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CHAPTER XT. 



WITH tlie publication of the fiftli and last 

 volume of Ornithological Biographies, 

 during the year 1839, Audubon had the hap- 

 piness to witness the completion of his long pur- 

 sued and dearly cherished plan. It was the 

 achievement of no ordinary ambition — the grati- 

 fication of impatience at the consummation of 

 some light essay. In it, he beheld as it were, the 

 fulfilment of his destiny — the realization of con- 

 stant effort and aspiration — the result of the 

 trials of a life-time, the fruits of an entire dedi- 

 cation of all the faculties of existence to one 

 great and honoured end. The advancement of 

 science was his vocation, and in that vocation he 

 nobly served as the worshipper of his Creator 

 and the benefactor of his kind, which he was, 

 intellectually and morally. For to comparatively 

 few, even to those rarely gifted, is it given to 

 follow from the days of infancy, with single- 

 hearted desire, one great object — that object 

 demanding, moreover, the entire surrender of 

 every other for its attainment. Yet to Audubon 



