clxxviii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
to teach ; he beholds him in the social circle, and notes the com- 
placency which he inspired in all around. But the transition from 
the past to the present quickens that anguish with which his heart 
must be filled, who casts a melancholy look on those scenes a few 
years since endeared by the presence of one, united to him by a 
conformity of taste, disposition and pursuit, and who reflects that 
that beloved friend can revisit them no more. 
It was the intention of Wilson, on the completion of his Orni- 
thology, to publish an edition in four volumes octavo; the figures 
to be engraved in wood, somewhat after the manner of Bewick’s 
British Birds ; and coloured with all the care that had been be- 
stowed on the original plates. If he had lived to effect this scheme, 
the public would have been put in possession of a work of consi- 
derable elegance, as respects typography and illustrations ; where- 
in the subjects would have been arranged in systematical order ; 
and the whole at the cost of not more than one-fifth part of the 
quarto edition. 
lie likewise meditated a woi'k on the quadrupeds of the Uni- 
ted States ; to be printed in the same splendid style of the Orni- 
thology; the figures to be engraved with the highest finish, and by 
the best artists of our country. How much has science lost in the 
death of this ingenious and indefatigable naturalist ! 
His remains were deposited in the cemetery of the Swedish 
church, in the district of Southwark, Philadelphia. While in the 
enjoyment of health, he had conversed with a friend on the subject 
of his death, and expressed a wish to be buried in some rural spot 
sacred to peace and solitude, whither the charms of nature might 
invite the steps of the votary of the Muses, and the lover of science, 
and where the birds might sing over his grave. 
It has been an occasion of regret to those of his friends, to 
whom was confided the mournful duty of ordering his funeral, that 
his desire had not been made known to them, otherwise it should 
have been piously observed. 
