80 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
aralist, Charles Lucien Bonaparte; and, throug: 
that medium, to the Natural History Soviety 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, se 
