Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals - Volume I. | Page 5

Academy of Design.--Leaves Rome.--Dangers of the journey.--Florence.--Description of meeting Prince Radziwill in Coliseum at Rome.--Copies portraits of Rubens and Titian in Florence.--Leaves Florence for Venice.--Disagreeable voyage on the Po.-- Venice, beautiful but smelly.--Copies Tintoret's "Miracle of the Slave." --Thunderstorms.--Reflections on the Fourth of July.--Leaves Venice.-- Recoaro.--Milan.--Reflections on Catholicism and art.--Como and Maggiore.--The Rigi.--Schaffhausen and Heidelberg.--Evades the quarantine on French border.--Thrilling experience.--Paris
CHAPTER XIX
SEPTEMBER 18, 1831--SEPTEMBER 21, 1832
Takes rooms with Horatio Greenough.--Political talk with Lafayette.-- Riots in Paris.--Letters from Greenough.--Bunker Hill Monument.--Letters from Fenimore Cooper.--Cooper's portrait by Verboeckhoven.--European criticisms.--Reminiscences of R.W. Habersham.--Hints of an electric telegraph.--Not remembered by Morse.--Early experiments in photography.-- Painting of the Louvre.--Cholera in Paris.--Baron von Humboldt.--Morse presides at Fourth of July dinner.--Proposes toast to Lafayette.--Letter to New York "Observer" on Fenimore Cooper.--Also on pride in American citizenship.--Works with Lafayette in behalf of Poles.--Letter from Lafayette.--Morse visits London before sailing for home.--Sits to Leslie for head of Sterne
CHAPTER XX
Morse's life almost equally divided into two periods, artistic and scientific.--Estimate of his artistic ability by Daniel Huntington.--Also by Samuel Isham.--His character as revealed by his letters, notes, etc.-- End of Volume I

ILLUSTRATIONS
MORSE THE ARTIST (Photogravure) Painted by himself in London about 1814.
HOUSE IN WHICH MORSE WAS BORN, IN CHARLESTOWN, MASS.
REV. JEDEDIAH MORSE AND S. F. B. MORSE--ELIZABETH ANN MORSE AND SIDNEY E. MORSE From portraits by a Mr. Sargent, who also painted portraits of the Washington family.
THE DYING HERCULES Painted by Morse in 1813.
LETTER OF MORSE TO HIS PARENTS, OCTOBER 18, 1815.
MR. D. C. DE FOREST--MRS. D. C. DE FOREST From paintings by Morse now in the gallery of the Yale School of the Fine Arts.
LUCRETIA PICKERING WALKER, WIFE or S. F. B. MORSE, AND TWO CHILDREN Painted by Morse.
STUDY FOR PORTRAIT OF LAFAYETTE Now in New York Public Library.
ELIZABETH A. MORSE Painted by Morse.
JEREMIAH EVARTS From a portrait painted by Morse and owned by Sherman Evarts, Esq.
DE WITT CLINTON Painted by Morse. Owned by the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
HENRY CLAY Painted by Morse. Owned by the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
SUSAN W. MORSE. ELDEST DAUGHTER OF THE ARTIST

SAMUEL F.B. MORSE
HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS
CHAPTER I
APRIL 27. 1791--SEPTEMBER 8, 1810
Birth of S.F.B. Morse.--His parents.--Letters of Dr. Belknap and Rev. Mr. Wells.--Phillips, Andover.--First letter.--Letter from his father.-- Religious letter from Morse to his brothers.--Letters from the mother to her sons.--Morse enters Yale.--His journey there.--Difficulty in keeping up with his class.--Letter of warning from his mother.--Letters of Jedediah Morse to Bishop of London and Lindley Murray.--Morse becomes more studious.--Bill of expenses.--Longing to travel and interest in electricity.--Philadelphia and New York.--Graduates from college.--Wishes to accompany Allston to England, but submits to parents' desires.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th day of April, A.D. 1791. He came of good Puritan stock, his father, Jedediah Morse, being a militant clergyman of the Congregational Church, a fighter for orthodoxy at a time when Unitarianism was beginning to undermine the foundations of the old, austere, childlike faith.
These battles of the churches seem far away to us of the twentieth century, but they were very real to the warriors of those days, and, while many of the tenets of their faith may seem narrow to us, they were gospel to the godly of that tune, and reverence, obedience, filial piety, and courtesy were the rule and not the exception that they are to-day.
Jedediah Morse was a man of note in his day, known and respected at home and abroad; the friend of General Washington and other founders of the Republic; the author of the first American Geography and Gazetteer. His wife, Elizabeth Ann Breese, granddaughter of Samuel Finley, president of Princeton College, was a woman of great strength and yet sweetness of character; adored by her family and friends, a veritable mother in Israel.
Into this serene home atmosphere came young Finley Morse, the eldest of eleven children, only three of whom survived their infancy. The other two were Sidney Edwards and Richard Carey, both eminent men in their day.
Dr. Belknap, of Boston, in a letter to a friend in New York says:--
"Congratulate the Monmouth Judge [Mr. Breese] on the birth of a grandson.... As to the child, I saw him asleep, so can say nothing of his eye or his genius peeing through it. He may have the sagacity of a Jewish rabbi, or the profundity of a Calvin, or the sublimity of a Homer for aught I know. But time will show forth all things."
This sounds almost prophetic in the light of future days.
[Illustration: HOUSE IN WHICH MORSE WAS BORN, IN CHARLESTOWN, MASS.]
The following letter from the Reverend Mr. Wells is quaint and characteristic of the times:--
MY DEAR LITTLE BOY,--As a small testimony of my respect and obligation to your excellent Parents and of my love to you, I send you with this six (6) English Guineas. They are pretty playthings enough, and in