Covington, Ky.
T.W.B.
* * * * *
Man Proposes, but God Disposes.
It may not be generally known that but for one of those accidents which
seem to be almost a direct interposition of Providence, Prof. Morse,
the originator of the magnetic telegraph, might have been now an artist
instead of the inventor of the telegraph, and that agent of civilization
be either unknown or just discovered. We publish from Tuckerman's "Book
of the Artists" just from the press of G. P. Putnam & Son, the following
reminiscence of Prof. Morse:
"A striking evidence of the waywardness of destiny is afforded by the
experience of this artist, if we pass at once from this early and
hopeful moment to a more recent incident. He then aimed at renown
through devotion to the beautiful; but it would seem as if the genius of
his country, in spite of himself, led him to this object, by the less
flowery path of utility. He desired to identify his name with art, but
it has become far more widely associated with science. A series of
bitter disappointments obliged him to "coin his mind for bread", for a
long period, of exclusive attention to portrait painting, although, at
rare intervals, he accomplished something more satisfactory.
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