114 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



We think it very natural, that glorious old " Christopher," 

 puzzled between the heartfelt and generous recognition, he 

 hardly conceals, of the out-of-sight supremacy of Audubon, 

 and some compunctious qualms of a yet farther expiation due 

 to the shade of the neglected Wilson, should have split the 

 difference, by making them "brothers." 



Well, and brothers they are, by all those sacred bonds 

 which link the tall fraternity of genius — brothers they are in 

 all the higher virtues of manhood — brothers they are in the 

 yet more intimate sense, that the same objects and the same 

 field have been labored upon by each; but, that they are 

 equals in the sense of Christopher's " same stature," we alto- 

 gether deny. 



We should as well talk of elevating the knotted front of 

 Gifford, of murderous Jeffery, or the sleek scalp of a modern 

 Reviewer into that rare altitude — till " the crowns of their 

 heads touch" — from which the broad brow of " Maga throned" 

 smiles serenely down upon her empire. 



They are not equal ! By the same sign that Christopher, 

 like another "bald" and "full- winged bird," yet holds the 

 empyrean alone, — Audubon, though "last, shall be first." 



First — in that, though Wilson displayed the noblest ele- 

 ments of greatness in the staunch, unconquerable vigor with 

 which he met the difficulties in his path — Audubon exhibited 

 quite as much "game," and in the proportionable grandeur 

 of his scheme, had full as many trials to surmount. 



First — in that, while the biographies of Wilson were full 

 of natural spirit, of grace and power, greatly beyond all his 

 predecessors, yet those of Audubon are far more minute and 

 carefully detailed — introducing us, one after another, to a more 

 intimate fellowship with each individual of the wide family 

 of his love, through every piquant and distinctive trait of 

 gesture, air, and movement, characterizing all the phases of 

 their nature — without the faults of generahzation, and too 

 much credence in hear-say, or a gloomy and unphilosophic 



