MEMOIR OF ALEXANDER WILSON. ALEXANDER WILSON, author of American Ornithology, was born in Paisley, on the 6th July, 1766. His father was a man of sober and industrious habits, of strict honesty, and superior intelligence; highly respected by all who knew him, throughout a very long life. It appears to have been the father's intention to give his son a liberal education, with the hope, so dear to the heart of the Scottish peasant, of seeing him at some future period honoured in being appointed to preach the gospel of peace. To this Wilson himself alludes, in a poem, entitled the "Solitary Tutor," written in America, and evidently descriptive of himself:His parents saw, with partial fond delight, Unfolding genius crown their fostering care, And talk'd with tears of that enrapturing sight, When, clad in sable gown, with solemn air, The walls of God's own house should echo back his prayer. Whether his early years displayed such evident marks of genius as to justify anticipations of future eminence, cannot now be certainly known: nor is it necessary that it should, to account for his father's intentions. While the heart of every parent inclines him to judge favourably of his own child, the devout Scottish peasant can form no higher prospect, and conceive no greater recompense b for all his own privations, than to see the son of his affection become the messenger of Heaven. Unfortunately for Wilson, his mother died when he was about ten years old, leaving his father embarrassed with the charge of a young family, to minister to the wants of which, the heart and the habits, the tenderness and the enduring patience of woman alone are adequate. In the higher and wealthier ranks, female aid may be procured; but, in humble life, nothing can be more deplorably desolate than the condition of a young motherless family. It is, therefore, almost a matter of absolute necessity for the poor man to seek the aid of a second wife; though the result of doing so is usually the burden of an additional family. Wilson's father soon married again; and all his son's prospects of a liberal education were speedily overcast. What progress he had made cannot now be discovered; though, from the statements of his early friends, and the incorrectness of his first productions, it may be inferred, that his attainments were only limited. The bias, however, had been given; a taste for literature had been communicated, by which the whole of his after life was more or less characterized. Of this he was himself aware, as appears by his letters to his father, written from America, after his perseverance had won for him that rich reward, for which alone he toiled, honest, independent fame. In a letter, dated 25th Feb. 1811, the following passage occurs: — "The publication of the Ornithology, though it has swallowed up all the little I have saved, has procured me the honour of many friends, eminent in this country, and the esteem of the public at large, for which I have to thank the goodness of a kind father, whose attention to my education in early life, as well as the books then put into my hands, first gave my mind a bias towards relishing the paths of literature, and the charms and magnificence of nature. These, it is true, particularly the latter, have made me a wanderer in - life; but they have also enabled me to support an honest and respectable situation in the world, and have been the sources of almost all my enjoyments.' The American biographer states, that the unkind usage of Wilson's stepmother drove him to forsake his paternal roof, and to seek an asylum in that of his brother-in-law, William Duncan. This is altogether incorrect. Those who had the means of knowing the truth, agree that she always treated him with kindness and attention; and Wilson himself uniformly spoke of her with respect and gratitude. That he did reside in the house of William Duncan is true; but it was during the term of his apprenticeship, when, if not a matter of absolute necessity, it was at least one of mutual convenience. The wandering habits of his earlier years have also been attributed to the harsh treatment experienced at home; but while these may be sufficiently accounted for otherwise, as will appear in the course of our narrative,—it is due to the memory of a deserving woman to rescue her from so groundless an imputation. In his thirteenth year, on the 31st July, 1779, Wilson was bound apprentice, as a weaver, to William Duncan, who had married his eldest sister. The duration of his apprenticeship was three years, not five, as has been erroneously stated. The original indenture bears date as above, and has at the end the following lines in his own handwriting: Be't kent to a' the warld in rhime, That wi' right mickle wark an' toil, These lines shew that he had completed his apprenticeship in 1782, after serving three years; and they likewise shew, that he had, even then, in his sixteenth year, notwithstanding the very unpoetical nature of his profession, |