LIFE AND CHARACTER 23 



In spite of their gentleness, neither the father nor the son 

 was without critical judgment on men and manners and on the 

 world of their day in general. John Bartram expressed his 

 opinions more boldly and aggressively; William Bartram more 

 guardedly, lest he hurt anybody. Writing to Collinson John 

 Bartram confessed that " upon the topic of astrology, magic 

 and mystic divinity," he was " apt to be a little troublesome, 

 by inquiring into the foundation and reasonableness of these 

 notions — which, thee knows, will not bear to be searched and 

 examined into." ^' On the subject of the future of America 

 Crevecoeur quotes him as saying: " Our country is, no doubt, 

 the cradle of an extensive future population; the old world is 

 growing weary of its inhabitants, they must come here to flee 

 from the tyranny of the great. But doth not thee imagine, that 

 the great will, in the course of years, come over here also; for 

 it is the misfortune of all societies everywhere to hear of great 

 men, great rulers, and of great tyrants." ®^ On occasion John 

 Bartram could wax ironic. " Our domestic animals," he re- 

 marked while discussing bird migration, " are . . . like their 

 masters; every one contends for his own dunghill, and is for 

 driving all off that come to encroach upon them." *^ 



William Bartram, too, could wax ironic, though more deli- 

 cately. Replying to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal 

 Society, who had offered him one shilling sterling for every 

 new plant which he might discover in the South, he wrote: 

 "' William Bartram, in answer to Joseph Banks's proposal says, 

 that there are not over 500 species altogether in the provinces 

 of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West and East 

 Florida, and Georgia, which at one shilling each, amounts only 

 to £25 — supposing everything acceptable. It has taken me two 

 years to search only part of the last two provinces, and find by 

 experience it cannot be done with tolerable conveniency for less 

 than £100 a year, therefore it cannot reasonably be expected that 

 he can accept the offer." ^° He too ventured certain prophecies 



*' " Sketch of John and William Bartram." Popular Science Monthly, XL, 831. 

 ** Op. cit.. Letter XI, pp. 189-190. 

 "Middleton, op. cit., p. 209- 



'" " Biographical Sketch of William Bartram." American Philosophical Society 

 Pamphlets, v. 1166. 



