460 



Audubon. 



We knew Audubon in London, being on a visit there, as well 

 as himself, and know how much his feelings were wounded, by 

 the refusal alluded to, of the social honours of Philadelphia. 

 This slight is by no means to be imputed to his countrymen at 

 large, to whom he was comparatively unknown. The transac- 

 tion grew out of the spirit of jealousy, which is always illiberal, 

 and the frequent parent of misrepresentation and calumny. Some 

 of the friends of Wilson did not view, with the most cordial spirit, 

 those evidences of transcendent merit, which others willingly 

 accorded to Audubon's drawings; then arose the spirit of party, 

 and with it malevolence. A few small minds, who knew little 

 or nothing of nature, and who had officiously intruded themselves 

 into this matter, endeavoured to make up for th^ir w^ant of 

 knowledge on the subject, by excess of bad zeal. Opinions were 

 industriously circulated, that Audubon had, in many instances, 

 attempted to impose upon the credulity of the world, by invent- 

 ing stories v/hich had no foundation in truth, because they were 

 contrary to the known habits of the animals they concerned ; as 

 if the habits of the animals of this vast continent, could possibly 

 be known to any other class of men, but that adventurous one, 

 which, like Audubon, had passed their whole lives in observing 

 them ; and because he had executed a drawing of inimitable 

 force and beauty, of " mocking birds defending their nest from a 

 rattlesnake,^^ — a picture which cannot be contemplated without 

 the liveliest emotions, and of which one of the best judges in 

 Europe, Mr. Swainson, in an elegant encomium, has said, " every 

 part of the story is told with exquisite feeling ;" they selected 

 this to exercise their detraction upon ; and concluding, because 

 the books of systematic naturalists, had not mentioned this habit 

 of the rattlesnake of climbing up bushes, that it was a fair pre- 

 sumption the animal did not and could not climb ; they indus- 

 triously circulated a report, that he had imposed a deliberate 

 lie upon the world, and that no doubt he had done so in many 

 other instances. Thus overwhelmed wdth calumny, and absent, 

 his friends, — and he had a few, both true and steady, — had the 

 mortification to witness the temporary success of this bad com- 

 bination, and see the name of this great naturalist, that would 

 do honour to any society, rejected, and in a scornful manner. 

 It is painful to allude to this circumstance, which is somewhat 

 notorious; but that the shame, which belongs to a very few, may 



