362 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
daily in his journal or diary,'* and its pages, from which 
we have been quoting, became a mirror of all that he 
saw, heard, or did. Audubon was generous with his 
time, as with everything else, and would never hesitate 
to lay aside his own work for the sake of a friend who 
was eager to acquire his method of drawing. But when 
his entertainment commenced with an invitation to 
breakfast, he began to be alarmed at the large share of 
his working hours which had to be surrendered to his 
friends. “I seem, in a measure,” he said, “‘to have gone 
back to my early days of society and fine dressing, silk 
stockings and pumps, and all the finery with which I 
made a popinjay of myself in my youth ... It is Mr. 
Audubon here, and Mr. Audubon there, and I can only 
hope they will not make a conceited fool of Mr. Audu- 
bon at last.” 
In response to urgent appeals he began at this time 
to contribute to the scientific journals of the Scottish 
capital, a step which only served to remind him that 
the rose was more prolific in thorns than flowers. Dr. 
Brewster, however, in his Journal of Science, and John 
Wilson in Blackwoods, sang pxans in his praise, and 
there is no doubt that “Christopher North,” so like and 
yet so unlike the American woodsman, did much to 
smooth his path in his own country as well as in Europe. 
Though keenly feeling the need of literary advice in 
those early contributions, Audubon was quite shocked 
at the alterations which Dr. Brewster had made in one 
of these articles, for though the editor had “greatly im- 
proved the style,” he had quite “destroyed the matter.” 
On December 21, 1826, Audubon wrote to Thomas 
Sully that he would send him a copy of the first number 
of his Birds, with the request that he forward it in his 
*See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals (Bibl. No. 86). 
