LIFE OF WILSON. clxv 



due equanimity; his mind being daily ruffled by the negligence 

 of his assistants, who too often, through a deplorable want of 

 skill and taste, made disgusting caricatures of what were in- 

 tended to be modest imitations of simple nature. * Hence much 

 of his precious time was spent in the irksome employment of 

 inspecting and correcting the imperfections of others. This 

 waste of his stated periods of labour, he felt himself constrain- 

 ed to compensate, by encroachments on those hours which 

 Nature, tenacious of her rights, claims as her own: hours which 

 she consecrates to rest which she will not forego without 

 a struggle; and which all those, who would preserve unimpair- 

 ed the vigour of their mind and body, must respect. Of this 

 intense and destructive application his friends failed not to ad- 

 monish him; but to their kind remonstrances he would reply, 

 that " life is short, and without exertion nothing can be per- 

 formed." But the true cause of this extraordinary toil was his 

 poverty. By the terms of agreement with his publisher, he 

 was to furnish, at his own cost, all the drawings and literary 

 matter for the work; and to have the whole under his control 

 and superintendence. The publisher stipulated to find funds 

 for the completion of the volumes. To support the heavy ex- 



* In the preface to the third volume, Wilson states the anxiety which he 

 had suffered on account of the colouring 1 of the plates; and of his having 

 made an arrangement, whereby his difficulties on that score had been sur- 

 mounted. This arrangement proved in the end of greater injury than benefit. 



The art of printing in colours is but little known in our country, and sel- 

 dom practised; and the few attempts that have been made have only partial- 

 ly succeeded. An experiment of this nature was undertaken upon several 

 plates of this work, but with a success by no means satisfactory. When 

 Wilson commenced his labours, every thing relating to them was new to 

 him; and the difficulty of fixing the proper tints, upon an uniform black 

 ground, was the greater, inasmuch as he had to experiment himself, unaided 

 by the counsel or example of those to whom the process was familiar. 



The writer of this narrative has thought it his duty to state so.ne of the 

 embarrassments under which Wilson laboured, in the department of colour- 

 ing the plates, in order to obviate criticisms, which too many are disposed to 

 make, on supposed faults; but if all the difficulties were made known, there 

 would be no fear for the result, among readers of candour and understanding- 



