1816.} Alexander Wilson. Alf 
as he was obliged to seek assistance in this delicate process, if it 
could have been performed immediately under his eye, he would 
have been relieved of much anxiety,* and would have better main- 
tained a due equanimity, his mind being daily ruffled by the negli- 
gence of his assistants, who too often, through a deplorable want 
of skill and taste, made disgusting caricatures of what were in- 
tended to be modest imitations of simple nature. Hence much of 
his precious time was spent in the irksome employment of inspect- 
ing and correcting the imperfections of others. This waste of his. 
stated periods of labour he felt himself constrained to supply by 
encroachments on those hours which Nature, tenacious of her rights, 
claims as her own: hours which she consecrates to rest—which she 
will not forego without a struggle ; and which all those who would 
preserve unimpaired the vigour of their mind and body must respect. 
Against this intense and destructive application his friends failed not 
to admonish him; but to their kind regards he would reply that 
“life is short, and without exertion nothing can be performed.’ 
But the true cause of this extraordinary toil was his poverty. By 
the terms of agreement with his publisher, he was to furnish, at 
his own cost, all the drawings and literary matter for the werk, and 
to have the whole under his controul and superintendence. The 
publisher obligated himself to find funds for the completion of the 
volumes. ‘To support the heavy expense of procuring materials, 
and other unavoidable expenditures, Mr. Wilson’s only resource, as 
has been stated, was in colouring the plates. 
In the preface to the fifth volume he observes, ‘¢ The publication 
of an original work of this kind in this country has been attended 
with difficulties, great, and, it must be confessed, sometimes dis- 
couraging to the author, whose only reward hitherto has been the 
favourable opinion of his fellow citizens, and the pleasure of the 
pursuit. 
** Let but the generous hand of patriotism be stretched forth to 
assist and cherish the rising arts and literature of our country, and 
both will most assuredly, and that at no remote period, shoot forth, 
increase, and flourish, with a vigour, a splendour, and usefulness, 
inferior to no other on earth.” 
We have here an affirmation that the author had laboured without 
reward, except what was conferred by inefficient praise, and an 
eloquent appeal to the generosity and patriotism of his fellow 
citizens. Seven illustrious cities disputed the honour of having 
given birth to the Prince of Epic song. Philadelphia first beheld 
that phenomenon the American Ornithology, rising amidst her 
boasted opulence, to vindicate the claims of a calumniated portion 
of creation, and to furnish her literary pride with a subject of 
exultation for ages to come, Yet duty calls upon us to record a 
* In the preface (o the third yolume Mr, Wilson states the anxiety which he 
had suffered on account of the colouring of the plates, and of his having made an 
arrangement whereby his difficulties on that score had been surmounted. This ar- 
rangement proved in the end of greater injury thaw benefit, 
