INTRODUCTION 7 



taint of perfidy, of cowardice, of cruelty, of ingrati- 

 tude, of envy." 



In this attempt to present a true and unbiased 

 estimate of Audubon in relation to his time, we have 

 the advantage of dealing with a well rounded and com- 

 pleted life, not with a broken or truncated one. He 

 impressed many of his contemporaries in both Europe 

 and America with the force of his contagious enthusi- 

 asm and prolific genius, and their opinions have been 

 recorded with remarkable generosity. On the other 

 hand, "if a life be delayed till interest and envy are at 

 an end," said an excellent authority, 1 "we may hope for 

 impartiality, but must expect little intelligence," because 

 the minute details of daily life are commonly so vola- 

 tile and evanescent as to "soon escape the memory, and 

 are rarely transmitted by tradition." Such details, 

 which often reveal character while they add color and 

 life to the narrative, have been amply supplied, as the 

 reader will find, by Audubon himself, not only in his 

 journals and private letters already published but in 

 the numerous documents of every sort that are now 

 brought to light. 



If "the true man is to be revealed, if we are to know 

 him as he was, and especially if we are to know the 

 influences that molded him and so profoundly affected 

 him for good or evil, we must begin at the beginning 

 and follow him through his struggles, his temptations, 

 his triumphs." It might be better to start "in the 

 cradle," or even forty years before he was born, for, 

 as modern biology teaches us, nature is stronger than 

 nurture and race counts for much. Certainly this man 

 can never be understood if removed from the environ- 

 ment which time and circumstance gave him; he needs 



1 Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 60. 



