18 
MEMOIR OP 
moral point of view. Who that first perused the 
pages of the Memoir of Aristotle, did not rise from 
the task with wonder and pleasure ? The former, 
when it was considered that the preceptor of Alex- 
ander was equally well informed upon almost all 
matters of Natural Science, with the most accom- 
plished modern scholar; and the latter, when we 
read that the great and princely pupil, amidst tho 
stirring scenes which occupied his short but illus- 
trious life, found leisure to study tho works of 
the Creator and Lord of all, and to collect those 
objects, during his mighty campaigns, the examina- 
tion of which he knew would be gratifying to his 
teacher. In many other of these Lives, there are 
incidents fully as interesting, though relating to 
persons of less note than the great Stagirite. In 
that of Pliny, the chronology of Naturalists, if wo 
may be permitted tho expression, may be said to be 
brought down to the next cycle, while those of 
Aldrovandus, Ray, Linntmis, and Sloane reach nearly 
to our own time ; and in this our last volume, it is 
our purpose to devote our usual space to the Me- 
moir of an individual moving in a more humble 
sphere, and shall now proceed to narrate tho princi- 
pal incidents in the life of Alexander Wilson, 
whose great work on the Ornithology of North Ame- 
rica will carry his name to latest posterity. * 
* The materials from ■which this Memoir is taken are to bo 
found in the Life of Wilson accompanying “ Wilson’s Ameri- 
can Ornithology,” by Sir William Jar dine, Bart. Three vote, 
demy Ovo. 
