LIFE OF WILSON. Ixxxi 



TO MR. ALEXANDER LAWSON. 



Albany ', November 3, 1808. 

 Dear Sir, 



" Having a few leisure moments at disposal, I will devote 

 them to your service in giving you a sketch of some circum- 

 stances in my long literary pilgrimage, not mentioned in my 

 letters to Mr. Miller. And in the first place, I ought to thank 

 you for the thousands of compliments I have received for my 

 birds, from persons of all descriptions; which were chiefly due 

 to the taste and skill of the engraver. In short, the book, in 

 all its parts, so far exceeds the ideas and expectations of the 

 first literary characters in the eastern section of the United 

 States, as to command their admiration and respect. The only 

 objection has been the sum of one hundred and twenty dollars, 

 which, in innumerable instances, has risen like an evil genius 

 between me and my hopes. Yet I doubt not but when those 

 copies subscribed for are delivered, and the book a little better 

 known, the whole number will be disposed of, and perhaps en- 

 couragement given to go on with the rest. To effect this, to 

 me, most desirable object, I have encountered the fatigues of a 

 long, circuitous, and expensive journey, with a zeal that has in- 

 creased with increasing difficulties; and sorry I am to say that 

 the whole number of subscribers which I have obtained amounts 

 only to forty-one. 



" While in New York I had the curiosity to call on the ce- 

 lebrated author of the "Rights of Man." He lives in Green- 

 wich, a short way from the city. In the only decent apartment 

 of a small indifferent-looking frame house, I found this extra- 

 ordinary man, sitting wrapt in a night gown, the table before 

 him covered with newspapers, with pen and ink beside him. 

 Paine's face would have excellently suited the character of Bar- 

 dolph; but the penetration and intelligence of his eye bespeak 

 the man of genius, and of the world. Pie complained to me of 

 his inability to walk, an exercise he was formerly fond of; he 

 examined my book, leaf by leaf, with great attention desired 



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