LIFE OF WILSON 



xxvii 



be devoted to this pursuit, provided I could have hopes of succeed- 

 ing. Your opinion on this subject will confer an additional obli- 

 gation on your affectionate friend/^ 



It is worthy of remark, that when men of uncommon talents 

 project any great scheme, they usually overlook those circumstan- 

 ces of minor importance, which ordinary minds would estimate as 

 first deserving attention. Thus Wilson, with an intellect expanded 

 by information, and still grasping at further improvement as a 

 mean of distinction, would fain become a traveller, even at the 

 very moment when the sum total of his funds amounted to seventy- 

 jive cents ! * 



He now employed all his vacant hours in drawing and the 

 study of Ornithology ; being resolutely bent on the accomplishing 

 of his design, of which he became more enamored the longer he 

 reflected on it. 



The spring of the year 1805 arrived and gave to the enrap- 

 tured view of our Naturalist his interesting feathered acquaintance. 

 He listened to their artless songs ; he noted their habitudes ; he 

 sketched their portraits. And after having passed a few months 

 varied with this charming occupation, he again writes to the re- 

 spected inhabitant of the Botanic Garden : 



''Union School^ July 9.^ 1805. 

 " I dare say you will smile at my presumption, when I tell 

 you that I have seriously begun to make a collection of drawings 

 of the birds to be found in Pennsylvania, or that occasionally pass 

 through it : twenty-eight as a beginning I send for your opinion. 

 They are, I hope, inferior to what I shall produce, though as 

 close copies of the originals as I could make. One or two of these 

 I cannot find either in your nomenclature, or among the seven 

 volumes of Edwards. Any hint for promoting my plan, or ena- 



* Tliis fact the editor had from one of Mr. Wilson's own letters. 



