LIFE OF WILSON. 
xxvu 
“We are very anxious to hear how you got up; and well 
pleased that you played the Horse Jockey so luckily. If you are 
fixed in the design of distilling, you will write me, by the first 
opportunity, before winter sets in, so that I may arrange matters 
in time. 
“ I have got the schoolhouse enlarged, by contributions among 
the neighbours. In summer the school is, in reality, not mucli; 
but in winter, I shall be able to teach with both pleasure and profit. 
at ^ ^ ^ * 
“ When I told R. of his sister^s death, ‘ I expected so,’ said 
Jamie, ‘any other news that’s curious ?’ So completely does long 
absence blunt the strongest feelings of affection and friendship. 
May it never be so with you and me, if we should never meet again. 
On my part it is impossible, except God, in his wrath, should de- 
prive me of my present soul, and animate me with some other.” 
Wilson next changed his residence for one in the village of 
Bloomfield, Newjersey, where he again opened a school. But 
being advised of a more agreeable and lucrative situation, he soli- 
cited, and received, an engagement from the trustees of Union 
School, situated in the township of Kingsess or Kingsessing, a short 
distance from Gray’s Ferry, on the river Schuylkill, and about four 
miles from Philadelphia. 
This removal constituted an important era in the life of Wil- 
son. His schoolhouse and residence being but a short distance 
from Bartram’s Botanic Garden, situated on the western bank of 
the Schuylkill : a sequestered spot, possessing attractions of no or- 
dinary kind; an acquaintance was soon contracted with that vene- 
rable naturalist, Mr. William Bartram,* which grew into an un- 
common friendship, and continued without the least abatement 
until severed by death. Here it was that Wilson found himself 
* The author of “ Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West 
Florida,” &c. This excellent gentleman closed his long and useful life on the 22d July, 1823, 
in the eighty-fourth year of his age. 
