1816.] Alexander Wilson. 415 
to the best advantage; for when fatigued with close application 
within doors, to recruit his mind and body he had only to cross the 
threshold of his abode, and he at once found himself surrounded 
by those acquaintance, the observance of whose simple manners 
not only afforded the most agreeable recreation, but who were per- 
petually contributing to the great uudertaking which he was ear- 
nestly labouring to complete. 
Besides the journies which have been already mentioned, he 
made several short excursions to different parts, and was five times 
at the coast of New Jersey, in pursuit of the waders and web-footed 
tribes which are there found in immetise numbers. The aggregate 
of his peregrinations amounted to upwards of ten thousand miles. 
In the early part of the year 1813 the seventh volume of the 
Ornithology was published; and the author immediately made 
preparations for the succeeding one, the letter-press of which was 
completed in the month of August. But unfortunately his great 
anxiety to conclude the work condemned him to an excess of toil, 
which, inflexible as was his mind, his bodily frame was unable to 
bear. He was likewise by this flood of business prevented from 
residing in the country, where hours of lassitude might have been 
beguiled by a rural walk, or the rough but invigorating exercise of 
the gun. At length he was attacked by a disease, which perhaps at 
another period of his life might not have been attended with fatal 
effects, but which now, in his debilitated frame and harassed mind, 
proved a mighty foe, whose deadly assaults all the combined efforts 
of friendship, science, and skill, could not repel. ‘The dysentery, 
after a few days’ illness, closed the mortal career of Alex. Wilson, 
on Aug. 23, 1813. 
It may not be going too far to maintain that in no age or nation 
has there ever arisen one more eminently qualified for a naturalist 
than the subject of these memoirs. He was not only an enthusiastic 
admirer of the works of creation, but he was consistent in research, 
aud permitted no dangers or fatigues to abate his ardour or relax 
his exertions. He inured himself to hardships by frequent and 
laborious exercise ; and was never more happy than when employed 
in some enterprise which promised from its difficulties the novelties 
of discovery. Whatever was obtained with ease, to him appeared 
to be attended, comparatively speaking, with small interest: the 
acquisitions of labour alone seemed worthy of his ambition. He 
was no closet philosopher—exchanging the frock of activity for the 
night-gown and slippers. He was indebted for his ideas, not to 
books, which err, but to Nature, which is infallible; and the ia- 
estimable transcript of her works which he has bequeathed us pos- 
sesses a charm which affects us the more the better acquainted we 
become with the delightful original. His inquisitive habits pro- 
cured him from others a vast heterogeneous mass of information ; 
but he had the happy talent of selecting from this rubbish whatever 
was valuable. His perseverance was uncommon; and when en- 
gaged in pursuit of a particular object he would never relinquish it 
] 
