clxviii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
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 Or- 
nithology, 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 bestowed on the original plates. If he had lived to effect 
this scheme, the public would have been put in possession of a 
work of considerable elegance, as respects typography and il- 
lustrations; wherein 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. 
He likewise meditated a work on the quadrupeds of the Uni- 
ted States; to be printed in the same splendid style of the Or- 
nithology; 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. 
A plain marble tomb marks the spot where lie the ashes of 
this celebrated man; it bears the following inscription: 
