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i6 Bird- Lore SECOND LETTER Edinburgh, 26 George Street, ,- >^ November 16, 1S26. MY DEAR Victor : I continue to be delighted with this beautiful city; it has a modest and chaste appearance, quite agreeable to the traveller's eye; but the country generally is a barren, poor-looking tract; the mountains are barely covered with earth, and the shepherds the most abject beings I ever saw. None but the rich here seem to enjoy life, and the climate is very rigid. I expect to travel a great deal before long; indeed I am forced to do so, to open the gates for my work, which I hope to make superior to any- thing of the kind in existence, and this can only be done by unweary- ing industry and patience. I am overcoming my bashfulness to some extent, and no longer fear to show my drawings. That all may end well, and that I may return to beloved America with some store of wealth and fame, is to be hoped. I shall spare no efforts to reach my ends, I assure you. I expected long ere this to have had another letter from you; certainly time is not so scarce with you. I do with four hours' sleep, and keep up a great correspondence, copy all my letters myself, even this to you, and my journal keeps apace with all, while the descriptions of my birds are almost ready. My boy, pray read "The Discontented Pendulum," from Dr. Franklin, or some one else (for the world is not certain about the authorship), and see how much can be done if time is not squandered. It would give me much pleasure to receive from you some token of your still thinking about drawing and music, or 3^our natural talent for poetry. Talents will lay dormant in man, if by exercise he does riot cultivate them. I have an album that contains many beautiful morceaux from very eminent men, and, as I travel, I gather. Among people of solid under- standing outside appearances have no weight, and my looks are, even here, not sneered at. I find myself in company with persons from all parts of the globe, all attired differently, but it is not the coat, but either the mind or the heart that commends man to man. I sent a fine collection of colored chalks to Johnny. Should you feel inclined to draw — and for your own sake jow ought to do so — request him to forward you an exact half. Correct measure and outline, precise tints, and a little life given, make a picture, and keep all your work for future comparison, no matter how indifferent it may be in your own eyes. During the publication of my work I hope to visit Spain, Italy, Hol- land, Germany, and of course Switzerland, where 1 have at Geneva a most powerful friend in the Baron de Sismondi, who introduced me to Baron Humboldt; my letters for Paris, too, are good. Pray inform me how all about you are, for, thousands of miles away,