290 PETER COLLINSON [1767. 



quite sunk and lost. It would give me and thyself pleasure, if it was 

 productive of real advantage, and brought grist to the mill. Time, 

 industry, and application, bring things to pass that were not ex- 

 pected. I can truly say, I have never had thee long from my 

 mind, and watched for any opening that might prove advan- 

 tageous ; but fortune has not thrown any in my way ; and to come 

 over on speculation and uncertainty will never do. 



I have shown thy performances to many, who deservedly admire 

 and commend them, in hopes to find encouragement, but none as 

 yet has offered. Yet, as we all have our diversions and amuse- 

 ments, perhaps there is not any one, in which the artist exhibits 

 superior talents, than in drawing and painting, which must highly 

 gratify an ingenious mind. 



When art is arrived to such perfection to copy close after 

 nature, who can describe the pleasure, but them that feel it, to see 

 the moving pencil display a sort of paper creation, which may en- 

 dure for ages, and transfer a name with applause to posterity ! I 

 have now before me those elegant masterly drawings, inclosed in 

 thy good father's Journal. It's with concern and regret, that I 

 see so much skill lavished away on such vile paper, that deserves 

 the finest vellum. But I suppose necessity had no law, no other 

 was to be had. Poorly set off as they are, they have been much 

 admired by the best judges. I am preparing to secure them, by 

 fixing them on the best paper, that so many delicate touches, and 

 the many-laboured strokes, may not be exposed to accidents. 



The numbers and figures on the drawings, I apprehend, refer to 

 some description, but I can find none, which is mortifying ; for 

 though the representation is to the life, yet some particular in- 

 formation will make the Natural History complete. Pray send it 

 by the very first opportunity. I was in hopes the numbers and 

 figures referred to, were to be found in thy father's Journal, but 

 they do not correspond. * 



The Aromatic Evergreen is a new and very curious shrub. I 

 hope I shall find some account of it in the quire of specimens. 



gratified by the visits of botanical friends. He wrote an article on the natural 

 history of a plant, a few minutes before his death, which happened suddenly, by 

 the rupture of a blood-vessel in the lungs, July 22, 1823, in the 85th year of his 

 age. See Encyclopcedia Americana. 



