X PREFACE. 



all his attention on herself ; and saves their lives at the expense of 

 her own. 



Is it possible for a rational and intelligent being to contem- 

 plate these scenes without interest and without admiration? Inno- 

 cency has charms that arrest almost every beholder, and can we 

 survey the sportive and endearing manners of these with indiffer- 

 ence.^ Men join with reverence in praises to the great Creator, and 

 can they listen with contempt to the melodious strains, the hymns 

 of praise, which these joyful little creatures offer up every morn- 

 ing to the Fountain of light and life? Who can contemplate, un- 

 moved, the distress of a fond mother for her dying infant! And 

 has that tender mother no claims on our sympathy, who, unpro- 

 tected herself, prefers death rather than her young should suffer ? 

 Is tenderness of heart, fidelity, and parental affection, only lovely 

 when they exist among men ? Oh no ! it is impossible ! — Those 

 virtues that are esteemed the highest ornaments of our nature, 

 seem to be emanations from the Divinity himself; and may be 

 traced in many of the humblest and least regarded of his crea- 

 tures. 



ALEXANDER WILSON. 



Philadelphia^ September I2th^ 1811. 



