6 AUDUBON THE NATURALIS?. 
the artist strives to embody the idealism of h.a 
loving thought,—thus reproducing the beautiful 
objects of the material world mirrored by his 
imagination. 
To appease this desire the father of Audubon 
presented him with a book of ornithological il- 
lustrations. Received with avidity, it only in- 
creased the desire to produce a work of the same 
character; but the sorest mortification attended 
this effort. His production, Audubon, tells us, 
had no more resemblance to nature than mangled 
remains on the battle-field to the forms of living 
men. But with the unwearied assiduity of true 
genius, he persevered in these attempts. “To 
have been torn from the study,” he says, “ would 
have been as death to him.” Hundreds of such 
sketches were by his request the materials for 
bonfires on the anniversaries of his birth—seem- 
ingly the sacrificial offerings of his young fancy 
at the altar of that artistic truth he would so 
zealously and devoutly serve. Patiently he 
continued in his endeavours; various plans of 
study were successively adopted and as surely 
abandoned. Early in life he was taken to 
France for the purpose of education. There he 
had David for his master, who gave him as mo- 
dels gigantic human features and colossal animal 
representations, the curious mythological devices 
of some ancient sculpture. But no classical biag 
