134 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
God that it was not my destiny to waste 
and pine among those noisome congre- 
gations of the city.’ ”’ 
Another visitor to Audubon during 
his last days writes: ‘‘In my interview 
with the naturalist, there were several 
things that stamped themselves indelibly 
on my mind. The wonderful simplicity 
of the man was perhaps the most re- 
markable. His enthusiasm for facts 
made him unconscious of himself. To 
make him happy you had only to give 
him a new fact in natural history, or 
introduce him toa rare bird. His self- 
forgetfulness was very impressive. I 
felt that I had found a man who asked 
homage for God and Nature, and not 
for himself. 
“The unconscious greatness of the man 
seemed only equalled by his child-like 
tenderness. The sweet unity between his 
wife and himself, as they turned over the 
original drawings of his birds, and re- 
called the circumstances of the drawings, 
