cx 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
that the specimens, from which the figures were taken, were the only ones that 
he was ever enabled to obtaiu. This expensive collection of birds was the 
result of many months of unwearied research, amongst forests, swamps and 
morasses, exposed to -all the dangers, privations and flitigues, incident to such 
an undertalciii-g. What but a remarkable passion for the pursuit, joined with 
the desire of fune, could have supported a solitary individual, in labors of 
body and mind, compared to which the bustling avocations of common life are 
mere holiday activity or recreation ! 
Independent on that part of his work which was Wilson's particular province, 
viz. the drawing and describing of his subjects, he was necessitated to occupy 
much of his time in coloring the plates; his sole resource for support being in 
this employment, as he had been compelled to relinquish the superintendence of 
the Cyclop;Tjdia. This drudgery of coloring the plates is a circumstance much 
to be regretted, as the work would have pn.iceeded more rapidly if he could 
have avoided it. One of his principal diliiculties, in effect, and that which 
caused him no small uneasiness, was the process of coloring. If this could 
have been done solely by himself; or, as he was obliged to seek assistance 
therein, if it conld have been pcrf irmed immediately under his eye, he would 
have been relieved of much anxiety; and would have better maintained a due 
equanimity; hi^ mind being daily I'ufBed by the negligence of his assistants, 
who too often, tlirough 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 employment of in- 
specting and ciirrectiiig the imperfections of others. This waste of his stated 
periods of labor, he felt himself constrained to compensate, by encroachments 
on those hours which Nature, tenacious of her rights, clainis as her own: 
hours which slio consecrates to rest — which she will not forego without a strug- 
gle ; and wliich all those, who would pi-eserve unimpaired the vigor of their 
mind and lioily, must respect. Of this intense and destructive application his 
frienJ.s failed not 1 1 admonish him ; but to their kind remonstrances he would 
reply, th it " life is short, and without exertion notliing can be performed." 
* In the preface to tlie third volume, Wilson states the anxiety which he had sulTored on 
account of the cohirini,'- of the plates ; and of his having made an arrangement, whereby 
his ditHc/ultics on that score had been surmounted. This arranj^ement proved in the end 
of greater injury than benefit. 
The art of priutiii;.:- in colors is but little known in our country, and sehlom practised ; 
and the few afn in|jt- that have been made have only partially succeeded. An experiment 
of this nature was u.mlertaken upon several plates of this work, but with a success by no 
means satisfactorv. ''.A'licn Wilson commcuced liis labors, everything relating to them 
was new to bini ; anil the difficulty of h.-ciuL;- the proper tints, upon ;in uniform black 
ground, was the ijieatcr, inasmuch as he had to experiment himself, unaidcil by the coun- 
sel or example of those to whom the process was familiar. 
The writer of this narrative has th(Mi;;ht it his duty to state some of the embarrassments 
under winch Wilson labored, in the department of coloring the plates, in order to obviate 
criticisms, which too many are disposed to make, ou supposed faults ; but if all the diffi- 
culties Avere maile known, there would be no fear for the result, among readers of candor 
and understaiuling. 
