activity, and Morse showed more than a little interest in electricity
and chemistry, his major interest remained art. He eagerly looked
forward to graduation that he might devote his entire time to the
study of painting. It is significant of the tolerance and breadth of
vision of his parents that they apparently put no bars in the path
of this ambition, though they had sacrificed to give him the best
of collegiate trainings that he might fit himself for the ministry,
medicine, or the law. As a boy of fifteen Samuel Morse had painted
water-colors that attracted attention, and he was possessed of enough
talent to paint miniatures while at Yale which were salable at five
dollars apiece, and so aided in defraying his college expenses.

After his graduation from Yale in 1810, Morse devoted himself entirely
to the study of art, still being dependent upon his parents for
support. He secured the friendship and became the pupil of Washington
Allston, then a foremost American painter. In the summer of 1811
Allston sailed for England, and Morse accompanied him. In London he
came to the attention of Benjamin West, then at the height of his
career, and benefited by his advice and encouragement.

That he had no ambition other than his art at this period we may learn
from a letter he wrote to his mother in 1812.

My passion for my art [he wrote] is so firmly rooted that I
am confident no human power could destroy it. The more I study
the greater I think is its claim to the appellation divine. I
am now going to begin a picture of the death of Hercules, the
figure to be large as life.

When he had completed this picture to his own satisfaction, he showed