What pleasure it would be to us all, when I take your hand and press you to my heart, I should also have a list of _100 new names from America!_; all the drawings and the manuscripts ready for the completion of this our wonderful undertaking. I would advise you to address a circular letter to all those who may be concerned in Europe, to acquaint them with what _I call_ the necessity of my being in America, for the _sole purpose_ of increasing the value of our publications, either Illustrative or graphical. This, and the constant improvement now exhibited to them with each new number of the work, could not fail, I think, to render them quiet, if not pleased, that I am now doing all I can for the advantage of the work. Tell them the facts, that I have greatly added to the Ornithology of the United States since my absence from Europe, that the number of species which I now have, and that are not given by Wilson or Bonaparte, combined, amounts to nearly one hundred, and that the Water Birds will be fully equal in point of interest and beauty, to any of the land Birds that are published. And, not the least part of this, my remaining in America has already [given], and will continue, to give me the power of portraying the habits of the Water Birds with more truth and completeness than has ever yet been done. Next, have extracts of my letter to you, before the world's eye, through the medium of Papers. Visit such of our friends, and ask them to say those things to their acquaintance; go on yourself, as you have done, and depend upon it, we shall all be _greatly benefitted_. In your most kind letter to John you mention with unexampled modesty what you are attempting to do in the way of self-improvement, but my Dear Victor, you cannot convey more thoroughly to us the _march_ of your improvement than you have done by sending your letters, and the result of your actions, so well delineated as this is, and _we all_ feel deeply gratified and most happy. Cruickshank is _right_; by _drawing_ you are enabled to study the lights and shadows of bodies, again the beautiful mellowness with which, altho. all powerful in _the effect_, these blend themselves with each other. The _reflective power of bodies_ will also strike your discerning attention, and when these combinations of the true Materia are well understood, the artist is a Master! Nature after all, has done all for us; she groups, and most beautifully, every thing that is presented to our eye or mind, so completely also, that if one observes a number of bodies, no matter what these bodies are, whether horses or apes, he sees at once the general elegance of their arrangement in _contour_, the force of the light and