70 AUDUBON, THE IS^ATUKALIST 



be a member, and read them with a sensation of pleasure that 

 nothing but a full persuasion of their truth could bestow. 



Those persons in Philadelphia that have felt a desire to 

 contradict my assertions cannot, without lowering themselves 

 very much indeed affect to conceive that the members of the 

 Wernerian Society would have listened to my "say so," without 

 investigating the subject, even if they had not been well versed 

 in the habits of the objects I treated of. Neither can they 

 believe that all my acquaintance and particular friends would 

 permit me to proceed in relating Tales of Wonder, which if 

 untrue, would load me with disgrace, ruin my family, nay, 

 prove me devoid of all honor! Could I suffer myself to be so 

 blinded at the very moment when I am engaged in the publica- 

 tion of a work of unparalled magnitude, of which the greatest 

 naturalists and best judges both in America and in Europe have 

 given the fullest praise and firmest support, & from which my 

 very means of pecuniary comfort are to be drawn? It would 

 certainly be highly unfair to conceive & assert that at the time 

 whilst I was portraying individuals, animal and vegetable, I 

 should have rambled so wide and so far from facts in a portion 

 of science so intimately connected with & necessary to the sup- 

 port of those delineations, as well as to the general standing of 

 my reputation ! Mere interest would suggest a very con- 

 trary line of conduct, and I hope I am not so devoid of common 

 sense as to lose sight of all that can render life desirable in 

 this world or the world hereafter. 



No, my dear Mr. Sully, I have written with care what I 

 have seen, and have felt a great desire to spread the knowledge 

 I have obtained in the great field of Science for the benefit of 

 the world at large, and I rest content with this motto : "Le 

 temps decouvrira la verite." To whom then, my dear Mr. 

 Sully, can I ascribe the birth of the animadversions expressed 

 in the papers of Philadelphia ! Is their author one [who] 

 comes avowedly forward with a life spent in the woods, loaded 

 with facts differing in every respect from mine, one who like 

 me can bring forth vouchers, and who can by respectable wit- 

 nesses support what he says? Or, is he one, who, writing at 



