xlviii 



LIFE OF WILSON 



work of considerable elegance as respects typography and illus- 

 trations ; wherein the subjects would have been arranged in sys- 

 tematical order ; and the whole at a cost of not more than one 

 seventh part of the quarto edition. 



He likewise contemplated a work on the quadrupeds of the 

 United States ; to be printed in the same splendid style of the 

 Ornithology; the figures to be engraved with the highest finish 

 and by the best artists of our country. How much has science 

 lost in the death of this ingenious and indefatigable naturalist ! 



Mr. Wilson was interred in the cemetery of the Swedish 

 church, in the district of Southwark, Philadelphia. While in the 

 enjoyment of health, he had conversed with a friend on the sub- 

 ject of his dissolution, and expressed a wish to be buried in some 

 rural spot sacred to peace and solitude, where the charms of na- 

 ture might invite the steps of the votary of the Muses and the lover 

 of science, and where the birds might sing over his grave. 



It has been an occasion of regret to those of his friends, to 

 whom was confided the mournful duty of ordering his funeral, that 

 his desire had not been made known to them, otherwise it should 

 have been piously observed. 



