XXX ' LIFE OF WILSON. 



rural recreations which I so much delight in. Even poetry, whose heavenly 

 enthusiasm I used to glory in, can hardly ever find me at home, so much has 

 this bewitching amusement engrossed all my senses. 



" Please to send me the names of the birds. I wish to draw a small 

 flower, in order to represent the humming-bird in the act of feeding : will 

 you be so good as to send me one suitable, and not too large ? The legs and 

 feet of some are unfinished ; they arc all miserably imperfect, but your gener- 

 ous candor I know to be beyond all their defects." 



To Mr. Wm. Bartram. 



"June 15th, 1804. 

 "I have arranged my business for our little journey; and, if to-morrow be 

 fair, I shall have the chaise ready for you at any time in the morning, say 

 seven o'clock. Or if you think any other hour more suitable, please to let 

 me know by the bearer, and I shall make it answerable to me." 



"June 16th, 1804. 

 " I believe we had better put off our intended jaunt until some more aus- 

 picious day. 



" Clouds, from eastern regions driven, 

 Still obscure the gloomy skies ; 

 Let us yield, since angry Heaven 

 Frowns upon our enterprise. 



" Haply some unseen disaster 



Hung impending o'er our way, 

 Which our kind Almighty Master 

 Saw, and sought us thus to stay. 



" By and by, when fair Aurora 

 Bids the drowsy fogs to fly, 

 And the glorious god of Flora 

 Rises in a cloudless sky, 



Then, in whirling chariot seated, 



With my friend I'll gladly go : 

 With his converse richly treated — ■ 



Happy to be honored so." 



The inconveniences of his situation, as teacher of a country school, deter- 

 mined Wilson to endeavor after some employment more congenial to his dis- 

 position; and that would enable him to attain to that distinction, as a scholar, 

 which he was anxious to merit. He consequently directed his views to the 

 " Literary Magazine," conducted by C. B. Brown, a monthly publication of 

 some note, as a suitable vehicle for the diffusion of those productions which he 

 hoped would arrest the attention of the public. In this magazine appeared 

 his " Rural Walk," and his " Solitary Tutor ;" but it does not appear that 

 their author received any other reward for his well-meant endeavors than the 

 thanks of the publisher. He was flattered, it is true, by a republication, in 



