JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, the greatest artist in his own walk that 

 ever lived, was born in New Orleans on the 4th of May, 1780. The 

 family was of French origin. His father, who began his career as a 

 sailor, acquired considerable property in Saint Domingo, and held a 

 commission in the French navy. Like his son, he was handsome, with a 

 hardy constitution, great agility, and a restless spirit. He frequently visited 

 the North American Continent and purchased land not only in the French 

 colony of Louisiana, but in Virginia and Pennsylvania, in which latter State 

 he became the possessor of Mill Grove near Schuylkill Falls. The revolt of 

 the negroes in St. Domingo compelled the family to flee and take up their 

 residence on their Louisiana plantation, where the future naturalist first saw 

 the light ; and with that fertile land his earliest recollections were associated. 

 To quote his own words, written in 1831 : "I received light and life in the New 

 World. When I had hardly yet learned to walk, and to articulate those first 

 words always so endearing to parents, the productions of nature that lay 

 spread all around were constantly pointed out to me. They soon became 

 my playmates, and before my ideas were sufficiently formed to enable me to 

 estimate the difference between the azure tints of the sky and the emerald 

 hue of the bright foliage, I felt that an intimacy with them, not consisting of 

 friendship merely, but bordering on frenzy, must accompany my steps 

 through life ; and now, more than ever, am I persuaded of the power of those 

 early impressions. They laid such hold upon me that, when removed from 

 the woods, the prairies and the brooks, or shut up from the view of the wide 

 Atlantic, I experienced none of those pleasures most congenial to my mind. 

 None but aerial companions suited my fancy. No roof seemed so secure to 

 me as that formed of the dense foliage under which the feathered tribes were 

 seen to resort, or the caves and fissures of the mossy rocks to which the dark- 

 winged cormorant and the curlew retired to rest, or to protect themselves 

 from the fury of the tempest. My father generally accompanied my steps, 

 procured birds and flowers for me with great eagerness, pointed out the ele- 

 gant movements of the former, the beauty and softness of their plumage, the 

 manifestations of their pleasure or sense of danger, and the always perfect 

 forms and splendid attire of the latter. My valued preceptor would then 



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