ALEXANDER WILSON. x li 



our woods with harmony. The pencil of Nature is now at work, 

 and outlines, tints, and gradations of lights and shades, that 

 baffle all description, will soon be spread before us by that great 

 Master, our most benevolent Friend and Father. Let us cheerfully 

 participate in the feast He is preparing for all our senses. Let us 

 survey those millions of green strangers, just peeping into day, as 

 so many happy messengers come to proclaim the power and munifi- 

 cence of the Creator. I confess that I was always an enthusiast in 

 my admiration of the rural scenery of Nature; but, since your 

 example and encouragement have set me to attempt to imitate her 

 productions, I see new beauties in every bird, plant, or flower, I con- . 

 template ; and find my ideas of the incomprehensible First Cause still 

 more exalted, the more minutely I examine His works. 



" I sometimes smile to think, that while others are immersed in 

 deep schemes of speculation and aggrandisement, in building towns 

 and purchasing plantations, I am entranced in contemplation over 

 the plumage of a lark, or gazing, like a despairing lover, on the 

 lineaments of an owl. While others are hoarding up their bags of 

 money, without the power of enjoying it, I am collecting, without 

 injuring my conscience, or wounding my peace of mind, those 

 beautiful specimens of Nature's works that are for ever pleasing. 

 I have had live crows, hawks, and owls ; opossums, squirrels, 

 snakes, lizards, &c, so that my room has sometimes reminded me of 

 Noah's ark ; but Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and, in this 

 particular, our parallel does not altogether tally. I receive every 

 subject of natural history that is brought to me ; and, though they 

 do not march into my ark from all quarters, as they did into that 

 of our great ancestor, yet I find means, by the distribution of 

 a few fivepenny bits, to make them find the way fast enough. A 

 boy, not long ago, brought me a large basketful of crows. I 

 expect his next load will be bull frogs, if I don't soon issue orders 

 to the contrary. One of my boys caught a mouse in school, a few 

 days ago, and directly marched up to me with his prisoner. I set 

 about drawing it that same evening ; and all the while the pant- 

 ings of its little heart showed it to be in the most extreme agonies 

 of fear. I had intended to kill it, in order to fix it in the claws 

 of a stuffed owl ; but happening to spill a few drops of water near 

 where it was tied, it lapped it up with such eagerness, and looked 



VOL. I. d 



