LIFE AND CHARACTER 29 



. . . have bestowed such minute attention on the subject as you 

 yourself have done. Indeed, they [the other American orni- 

 thologists] have done little more than copied your nomenclature 

 and observations, and referred to your authority." "^ In spite 

 of all this, Bartram always admitted the deficiencies of his 

 knowledge on this subject, and after printing his list of Ameri- 

 can birds — "the most complete and correct . . . prior to the 

 work of Alexander Wilson "^°^ — he was still aware "that 

 there are yet several kinds of land birds, and a great number 

 of aquatic fowl that have not come under my particular notice, 

 therefore shall leave them to the investigation of future travel- 

 ling naturalists of greater ability and industry" {Travels, 296). 



Closely related to this feeling of modesty, almost humility, 

 is Bartram' s simple piety. The glories of nature are a mani- 

 festation of God's beneficence, and so are his own natural 

 discoveries. He has had extraordinary success on his journey; 

 he has kept his good health, has escaped accidents " incident to 

 such excursions, through uninhabited wildernesses, and an 

 Indian frontier," and he has made an "extensive collection of 

 new discoveries of natural productions"; ought he to preen 

 himself on his accomplishment.'^ "On the recollection," he 

 concludes, "of so many and great favors and blessings, I now, 

 with a high sense of gratitude, presume to ofifer up my sincere 

 thanks to the Almighty, the Creator and Preserver " (pp. 46-47) . 



He thus "presumes " on many occasions in the record of his 

 travels, sometimes even to the extent of growing fervent and 

 poetic. Extremely sensitive to all forms of beauty, Bartram at 

 times becomes himself a voice of nature hymning the praises of 

 an all-creative God. One such hymn will suffice as an illustra- 

 tion. Standing on a little mound, he views, at sunrise, a prospect 

 which reveals " at one view the whole of the sublime and 

 pleasing." As "nature again revives," he obeys "the cheerful 

 summons of the gentle monitors of the meads and groves." 



Ye vigilant and faithful servants of the Most High! Ye who wor- 

 ship the Creator morning, noon, and eve, in simplicity of heart ! I haste 

 to join the universal anthem. My heart and voice unite with yours, in 

 sincere homage to the great Creator, the universal Sovereign. 



^°' Ibid. Letter from Alexander Wilson, April, 1807. 

 "» John W. Harshberger, op. cit., p. 87. 



