1809-10 Dr. Day was teaching from Enfield's text-book on philosophy,
that 'if the (electric) circuit be interrupted, the fluid will become
visible, and when: it passes it will leave an impression upon any
intermediate body,' and he illustrated this by sending the spark through
a metal chain, so that it became visible between the links, and by
causing it to perforate paper. Morse afterwards declared this experiment
to have been the seed which rooted in his mind and grew into the
'invention of the telegraph.'

It is not evident that Morse had any distinct idea of the electric
telegraph in these days; but amidst his lessons in literature and
philosophy he took a special interest in the sciences of electricity and
chemistry. He became acquainted with the voltaic battery through the
lectures of his friend, Professor Sieliman; and we are told that during
one of his vacations at Yale he made a series of electrical experiments
with Dr. Dwight. Some years later he resumed these studies under his
friend Professor James Freeman Dana, of the University of New York, who
exhibited the electro-magnet to his class in 1827, and also under
Professor Renwick, of Columbia College.

Art seems to have had an equal if not a greater charm than science
for Morse at this period. A boy of fifteen, he made a water-colour
sketch of his family sitting round the table; and while a student at
Yale he relieved his father, who was far from rich, of a part of his
education by painting miniatures on ivory, and selling them to his
companions at five dollars a-piece. Before he was nineteen he completed
a painting of the 'Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,' which formerly
hung in the office of the Mayor, at Charlestown, Massachusetts.

On graduating at Yale, in 1810, he devoted himself to Art, and became