CCIV 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
too good a logician to infer that, because Swallows had been found 
in the state described, they had remained in that state all winter. 
A little more knowledge of the subject would have taught the three 
gentlemen observers, that the poor Swallows had been driven to 
their retreat by cold weather, which had surprised them in their 
vernal migration; and that this state of numbness, falsely called 
torpidity, if continued for a few days, would for ever have destroyed 
them. 
It is now time to resume the subject of Wilson’s Ornithology, 
as the reader will, probably, consider that we have transgressed 
the limits which our digression required. 
Dr. Drake, in his observations upon the descriptive abilities of 
the poet Bloomfield, thus expresses himself: “ Milton and Thom- 
son have both introduced the flight of the Sky-Lark, the first with 
his accustomed spirit and sublimity; but probably no poet has sur- 
passed, either in fancy or expression, the following prose narrative 
of Dr. Goldsmith. “ Nothing,” observes he, “ can be more pleas- 
ing than to see the Lark warbling upon the wing ; raising its note 
as it soars, until it seems lost in the immense heights above us ; 
the note continuing, the bird itself unseen ; to see it then descend- 
ing with a swell as it comes from the clouds, yet sinking by degrees 
as it approaches its nest ; the spot where all its affections are cen- 
tred ; the spot that has prompted all this joy.” This description 
of the descent of the bird, and of the pleasures of its little nest, is 
conceived in a strain of the most exquisite delicacy and feeling.”* 
I am not disposed to dispute the beauty of the imagery of the 
above, or the delicacy of its expression ; but I should wish the 
reader to compare it with Wilson’s description of the Mocking- 
bird, unquestionably the most accomplished songster of the feather- 
ed race. 
* Drake’s Literary Hours, No. 39, Edition of 1820. 
