18 MEMOIR OP 



moral point of view. Who that first perused the 

 pages of the Memoir of Aristotle, did not rise from 

 the task with wonder and pleasure ? The former, 

 when it was considered that the preceptor of Alex- 

 ander was equally well informed upon almost all 

 matters of Natural Science, with the most accom- 

 plished modern scholar; and the latter, when we 

 read that the great and princely pupil, amidst the 

 stirring scenes which occupied his short but illus- 

 trious life, found leisure to study the works of 

 the Creator and Lord of all, and to collect those 

 objects, during his mighty campaigns, the examina- 

 tion of which he knew would be gratifying to his 

 teacher. In many other of these Lives, there are 

 incidents fully as interesting, though relating to 

 persons of less note than the great Stagirite. In 

 that of Pliny, the chronology of Naturalists, if we 

 may be permitted the expression, may be said to be 

 brought down to the next cycle, while those of 

 Aldrovandus, Ray, Linnaeus, and Sloane reach nearly 

 to our own time ; and in this our last volume, it is 

 our purpose to devote our usual space to the Me- 

 moir of an individual moving in a more humble 

 sphere, and shall now proceed to narrate the princi- 

 pal incidents in the life of ALEXANDER WILSON, 

 whose great work on the Ornithology of North Ame- 

 rica will carry his name to latest posterity.* 



* The materials from which this Memoir is taken are to be 

 found in the Life of Wilson accompanying " Wilson's Ameri- 

 can Ornithology," by Sir William Jardine, Bart. Three voJs. 

 demy 8yo 



