XXX11 
MEMOIR OF 
will secure you many friends, and support you under your 
misfortunes ; for, if you live, you must meet with them — 
they are the lot of life.” 
Wilson next changed his residence at Milestown for 
the village of Bloomfield, New Jersey, where he had not 
long been, when, about the beginning of the year 1802 , he 
was induced to contract an engagement with the trustees 
of a seminary in the township of Kingsess, a short distance 
from Gray’s Ferry, on the river Schuylkill, and about four 
miles from Philadelphia. This was the last and the most 
fortunate of his migrations ; it was the first step towards 
that path which was soon destined to lead him to 
eminence. It placed him in the immediate neighbour- 
hood, and gave him the intimacy, of men capable, both 
of appreciating his merits, and of lending him encourage- 
ment and assistance — of such men as the botanist and 
naturalist, William Bartram, whose gardens opened to 
him a field of delightful instruction and enjoyment, and 
whose lessons and example animated and guided him in 
the study of nature ; and Mr Lawson, the engraver, from 
whose instructions he learned to delineate, with the 
pencil, those beautiful forms, which he so eloquently 
described with his pen. Mr Bartram, perceiving the bent 
of his friend’s mind, and its congeniality to his own, took 
peculiar delight in rendering every aid and encourage- 
ment, both by his own instructions, and by putting into 
Wilson’s hands some works on natural history, particularly 
those of Catesby and Edwards. While he perused these 
works with equal pleasure and attention, he began to 
detect various errors, such as must always abound in 
books whose authors rely, to any extent, on the reports of 
others, without personal investigation. 
Wilson’s American biographer relates, that, about this 
time, his mind was subject to moments of deep despon- 
dency and depression, which his solitary mode of life 
tended to confirm. This he attributes to his being 
