76 ALEXANDER WII^SON : POET-NATURALIST 



asked me my price," wrote Wilson, "and while in 

 the act of closing the book, added, 'I would not 

 give a hundred dollars for all the birds you in- 

 tend to describe, even had I them alive.' " 



With F. A. Michaux, the Frenchman, whose 

 work on "American Forest Trees" is still remem- 

 bered, he corresponded and kept up a friendship, 

 and was always ready to assist him whenever he 

 could. 



Another acquaintance which is especially inter- 

 esting is that with Tom Paine. Wilson had been 

 in his earHer days an ardent advocate of repub- 

 licanism and Paine was to him then quite a hero. 

 As early as 1792 in his by no means remarkable 

 "Address to the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr" this 

 verse occurs : 



"The 'Rights of Man' is now weel kenned, 

 And read by mony a hunder ; 

 For Tammy Paine the buik has penned, 

 And lent the Courts a lounder; 

 It's hke a keeking-glass to see 

 The craft of Kirk and statesmen ; 

 And wi' a bauld and easy glee 

 Guid faith the birky beats them 

 Afif hand this day." 



The passing of years cooled his blood and modi- 

 fied, though it did not change, his opinions. It 

 is, in the light of these facts, both interesting and 

 gratifying to find that Wilson in 1808 called on 

 Paine, which visit he himself describes: "While 

 in New York I had the curiosity to call on the cel- 

 ebrated author of the 'Rights of Man.' He lives 

 in Greenwich, a short way from the city. In the 

 only decent-looking apartment of a small, indiffer- 



