RETURN TO AMERICA. 7 



induced him to appreciate these strange produc- 

 tions of antique taste. Such exercises were im- 

 mediately laid aside. By living, breathing 

 nature only was he arrested. To him she was 

 manifested in all her wisdom, and he was thus 

 furnished with a thousand infallible sources of 

 enlightenment. Creation he could unweariedly 

 study, and from perpetual contemplation ac- 

 quired a skill in his delineations which at length 

 brought him success beyond his most sanguine 

 expectations. 



With fresh energy and delight he returned 

 from France to the glorious woods of the New 

 World. Inspired by their atmosphere, he com- 

 menced again the studies of his early youth, 

 even with more enthusiasm than before his so- 

 journ in France ; which enabled him to complete 

 that marvellous collection of drawings perpetu- 

 ated in the "Birds of America." This work is 

 one of unequalled magnificence, and in the tints 

 of its gorgeous illustrations, as in illuminated 

 characters, the fame of its author remains in- 

 scribed. From this period his exertions were 

 unremittingly continued. Difficulty, toil, priva- 

 tion, and even danger, often attended his re- 

 searches, pursued as they were throughout the 

 entire extent of the American territory. Eude 

 swamps, dreary solitudes, wild barren regions — 

 these were of necessity the resorts of the natu- 



