106 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERE. 
they cherished him—how could it be otherwise among a culti- 
vated people ?—for to such there is in genius a compelling 
sense that will bear through its purposes in their love. 
But it is not on his triumphal progress through Europe, 
that we prefer to accompany him. Nor is it of so much inte- 
rest to us to hear that such men as Cuvier and Humboldt— 
who alone were his peers—pronounced his work on Birds the 
most magnificent monument art had yet erected to ornitho- 
logy. The world has long ago taken charge of his fame. It 
is of the man, the Hunter-Naturalist, out in the wilderness 
highways and byways of the unreclaimed earth that we would 
know more intimately. It is rather the methods of the work- 
man that we would now see—for it is well enough known that 
never, in the annals of individual achievement, did unaided 
enthusiasm, through poverty and neglect, accomplish so much 
single-handed against such tremendous odds. 
The world, by the way, has been told many times of the im- 
mense pecuniary difficulties to be overcome by him from the 
commencement—but not yet, perhaps, in his own touching 
language, have they heard some of the effects of these struggles 
upon his temper and feelings. He says in the introduction 
to the third volume— 
Ten years have now elapsed since the first number of my 
Illustrations of the Birds of America made its appearance. 
At that period I calculated that the engravers would take 
sixteen years in accomplishing their task ; and this I announed 
in my prospectus, and talked of to my friends. Of the latter 
not a single individual seemed to have the least hope of my 
success, and several strongly advised me to abandon my plans, 
dispose of my drawings, and return to my country. I listened 
with attention to all that was urged on the subject, and often 
felt deeply depressed, for I was well aware of many of the 
difficulties to be surmounted, and perceived that no small 
sum of money would be required to defray the necessary 
expenses. Yet never did I seriously think of abandoning the 
