Burns — On. Alexander Wilson. 143 



the best apartments of the civiHzecl ; I have at present a real 

 design of becoming a traveler." Poor Wilson ! He seems as 

 little fitted financially for travel as for marriage, for he con- 

 fesses to a capital not exceeding 75 cents ! 



Once more referring to Wilson's letters to his good friend 

 Bartram, of July 3nd, 1805, he records a resolve from which 

 there was no deviation until his death. "I dare say you will 

 smile at my presumption when I tell you that I have seriously 

 begun to make a collection of drawings of the birds to be found 

 in Pennsylvania or that occasionally pass through it ; twenty- 

 eight, as a beginning, I send for your opinion. . . . Tlicy may 

 yet tell posterity tJiat I was honored until your friendship, and 

 that to yoiir inspiration they ouv their existence." ^ 



A prophesy! 'No more misdirected efforts. No further 

 striving for the unattainable, but, quoting Coues : " Emerging, 

 from obscurity by an indomitable perseverance that fairly beat 

 bad luck out of the field, the 'smoky flux ' of his mysterious 

 genius at length burst into flame that made his life luminous." ^ 

 Therefore, notwithstanding the opinions and declarations of his 

 biographers as quoted at the beginning of this paper, the oppo- 

 site sex had a very material and unexpected influence in the re- 

 alization of his dreams of fame. It is more than hinted that 

 unrequited love was not the least of his reasons for emigrating 

 to America ; the same not incurable malady caused him to 

 turn to drawing and ornithology for relief; and his third un- 

 successful venture placed him in the position to dedicate his life 

 to that all absorbing pursuit and the publication of the "Ameri- 

 can Ornitholcgy " upon which his right to fame chiefly rests. 

 On November 29th, 1§05, he sends Bartram a proof sheet of 

 his first plate etched by himself and requests that he " be so 

 good as to communicate to me your own corrections, and those 

 of your young friend and pupil. I will receive them as a very 

 kind and particular favor." Agajn on May 22nd, 1807, a re- 

 quest is made through the uncle to the niece : "By the impres- 

 sions of my two plates that accompany this you will see that I 



^ Ord's Life of Wilson. 



= Private Letters of Wilson, Ord and Bonaparte, Penn Monthly. 

 1879, p. 443. 



