20 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Audubon's lifelong pursuits, any knowledge of orni- 

 thology, or any interest in natural science. Though ex- 

 pressing unbounded admiration for the naturalist, his 

 foibles and faults seem to have hidden from this biog- 

 rapher the true value of his distinguished services. In 

 respect to a knowledge of natural history it should be 

 added that Buchanan laid no claims, and of Audubon's 

 accomplishments in this field comparatively little was 

 said, the book, like the Adams' manuscript from which 

 it was drawn, being mainly composed of extracts from 

 the naturalist's private journals and "Episodes," as he 

 called his descriptive papers. It was here that Audubon 

 made the strongest appeal to this literary editor, who 

 concluded his preface with the following words of praise : 

 "Some of his reminiscences of adventure . . . seem to 

 me to be quite as good, in vividness of presentment and 

 careful colouring, as anything I have ever read." 



Buchanan dilated on Audubon's pride, vanity and 

 self-conceit, faults which may have belonged to his youth 

 but which were never mentioned by his intimate friends 

 and contemporaries except under conditions which re- 

 flected rather unfavorably upon themselves. Com- 

 plaints on this score w y ere spread broadcast by review- 

 ers of this work, seventeen years after the naturalist's 

 death and with the suddenness of a new discovery. They 

 were undoubtedly based on the unconscious and allow- 

 able egotisms of such personal records as Audubon 

 habitually made for the members of his family when 

 time and distance kept them asunder. Vanity and self- 

 ishness could have formed no essential parts of a char- 

 acter that merited the eulogy which follows : 



Audubon was a man of genius, with the courage of a lion 

 and the simplicity of a child. One scarcely knows which to 



