xxxvi 



LIFE OF WILSON. 



a few leaves very carelessly ; asked some trifling questions ; and 

 then threw the book down, saying — " / don't intend to give an 

 hundred and twenty dollars for the knowledge of birds Taking up 

 a newspaper he began to read. I lifted the book, and, without 

 saying a word, walked off with a smile of contempt for this very 

 polite and very learned Governor. If science depended on such 

 animals as these, the very name would long ere now have been 

 extinct. 



" The City Recorder declared that he never read or bought 

 books on animals, fishes, plants, or birds — he saw no use in them! 

 Yet this same reptile could not abstain from acknowledging the 

 beauty of the plates of my Ornithology.'^ 



If Mr. Wilson had been treated with disrespect by the vulgar 

 or illiterate, he would have imputed it to the right cause — a Avant 

 of breeding. Or if he had been soliciting encouragement to a 

 work of which he was not enabled to afford a specimen, whereby 

 its character could be estimated, there might be some pallia- 

 tion of conduct, which, placed in the most favorable point of 

 view, must still bear the epithet uncivil. But the author of Ame- 

 rican Ornithology addressed himself to persons of rank, and of 

 learning; he modestly asked support equal to his merits; he claim- 

 ed that deference which is ever due to the gentleman; and to prove 

 himself no pretender or impostor, he exhibited his Diploma regium 

 signo majori consignatum^ the unquestionable credentials of Sci- 

 ence herself. 



Mr. Wilson after tarrying at home a few days, departed to 

 the southward, visiting every city and town of importance as far 

 as Savannah in the state of Georgia. This journey being per- 

 formed in the winter, and alone, was of course not attended with 

 many travelling comforts ; and, to avoid the inconveniences of a 

 return by land, he embarked in a vessel, and arrived at Newyork 

 in the month of March, 1809. This was i-ather an unproductive 

 tour: but few subscriptions being obtained. 



