X 
PREFACE. 
spised weaver of Paisley takes his rank among the writers of our 
country; and after ages shall look up to the Father of American 
Ornithology, and bless that Providence, which, by inscrutable 
ways, led him to the only spot, perhaps, of the civilized earth, 
where his extraordinary talents would be encouraged to develope 
themselves, and his estimable qualities of heart would be duly ap- 
preciated. 
Wilson has proved to us what genius and industry can effect 
in despite of obstacles, which men of ordinary abilities would con- 
sider insurmountable. His example will not be disregarded; and 
his success will be productive of benefits, the extent of which can- 
not be estimated. Already has that country, of whom it was 
sneeringly said, that she had “ done nothing, either to extend, di- 
versify, or embellish, the sphere of human knowledge and by 
whom a “paltry contribution to Natural History, a little elemen- 
tary Treatise of Botany, which appeared in 1803, was chronicled 
among the remarkable occuiTenees since the Revolution and 
“ the destruction of whose whole literature would not occasion so 
much regret as we feel for the loss of a few leaves from an ancient 
classick’’"'— already has that country, which has hardly passed the 
period of childhood, produced works on the Natural Sciences, 
which have excited the attention and applause of Europe ; works 
which may be considered merely as specimens of what her enter- 
* These austere remarks were published in the year 1810, sixteen months after the ap- 
pearance of Wilson s first volume ; and in that part of Great Britain, too, where the “ Ameri- 
can Ornithology had been received, and had excited no ordinary degree of the attention of the 
public. 
