We have entered into the detailed history of this plate because of the unfavorable comment which it has provoked, but it is easier to be critical than to be either just or correct, and without more definite knowledge than we possess, it would be unfair to censure Audubon too much or to shift the blame too completely upon the shoulders of another. To return again to the story of Wilson's diary, it is evident that Wilson would never have published his sentiments in the form in which they later appeared. They were perfectly characterized by a just critic of an early day,[203] who said that Wilson's words were without doubt written in a moment of keen depression and disappointment and were an exact description of his feelings, though, as we should also add, not of the facts. "A man who has given his heart to the accomplishment of an object, believing that he has no rival, must be somewhat more than human, if he be delighted to find that another is engaged in the same purpose, with equal energy and advantages far greater than his own." Barring his usual inaccuracies, it must be admitted that Audubon's account bears the thumbmarks of truth. He could not have known the bitter struggles of the proud spirit whose history we have briefly told; he saw only a stranger, an ardent devotee of nature, it is true, but a man of unbending disposition, who with a little more suavity of address could probably have won his friendship, if not his subscription. Of the literary quality of Wilson's work, now so well appreciated, he could have known nothing at all; after turning its pages in his Louisville store for the first time in 1810, he probably did not see it again for over ten years. That Wilson was jealous of Audubon as a future rival is probable, but the real "rivalry" between these two pioneers was of later growth. It was fostered in this country chiefly by George Ord and some of his friends, together with others who were interested in the sale of Wilson's work. Ord, who seems to have felt that the mantle of this naturalist had fallen on his own shoulders, strove continually, and after 1826 with the aid of Charles Waterton in England, to hamper Audubon's progress, to discredit him as a man of integrity, and to break down his growing reputation as a naturalist. Though Ord was justified to some extent in his attacks upon Audubon which were made over Wilson's shoulders long after that estimable man was laid in the grave, the matter was carried too far. Neither of the rivals was wholly without fault, and a century is far too long to continue any quarrel, especially when one of those whose reputation was concerned was never a party to it.