Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/30

474 bounty in a foreign country? Robert Burns, when the mice nibbled away his corn, said

'I'll get a blessing wi' the lave, And never miss 't.' Where he expected one, you may expect a thousand. Robin, by his own confession, ploughed up his mice out of 'ha' and hame.' You have built for your wanderers a cozie bield, where none dare molest them. There is more true greatness in the affectionate exertions which you have made for their subsistence and support, than the bloody catalogue of heroes can boast of. Your own heart will speak peace and satisfaction to you, to the last moment of your life, for every anxiety you have felt on their account." Nor did Wilson forget the ties of relationship that still united him to the land of his birth. To his father he wrote fully and regularly; and his letters, both to him and his brother David, are no less replete with sound sense, than ardent affection and excellent moral feeling. Wilson's removal to Kingsessing was the first lucky step towards the attainment of that fame which hallows his memory. His salary was extremely inadequate to his labour, and almost to his subsistence; but this situation introduced him to the patronage of many kind and influential friends, and afforded him opportunities of improving himself which he had never before enjoyed. Amongst the former was William Bartram, the American Linnaeus of the period, in whose extensive gardens and well-stocked library Wilson found new and delightful sources of instruction and enjoyment; and Mr Lawson, the engraver, who initiated him into the mysteries of drawing, colouring, and etching, which afterwards proved of such incalculable use to him when bringing out his Ornithology. About this time Wilson tasked his powers to their very utmost in the duties of his school and his efforts at self-improvement. This severe exertion and confinement naturally preyed upon his health and depressed his spirits; but Messrs Bartram and Lawson, who seem to have known little, personally, of the exhausting process of "o'er-informing the tenement of clay," mistook the despondency and lassitude of body and mind thereby occasioned in their friend, for the symptom of incipient madness. This melancholy fact they attributed to his "being addicted to writing verses and playing on the flute;" and it would appear, that, in their efforts to wean him from such perilous habits, they were at little pains to conceal their opinion even from himself. While rambling in the woods one day Wilson narrowly escaped destruction from his gun accidentally falling against his breast when cocked; and in his diary (which he uniformly kept), he blesses God for his escape, as, had he perished, his two worthy friends would undoubtedly have loaded his memory with the imputation of suicide. He complied, however, with their request so far as to substitute drawing for poetry and music; but he attained not the slightest success until he attempted the delineation of birds. This department of the art, to use our old Scottish expression, "came as readily to his hand as the bowl of a pint stoup," and he soon attained such perfection as wholly to outstrip his instructors. His success in this new employment seems to have first suggested the idea of his ornithological work, as we see from letters to his friends in 1803, that he first mentions his purpose of "making a collection of all our finest birds." Upon submitting his intentions to Messrs Bartram and Lawson, these gentlemen readily admitted the excellence of his plan, but started so many difficulties to its accomplishment, that, had Wilson been a man of less nerve, or confidence in his own powers, he would have abandoned the idea in despair. But he treated their remonstrances with