LIFE OF WILSON 



xlv 



confining drudgery. The principal difficulty, in effect, attending 

 this work, and that which caused its author most uneasiness, was 

 the coloring of the plates. If this could have been done solely by 

 himself ; or, as he was obliged to seek assistance in this delicate 

 process, if it could have been performed immediately under his 

 eye, he would have been relieved of much anxiety ; * and would 

 have better maintained a due equanimity ; his mind being daily 

 ruffled by the negligence of his assistants ; who too often, through 

 a deplorable want of skill and taste, made disgusting caricatures 

 of what were intended to be modest imitations of simple nature. 

 Hence much of his precious time was spent in the irksome em- 

 ployment of inspecting and correcting the imperfections of others. 

 This waste of his stated periods of labor, he felt himself constrain- 

 ed to supply by encroachments on those hours which Nature, 

 tenacious of her rights, claims as her own : hours which she con- 

 secrates to rest — which she will not forego without a struggle ; and 

 which all those, who would preserve unimpaired the vigor of their 

 mind and body, must respect. Against this intense and destructive 

 application his friends failed not to admonish him; but to their 

 kind regards he would reply, that " life is short, and without ex- 

 ertion nothing can be performed." But the true cause of this 

 extraordinary toil was his poverty. By the terms of agreement 

 with his publisher, he was to furnish, at his own cost, all the draw- 

 ings and literary matter for the work; and to have the whole un- 

 der his control and superintendence. The publisher obligated 

 himself to find funds for the completion of the volumes. To sup- 

 port the heavy expense of procuring materials, and other unavoid- 

 able expenditures, Mr. Wilson^s only resource, as has been stated, 

 was in coloring the plates. 



In the preface to the fifth volume he observes : " The publi- 



^ In the preface to tlie third vohmie, Mr. Wilson states the anxiety which he liati suffered on ac- 

 count of the coloring of the plates ; and of his having made an arrangement, wherehy his difficulties on 

 that score had heen surmounted. This arrangement proved in the end of greater injury than benefit. 

 VOL. IX. M 



