LIFE OF WILSON. cxxi 



characters of which are so obvious, that one is astonished that so learned an 

 ornithologist as Latham, should have contented himself with arranging the 

 species appertaining to it with others, the conformation of whose bills is so 

 dissimilar. It may be necessary to state that the Crossbills had been erected 

 into a separate genus, under the denomination of Crucirostra, by an author 

 whose works Wilson had no knowledge of; and I have reason to believe that 

 even the generic appellation of C'urvii-ostra had been anticipated, by a writer 

 on the ornithology of the northern parts of Europe. Brisson limited his 

 genus Loxia to the Crossbills, and this judicious restriction appears to be 

 now sanctioned by all naturalists of authority. 



There is a species of learning, which is greatly affected by puny minds, and 

 for which our author entertained the most hearty contempt : this is the names 

 by which certain nations of Indians designated natural objects. Hence we 

 nowhere find his work disfigured by those " uncouth and unmanageable 

 words," which some writers have recorded with a solemnity, which should seem 

 to prove a conviction of their importance; but which, in almost every instance, 

 are a reproach to their vanity and their ignorance. Can anything be more 

 preposterous than for one to give a catalogue of names in a language, the 

 grammatical construction of which has never been ascertained, and with the 

 idiom of which one is totally unacquainted ? Among literate nations it is a 

 rule, which has received the sanction of prescription, that when one would 

 write upon a tongue, it is indispensable that one should qualify one's self for 

 the task, by a careful investigation of its principles. But when the language 

 of barbarians becomes the subject of attention, the rule is reversed, and, pro- 

 vided a copious list of names be given, it is not required of the collector, that 

 he should have explored the sources whence they are derived : his learning 

 is estimated by the measure of his labor, and our applause is taxed in propor- 

 tion to his verbosity. 



The style of Wilson appears to be well adapted to the subjects upon which 

 he wrote. It is seldom feeble, it is sometimes vigorous, and it is generally 

 neat. He appears to have " understood himself, and his readers always under- 

 stand him." That he was capable of graceful writing, he has given us, in the 

 preface to his first volume, which we here insert, a remarkable instance; which 

 is one of the happiest, and most appropriate, compositions that our literature 

 can boast of. 



" The whole use of a preface seems to be, either to elucidate the nature and 

 origin of the work, or to invoke the clemency of the reader. Such observa- 

 tions as have been thought necessary for the former, will be found in the intro- 

 duction ; extremely solicitous to obtain the latter, I beg leave to relate the 

 following anecdote. 



'' In one of my late visits to a friend's in the country, I found their young- 

 est son, a fine boy of eight or nine years of age, who usually resides in town 

 for his education, just returning from a ramble through the neighboring 

 woods and fields, where he had collected a large and very handsome bunch of 

 wild flowers, of a great many different colors; and presenting them to his 

 mother, said, with much animation in his countenance, ' Look, my dear 'ma, 

 what beautiful flowers I have found growing on our place ! Why all the woods 



