WILSON, THK ORNITHOLOGIST. 123 
In those terrible years when 
luan waged against man the most 
destructive war that had ever 
been known, there lived in Scot- 
land a man of peace. A poor 
Paisley weaver,* in his damp 
i dull lodging, he dreamed — of 
nature, of the infinite liberty of 
the woods, and, above all, of 
the winged life. A cripple, and 
condemned to inactivity, his very 
bondage inspired him with an 
ecstatic love of light and flight. 
Tf he did not take to himself 
wings, it was beeause that sublime 
LAL Te 
eift is, upon earth, only the dream and lope of another world. 
* Alexander Wilson, the eminent ornithologist, was born at Paisley in 1766, He was 
bred a weaver, but emigrating to the United States in 1794, found means to pursue the 
studies for which he had a natural bias, and in which he earned an enduring reputation. 
The first volume of his ‘‘ American Ornithology’ was published in 1808. He died of 
dysentery, in August 1818.—7ranslator. 
