22 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



It is plain that William Bartram's cultural equipment was 

 considerable, and was undoubtedly an important factor in his 

 success as a continuator of his father's work in the natural 

 sciences. A still greater factor, however, was Bartram's per- 

 sonality, which must be taken into consideration in any attempt 

 to account for Bartram's fame and influence on his time. Much 

 as he followed in his father's footsteps there were subtle differ- 

 ences between the two men. John Bartram was robust, positive, 

 assertive; William Bartram was gentle, timid, sensitive. His 

 father, a man of action, had never been so happy as when on 

 horseback out in the woods exploring, or out in his fields work- 

 ing.^^ There was more of the poet in William Bartram, who 

 felt elated when " surveying the beautiful and wonderful pro- 

 ductions which are scattered over the face of the earth." ^^ The 

 element of beauty was necessary to his happiness. If his scien- 

 tific curiosity was curbed at all it was by his aesthetic sensibility. 

 " He was a man gentle of temperament and preferred to be 

 drawn to a spot by the luscious scent of some white, night- 

 blooming species, than by the nerve-racking cry of [the 

 panther]." ^^ It was no accident that Dr. Fothergill sent him to 

 explore the botanical resources of Florida. As a matter of fact 

 Dr. Fothergill was not at all interested in Florida and its " great 

 variety of plants, . . . many of them unknown." What he 

 wished mainly was to introduce into England " the more hardy 

 American plants, such as will bear our winters without much 

 shelter." But Bartram was not interested in the " back parts 

 of Canada " ^° and Dr. Fothergill was finally persuaded to assist 

 the "young Quaker" to ride "through the savannas and the 

 glorious forests of the Creeks and Cherokees with . . . sur- 

 passing joy." ^® 



^^ Note Howard Pyle's fine description of a typical John Bartram departure: 

 " The wife and the daughters wept, the sons shook their father's hand in silence, 

 and the negro servants grinned at the fine show their master made as he rattled 

 away on his old gray mare. He plunged immediately and boldly into the 

 wilderness. ..." Harper's Magazine, LX, 329-330. 



*^ Quoted in S. Austin AUibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and 

 British and American Authors, I, 137. Philadelphia, 1870. 



^"■The Craftsman, XXIV (May, 1913), 197. 



^^ Letter from Dr. Fothergill to John Bartram, October 22, Memorials, 334. 



^* " The Travels of William Bartram." The Saturday Review of Literature, 

 April 21, 1928. 



