ALEXANDER WILSON. 
Ixxix 
'Nation, his friends failed not to admonish him ; but to 
their entreaties he would make this ominous reply, — 
Life is short, and without exertion nothing can be 
performed.” In the last letter which he is understood to 
ave written to his friends in Paisley, after sympathizing 
'Jith his correspondent on the death of a son, he makes 
® following melancholy statement regarding his own 
aclining health : — “ I am myself fur from being in good 
®alth. Intense application to study has hurt me much. 
. y 8th volume is now in the press, and will be published 
November. One volume more will complete the whole.” 
length, amid these accumulated and harassing toils. 
he 
'''as assailed by a disease, which his vital ijowers were 
too much enfeebled successfully to resist. The 
ysentery, his former foe, renewed its deadly assaults ; 
'’■nd after a few days’ illness, notwithstanding the combined 
®®orts of science and friendship, terminated the mortal 
'^^eer of Alexander Wilson, the American Ornithologist, 
y’’ the 23d of August, 1813, consequently in the 48th 
^ sr of big jgg * t. 'j'jjg moment,” says his brother, who 
j ® few years previoiusly joined him in America, “ that 
heai'd of his sickness, I went to the city, and found 
'tn speechless ; I caught hi.s hand : he seemed to know 
^ and that was all. He died next morning, at nine 
^ °ck, and was buried next day with all the honours due 
® his merit. The whole of the scientific characters, 
with the clergy of all denominations, attended the 
I^Heral. The Columbia Society of Fine Arts, of which 
® "’as a member, walked in procession before the hearse. 
The following was stated as the more ininictliate cause of 
'■isb a' * ‘'“al illness, by one of his .American fiiends, who 
hoa'™ Scotland some years ago ; — While he was sitting in the 
he et his friends, enjoying the pleasures of conversation, 
had ] to see a bird of a rare species, fur one of which he 
Cut f search. With Iris usual enthusiasm he ran 
fired f it, swam across a river, over which it had flown, 
cau„m'’ hilled, and obtained the object of his eager pursuit ; but 
8 t a cold, which, bringing on dysentery, ended in his death. 
