ALEXANDER WILSON. 49 



be justly ranked with any similar publication either 

 of ancient or modern date, while in his descriptions 

 he has few rivals, or, indeed, competitors. After 

 his death, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of 

 Musignano, gave to the world a continuation iri 

 one volume, got up on the same scale, which forms 

 the ninth volume of this Work. It contains twenty- 

 one plates, upon which are given fifty-three figures 

 with their descriptions. It is therefore as an Orni- 

 thologist that Wilson's fame will be handed down 

 to a late posterity ; for although as a Poet his essays 

 are replete with originality and character, and at 

 the time called forth the deserved encomiums of his 

 fond friends and admirers, while the persons intro- 

 duced in such effusions were alive, his genius in 

 that art was likely to be prized beyond its real 

 merit, which the lapse of a few years will cause to 

 be criticised with more severity, or probably alto- 

 gether neglected and forgotten. In short, Wilson 

 himself never appears to have studied with a view 

 to writing any thing approximating to a regular 

 poem, and his offerings to the Muses seem more to 

 have been hasty improvisatore lucubrations, than 

 carefully studied productions. 



As a private friend, in early life, his character 

 was most affectionately cherished, and bore the 

 highest stamp amongst his youthful companions; 

 and in his more mature years, amongst his literary 

 friends in the country of his adoption, the kindness 

 and warmth of his disposition, together with his 

 extraordinary acquirements, secured to him both 



