cxx LIFE OF WILSON. 



respect, to all authors extant. Among his figures most worthy of notice, I 

 would particularize the Shore Lark, Brown Creeper, House and Winter 

 Wrens, Mocking-Bird, Cardinal Grosbeak, Cow Buntings, Mottled Owl, Mea- 

 dow Lark, Barn Swallows, Snipe and Partridge, Rail and Woodcock, and the 

 Ruffed Grouse. 



The introduction of appropriate scenery, into a work of this kind, can have 

 no good effect, unless it be made to harmonize, both as to design and execu- 

 tion, with the leading subjects; hence Wilson's landscapes, in the eye of taste, 

 must always be viewed as a blemish, as he was not skilful in this branch of 

 the art of delineation ; and, even if he had been dexterous, he was not author- 

 ized to increase the expenditures of a work, which, long before its termination, 

 its publisher discovered to be inconveniently burdensome. 



The principal objections which T have heard urged against the Ornithology, 

 relate to the coloring ; but as the diiEculties to which its author was subjected, 

 on this score, have been already detailed, I will merely observe, that he found 

 them too great to be surmounted. Hence a generous critic will not impute to 

 him as a fault, what, in truth, ought to be viewed in the light of a misfortune. 



In his specific definitions he is loose and unsystematic. He does not appear 

 to have been convinced of the necessity of precision on this head; his essential 

 and natural characters are not discriminated; and, in some instances, he con- 

 founds generic and specific characters, which the laws of methodical science 

 do not authorize. 



There is a peculiarity in his orthography, which it is proper that I should 

 take notice of, for the purpose of explaining his motive for an anomaly, at once 

 inelegant and injudicious. 1 have his own authority for stating, that he 

 adopted this mode of spelling, at the particular instance of the late Joel Bar- 

 low, who vainly hoped to give currency, in his heavy Epic, to an innovation, 

 which greater names than his own had been unable to effect. 



" Some ingenious men," says Johnson, '' have endeavored to deserve well 

 of their country by writing honor and labor for honour and labour, red for read 

 in the preter-tense, sais for sai/s, repete for repeat, explane for explain, or 

 declame for declaim. Of these it may be said, that as they have done no 

 good, they have done little harm ; both because they have innovated little, 

 and because few have followed them." 



The recommendation of the learned lexicographer, above cited, ought to be 

 laid to heart by all those whose " vanity seeks praise by petty reformation." 

 " I hope I may be allowed," says he, " to recommend to those, whose thoughts 

 have been perhaps employed too anxiously on verbal singularities, not to dis- 

 turb upon narrow views, or for minute propriety, the orthography of their 

 fathers. There is in constancy and ability a general and lasting advantage, 

 which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction." 



As it must be obvious that, without books, it would be impossible to avoid 

 error in synonymes and nomenclature, so we find that our authoi-, in these 

 respects, has rendered himself obnoxious to reproach. 



That he was not ambitious of the honor of forming new genera, appears 

 from the circumstance, that, although he found the system of Latham needed 

 reformation, yet he ventured to propose but one genus, the Curvirastra, the 



