76 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
a farce. It was pretty, but not real and 
true. He did not feel that way about 
the sermon he heard Sydney Smith 
preach: ‘‘It was a sermon to me. He 
made me smile and he made me think 
deeply. He pleased me at times by 
painting my foibles with due care, and 
again I felt the colour come to my cheeks 
as he portrayed my sins.’’ Later, 
he met Sydney Smith and his ‘fair 
daughter,’’? and heard the latter sing. 
Afterwards he had a note from the 
famous divine upon which he remarks: 
“The man should study economy ; he 
would destroy more paper in a day than 
Franklin would in a week ; but all great 
men are more or less eccentric. Walter 
Scott writes a diminutive hand, very 
difficult to read, Napoleon a large scrawl- 
ing one, still more difficult, and Sydney 
Smith goes up hill all the way with 
large strides.’’ 
Having decided upon visiting Lon- 
don, he yielded to the persuasions of his 
