LIFE OF WILSON. 
clxxv 
if it could have been performed immediately under his eye, he 
would have been relieved of much anxiety; and would have bet- 
ter maintained a due equanimity; his mind being daily ruffled by 
the negligence of his assistants ; who too often, through a deplora- 
ble want of skill and taste, made disgusting caricatures of what 
were intended to be modest imitations of simple nature.* Hence 
much of his precious time was spent in the irksome employment of 
inspecting and correcting the imperfections of others. This waste 
of his stated periods of labour, he felt himself constrained to com- 
pensate by encroachments on those hours which Nature, tenacious 
of her rights, claims as her own: hours which she consecrates to 
rest — which she will not forego without a struggle; and which all 
those, who would preserve unimpaired the vigour of their mind 
and body, must respect. Of this intense and destructive applica- 
tion his friends failed not to admonish him ; but to their kind re- 
monstrances he would reply, that “ life is short, and without exer- 
tion nothing can be performed.” But the true cause of this extra- 
ordinary toil was his poverty. By the terms of agreement with his 
publisher, he was to furnish, at his own cost, all the drawings and 
literary matter for the work; and to have the whole under his con- 
* In the preface to the third volume, Wilson states the anxiety which he had suffered on 
account of the colouring of the plates ; and of his having made an arrangement whereby his 
difficulties on that score had been surmounted. This arrangement proved in the end of greater 
injury than benefit. 
The art of printing in colours is but little known in our country, and seldom practised ; 
and the few attempts that have been made have only partially succeeded. An experiment of 
this nature was undertaken upon several plates of this work, but with a success by no means 
satisfactory. When Wilson commenced his labours every thing relating to them was new to 
him ; and the difficulty of fixing the proper tints, upon an uniform black ground, was the great- 
er, inasmuch as he had to experiment himself, unaided by the counsel or example of those to 
whom the process was familiar. 
The writer of this narrative has thought it his duty to state some of the embarrassments un- 
der which Wilson laboured in the department of colouring the plates, in order to obviate criti- 
cisms which too many are disposed to make on supposed faults; but if ail the difficulties were 
made known, there would be no fear for the result among readers of candour, taste and judge- 
ment. 
