114 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
v 
We think it very natural, that glorious old “ Christopher,’ 
puzzled between the heartfelt and generous recognition, he 
hardly conceals, of the out-of-sight supremacy of Audubon, 
and some compunctious qualms of a yet farther expiation due 
to the shade of the neglected Wilson, should have split the 
difference, by making them “brothers.” 
Well, and brothers they are, by all those sacred bonds 
which link the tall fraternity of genius—brothers they are in 
all the higher virtues of manhood—brothers they are in the 
yet more intimate sense, that the same objects and the same 
field have been labored upon by each; but, that they are 
equals in the sense of Christopher’s “same stature,” we alto- 
gether deny. 
_ We should as well talk of elevating the knotted front of 
Gifford, of murderous Jeffery, or the sleek scalp of a modern 
Reviewer into that rare altitude—till “the crowns of their 
heads touch” —from which the broad brow of “ Maga throned” 
smiles serenely down upon her empire. 
’ They are not equal! By the same sign that Christopher, 
like another “bald” and “full-winged bird,” yet holds the 
empyrean alone,—Audubon, though “last, shall be first.” 
First—in that, though Wilson displayed the noblest ele- 
ments of greatness in the staunch, unconquerable vigor with 
which he met the difficulties in his path—Audubon exhibited 
quite as much “game,” and in the proportionable grandeur 
of his scheme, had full as many trials to surmount. 
First—in that, while the biographies of Wilson were full 
of natural spirit, of grace and power, greatly beyond all his 
predecessors, yet those of Audubon are far more minute and 
carefully detailed—introducing us, one after another, to a more 
intimate fellowship with each individual of the wide family 
of his love, through every piquant and distinctive trait of 
gesture, air, and movement, characterizing all the phases of 
their nature—without the faults of generalization, and too 
much credence in hear-say, or a gloomy and unphilosophie 
