LIFE OF WILSON. 
XXXV 11 
cheerfully particijDate in the feast he is preparing for all our 
senses. Let us survey those millions of green strangers, just 
peeping into day, as so many happy messengers come to pro- 
claim the power and munificence of the Creator. I confess that 
I was always an enthusiast in my admiration of the rural sce- 
nery of Nature; but, since your example and encouragement 
have set me to attempt to imitate her productions, I see new 
beauties in every bird, plant or flower, I contemplate; and find 
my ideas of the incomprehensible first cause still more exalted, 
the more minutely I examine his works. 
‘‘I sometimes smile to think that while others are immers- 
ed in deep schemes of speculation and aggrandizement — in 
building towns and purchasing plantations, I am entranced in 
contemplation over the plumage of a lark, or gazing like a de- 
spairing lover, on the lineaments of an owl. While others are 
hoarding up their bags of money, without the power of enjoy- 
ing it, I am collecting, without injuring my conscience, or 
wounding my peace of mind, those beautiful specimens of Na- 
ture’s works that are for ever pleasing. I have had live crows, 
hawks and owls — opossums, squirrels, snakes, lizards, &c., so 
that my room has sometimes reminded me of Noah’s ark; but 
Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and in this particular our 
parallel does not altogether tally. I receive every subject of na- 
tural history that is brought to me, and though they do not 
march into my ark, from all quarters, as they did into that of 
our great ancestor, yet I find means, by the distribution of a 
few five penny bits, to make them find the way fast enough. 
A boy, not long ago, brought me a large basket full of crows. 
I expect his next load will be bull-frogs, if I don’t soon issue or- 
ders to the contrary. One of my boys caught a mouse in school, 
a few days ago, and directly marched up to me with his pri- 
soner. I set about drawing it that same evening, and all the 
while the pantings of its little heart showed it to be in the most 
extreme agonies of fear. I had intended to kill it, in order to 
fix it in the claws of a stuffed owl, but happening to spill a few 
drops of water near where it was tied, it lapped it up with such 
