clxxx 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
The principal objections which I have heard urged against 
the Ornithology, relate to the colouring; but as the difficulties 
to which its author was subjected, on this score, have been al- 
ready detailed, I will merely observe, that he found them too 
great to be surmounted. Hence a generous critic will not impute 
to him as a fault, what, in truth, ought to be viewed in the light 
of a misfortune. 
In his specific definitions he is loose and unsystematic. He 
does not appear to have been convinced of the necessity of pre- 
cision on this head; his essential and natural characters are not 
discriminated; and, in some instances, he confounds generic and 
specific characters, which the laws of methodical science do not 
authorize. 
There is a peculiarity in his orthography, which it is proper 
that I should take notice of, for the purpose of explaining his 
motive for an anomaly, at once inelegant and injudicious. I 
have his own authority for stating, that he adopted this mode 
of spelling, at the particular instance of the late Joel Barlow, 
who vainly hoped to give currency, in his heavy Epic, to an 
innovation, which greater names than his own had been unable 
to effect. 
“ Some ingenious men,” says Johnson, “have endeavoured 
to deserve well of their country by writing honor and labor for 
honour and labour, red for read in the preter-tense, mis for 
says, repete for repeat, explane for explain, or declame for 
declaim. Of these it may be said, that as they have done no 
good, they have done little harm; both because they have inno- 
vated little, and because few have followed them. ” 
The recommendation of the learned lexicographer, above 
cited, ought to be laid to heart by all those whose ‘ ‘ vanity seeks 
praise by petty reformation. ” “ I hope I may be allowed,” says 
he, “ to recommend to those, whose thoughts have been per- 
haps employed too anxiously on verbal singularities, not to dis- 
turb upon narrow views, or for minute propriety, the orthogra- 
phy of their fathers. There is in constancy and stability a gen- 
