80 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



iiralist, Charles Lucien Bonaparte ; and, through 

 that medium, to the Natural History Society of 

 Philadelphia. Lucien Bonaparte he seems ever 

 to have affectionately regarded as his earliest 

 patron. Through him he first conceived the 

 idea of his great work, and was incited to arrange 

 his drawings, already classified into three distinct 

 departments, in a form suitable for publication. 

 The suggestion was long a mingled source of 

 delight and torment to Audubon. Sometimes 

 happily absorbed in the most pleasing dreams, 

 he fancied his work already multiplying under 

 the hands of the engraver. Sometimes he spec- 

 ulated as to the possibility of his visiting Eu- 

 rope again, to ensure that end. At another, 

 glancing over the catalogue of his collection, all 

 the difficulty of the magnificent scheme presented 

 itself. Only the more impossible it seemed from 

 the grandeur of the design, and from the in- 

 tensity of his desire to accomplish it. Then 

 gloomy and depressed, he asked himself how 

 could he, unknown and unassisted, hope to ac- 

 complish it ? This was the critical moment of 

 his career. As yet, his partial achievements, 

 though full of promise, met with but little of 

 the patronage so abundantly awarded to more 

 matured success, which, itself a sufficient stim- 

 ulus, needs not the encouragement. The tempt- 

 ation was, should he abandon his pursuits, so 



