INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. ix 



had not spent my life in vain. You can best ascertain the 

 truth of these delineations. I am persuaded that you love na- 

 ture — that you admire and study her. Every individual, pos- 

 sessed of a sound heart, listens with delight to the love-notes of 

 the woodland warblers. He never casts a glance upon their 

 lovely forms without proposing to himself questions respecting 

 them ; nor does he look on the trees which they frequent, or 

 the flowers over which they glide, without admiring their 

 grandeur, or delighting in their sweet odours or their brilliant 

 tints. 



In Pennsylvania, a beautiful State, almost central on the 

 line of our Atlantic shores, my father, in his desire of proving 

 my friend through life, gave me what Americans call a beautiful 

 " plantation," refreshed during the summer heats by the waters 

 of the Schuylkil River, and traversed by a creek named Per- 

 kioming. Its fine woodlands, its extensive fields, its hills 

 crowned with evergreens, offered many subjects to my pencil. 

 It was there that I commenced my simple and agreeable stu- 

 dies, with as little concern about the futm-e as if the world had 

 been made for me. My rambles invariably commenced at break 

 of day ; and to return wet with dew, and bearing a feathered 

 prize, was, and ever will be, the highest enjoyment for which I 

 have been fitted. 



Yet think not, reader, that the enthusiasm which I felt for 

 my favoiu-ite pm-suits was a barrier opposed to the admission of 

 gentler sentiments. Nature, which had turned my young mind 

 toward the bird and the flower, soon proved her influence upon 

 my heart. Be it enough to say, that the object of my passion 

 has long since blessed me with the name of husband. And 



