed 

 some theatrical pantomimes, which were disgusting to me. 

 I never saw such pranks in good society before : he tuck- 



