TO EUROPE AND SUCCESS 361 



cieties of the modern Athens elected Audubon to honor- 

 ary membership ; Combe, the phrenologist and author of 

 The Constitution of Man, examined the naturalist's head 

 and modeled it in plaster, for of course it proved to be a 

 perfect exemplification of his system ; Syme, the artist, 

 did his portrait for Lizars to engrave. Meanwhile the 

 press was giving such flattering accounts of the man 

 and his work that Audubon confessed that he was quite 

 ashamed to walk the street. At the annual banquet of 

 the Royal Institution, held at the Waterloo Hotel and 

 presided over by Lord Elgin, Audubon was toasted, 

 and it required all his resolution to rise and, for the 

 first time in his life, address a large assembly ; this, how- 

 ever, he managed to do in the following words: "Gen- 

 tlemen ; my command of words in which to reply to your 

 kindness is almost as limited as that of the birds hanging 

 on the walls of your Institution. I am truly obliged for 

 your favors. Permit me to say; may God bless you 

 all, and may this society prosper." On the 10th of De- 

 cember he wrote: "My situation in Edinburgh borders 

 on the miraculous," and he felt that his reception in that 

 city was a good augury for the future. But the life 

 that he was compelled to lead was extremely fatiguing, 

 and he often longed to return to his family and to his 

 favorite magnolia woods in Louisiana. "I go to dine," 

 he wrote, "at six, seven, or even eight o'clock in the eve- 

 ning, and it is often one or two when the party breaks 

 up; then painting all day, with my correspondence, 

 which increases daily, makes my head feel like an im- 

 mense hornet's nest, and my body wearied beyond all 

 calculation; yet it has to be done; those who have my 

 best interests at heart tell me I must not refuse a single 

 invitation." But notwithstanding the tax which society 

 always levies upon the lion's strength, he wrote almost 



