most wonderful achievement, and wished me to inform him how I came to
invent it. I accordingly in a few words gave him the early history of it,
to which he listened most attentively and thanked me, expressing himself
highly gratified. After a few minutes more of conversation of the same
character, the king shook me warmly by the hand and we took our leave....

"We arrived in the afternoon at Copenhagen. Mrs. F. called in her
carriage. We drove to the Thorwaldsen Museum or Depository where are all
the works of this great man. This collection of the greatest sculptor
since the best period of Greek art is attractive enough in itself to call
travellers of taste to Copenhagen. After spending some hours in
Thorwaldsen's Museum I went to see the study of Oersted, where his most
important discovery of the _deflection of the needle_ by a galvanic
current was made, which laid the foundation of the science of
electro-magnetism, and without which my invention could not have been
made. It is now a drawing school. I sat at the table where he made his
discovery.

"We went to the Porcelain Manufactory, and, singularly enough, met there
the daughter of Oersted, to whom I had the pleasure of an introduction.
Oersted was a most amiable man and universally beloved. The daughter is
said to resemble her father in her features, and I traced a resemblance
to him in the small porcelain bust which I came to the manufactory to
purchase."

"_St. Petersburg, August 8, 1856._ Up to this date we have been in one
constant round of visits to the truly wonderful objects of curiosity in
this magnificent city. I have seen, as you know, most of the great and
marvellous cities of Europe, but I can truly say none of them can at all
compare in splendor and beauty to St. Petersburg. It is a city of