300 THE LAST SUMMERS AND WINTERS. 



peared and was completed under the name of ' Excelsior.' 

 For aid in the zoological department he applied to Mr 

 Wilson, who responded with characteristic kindness. He 

 prepared a series of lively little monographs on parrots, 

 humming-birds, and pigeons ; and editorial perplexities 

 would be greatly diminished if all contributors were equally 

 considerate and magnanimous. Although, no man was 

 better entitled to insist on the inviolable integrity and 

 immediate insertion of his articles, he submitted to delays, 

 divisions, and retrenchments, which would have roused the 

 ire of less practised authorship ; and from the recollec- 

 tions of those days, and our experience with not a few 

 kindred spirits, we would strongly advise the conductors 

 of similar undertakings to seek for allies men of estab- 

 lished fame, and who are not haunted by a constant feel- 

 ing as if their rights or dignity were in danger. 



TO THE REV. JAMES HAMILTON, D.D. 



"Woodville, Edinburgh, 23cZ August 1853. 



" My dear Sir, — I had recently the pleasure to receive 

 your letter of the 16th. It had gone astray for a day or 

 two in consequence of ' near Edinburgh' being on it. The 

 Post-office people think that near means a good bit off, 

 and so send notes thus addressed to Woodville, Colinton, 

 Being within the Post-office delivery, we are regarded by 



