had not spent my life in vain. You can best ascertain the
truth of these delineations. I am persuaded that you love nature—
that you admire and study her. Every individual, possessed
of a sound heart, listens with delight to the love-notes of
the woodland warblers. He never casts a glance upon their
lovely forms without proposing to himself questions respecting
them; nor does he look on the trees which they frequent, or
the flowers over which they glide, without admiring their
grandeur, or delighting in their sweet odours or their brilliant
tints.
In Pennsylvania, a beautiful State, almost central on the
line of our Atlantic shores, my father, in his desire of proving
my friend through life, gave me what Americans call a beautiful
'£ plantation," refreshed during the summer heats by the waters
of the Schuylkil River, and traversed by a creek named Perkioming.
Its fine woodlands, its extensive fields, its hills
crowned with evergreens, offered many subjects to my pencil.
It was there that I commenced my simple and agreeable studies,
with as little concern about the future as if the world had
been made for me. My rambles invariably commenced at break
of day; and to return wet with dew, and bearing a feathered
prize, was, and ever will be, the highest enjoyment for which I
have been fitted.
Yet think not, reader, that the enthusiasm which I felt for
my favourite pursuits was a barrier opposed to the admission of
gentler sentiments. Nature, which had turned my young mind
toward the bird and the flower, soon proved her influence upon
my heart. Be it enough to say, that the object of my passion
lias long since blessed me with the name of husband. And
me by my father! My pencil gave birth to a family of cripples.
So maimed were most of them, that they resembled the mangled
corpses on a field of battle, compared with the integrity of
living men. These difficulties and disappointments irritated
me, but never for a moment destroyed the desire of obtaining
perfect representations of nature. The worse my drawings were,
the more beautiful did I see the originals. To have been torn
from the study would have been as death to me. My time was
entirely occupied with it. I produced hundreds of these rude
sketches annually; and for a long time, at my request, they
made bonfires on the anniversaries of my birth-day.
Patiently, and with industry, did I apply myself to study,
for, although J felt the impossibility of giving life to my productions,
I did not abandon the idea of representing nature.
Many plans were successively adopted, many masters guided
my hand. At the age of seventeen, when I returned from
France, whither I had gone to receive the rudiments of my
education, my drawings had assumed a form. DAVID had
guided my hand in tracing objects of large size. Eyes and
noses belonging to giants, and heads of horses represented in
ancient sculpture, were my models. These, although fit subjects
for men intent on pursuing the higher branches of the art,
were immediately laid aside by me. I returned to the woods of
the New World with fresh ardour, and commenced a collection
of drawings, which I henceforth continued, and which is now
publishing, under the title of " THE BIRDS OF AMERICA."
To these Illustrations I shall often refer you, good-natured
reader, in the sequel, that you may judge of them yourself.
Should you discover any merit in them, happy would the expression
of your approbation render me, for I should feel that I