LIFE OF WILSON. 
xci 
To Mr. ALEXANDER LAWSON. 
Jilbany, November 3, 1808. 
“ Dear Sir, 
“ Having a few leisure moments at disposal, I M ill 
devote them to your service in giving you a sketch of some cir- 
cumstances in my long literary pilgrimage, not mentioned in my 
letters to Mr. Miller. And in the first place I ought to thank you 
for the thousands of compliments I have received for my birds from 
persons of all descriptions ; which were chiefly due to the taste and 
skill of the engraver. In short, the book, in all its parts, so far ex- 
ceeds the ideas and expectations of the first literary charactei's in 
the eastern section of the United States, as to command their ad- 
miration and respect. The only objection has been the sum of 
one hundred and txventy dollars, which, in innumerable instances, has 
risen like an evil genius between me and my hopes. Yet I doubt 
not but when those copies subscribed for are delivered, and the 
book a little better known, the whole number will be disposed of, 
and perhaps encouragement given to go on M'ith the rest. To ef- 
fect this, to me, most desirable object, I have encountered the fa- 
tigues of a long, circuitous, and expensive journey, with a zeal that 
has increased with increasing difficulties ; and sorry I am to say 
that the whole number of subscribers which I have obtained amounts 
only to forty-one, 
“ While in Newyork I had the curiosity to call on the cele- 
brated author of the “ Rights of Man.” lie lives in Greenwich, a 
short way from the city. In the only decent apartment of a small 
indifferent-looking frame house, I found this extraordinary man, 
sitting wrapt in a night gown, the table before him covered with 
newspapers, with pen and ink beside him. Paine’s face w’ould have 
excellently suited the character of Bardolph ; but the penetration 
