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

at funerals.-- Campo Santo at Naples.--Gruesome conditions.--Ubiquity
of beggars.-- Convent of St. Martino.--Masterpiece of
Spagnoletto.--Returns to Rome.-- Paints portrait of
Thorwaldsen.--Presented to him in after years by John Taylor
Johnston.--Given to King of Denmark.--Reflections on the social evil
and the theatre.--Death of the Pope.--An assassination.--The Honorable
Mr. Spencer and Catholicism.--Election of Pope Gregory XVI
CHAPTER XVIII
FEBRUARY 10, 1831--SEPTEMBER 12, 1831
Historic events witnessed by Morse.--Rumors of revolution.--Danger to
foreigners.--Coronation of the new Pope.--Pleasant experience.--Cause
of the revolution a mystery.--Bloody plot foiled.--Plans to leave for
Florence.--Sends casts, etc., to National 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,