INTRODUCTION 21 
admire most—the mighty determination which enabled him to 
carry out his great work in the face of difficulties so huge, or 
the gentle and guileless sweetness with which he throughout 
shared his thoughts and aspirations with his wife and children. 
He was more like a child at the mother’s knee, than a husband 
at the hearth—so free was the prattle, so thorough the confi- 
dence. Mrs, Audubon appears to have been a wife in every 
respect worthy of such a man; willing to sacrifice her personal 
comfort at any moment for the furtherance of his great 
schemes; ever ready to kiss and counsel when such were most 
needed ; never failing for a moment in her faith that Audubon 
was destined to be one of the great workers of the earth.'® 
No one will deny, however, that Buchanan was right 
in saying that in order to get a man like Audubon under- 
stood, all domestic partiality, the bane of much biogra- 
phy, must be put aside; but it is equally important to 
make such allowances as the manifold circumstances of 
time and place demand, and to be a reasoner rather than 
a fancier. This work abounds in errors, but it is not 
clear to what extent they were due to carelessness on 
Buchanan’s part. 
It was certainly a mistake to attribute Buchanan’s 
attitude to partiality for Alexander Wilson, who, like 
himself, was a Scotchman. It was a case of tempera- 
ment only, for gloom and poverty had embittered his 
life. As his sister-in-law and biographer ™ said of him, 
“he was doomed to much ignoble pot-boiling. . . . He 
had few friends and many enemies,” and “had received 
from the world many cruel blows,” while “no man 
needed kindness so much and received so little.” Per- 
* Robert Buchanan, The Life of Audubon (Bibl. No. 72), p. vi. 
“See Harriet Jay, Robert Buchanan: Some Account of His Life, 
His Life’s Work, and His Literary Friendships (London, 1903). Robert 
Williams Buchanan was born at Caverswell, Lancashire, August 18, 1841, 
and died in London, June 10, 1901. 
