INTRODUCTION 7 
taint of perfidy, of cowardice, of cruelty, of ingrati- 
tude, of envy.” 
In this attempt to present a true and unbiased 
estimate of Audubon in relation to his time, we have 
the advantage of dealing with a well rounded and com- 
pleted life, not with a broken or truncated one. He 
impressed many of his contemporaries in both Europe 
and America with the force of his contagious enthusi- 
asm and prolific genius, and their opinions have been 
recorded with remarkable generosity. On the other 
hand, “if a life be delayed till interest and envy are at 
an end,” said an excellent authority,’ “we may hope for 
impartiality, but must expect little intelligence,” because 
the minute details of daily life are commonly so vola- 
tile and evanescent as to “soon escape the memory, and 
are rarely transmitted by tradition.” Such details, 
which often reveal character while they add color and 
life to the narrative, have been amply supplied, as the 
reader will find, by Audubon himself, not only in his 
journals and private letters already published but in 
the numerous documents of every sort that are now 
brought to light. 
If “the true man is to be revealed, if we are to know 
him as he was, and especially if we are to know the 
influences that molded him and so profoundly affected 
him for good or evil, we must begin at the beginning 
and follow him through his struggles, his temptations, 
his triumphs.” It might be better to start “in the 
cradle,” or even forty years before he was born, for, 
as modern biology teaches us, nature is stronger than 
nurture and race counts for much. Certainly this man 
can never be understood if removed from the environ- 
ment which time and circumstance gave him; he needs 
1Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 60. 
