expect
that my own wisdom had guided me into that way best for me and the
universe of God's creatures?

"I have not painted a picture since that decision in Congress, and I
presume that the mechanical skill I once possessed in the art has
suffered by the unavoidable neglect. I may possibly recover this skill,
and if anything will tend to this end, if anything can tune again an
instrument so long unstrung, it is the kindness and liberality of my
Cousin Edward. I would wish, therefore, the matter put on this ground
that my mind may be at ease. I am at present engaged in taking portraits
by the Daguerreotype. I have been at considerable expense in perfecting
apparatus and the necessary fixtures, and am just reaping a little profit
from it. My ultimate aim is the application of the Daguerreotype to
accumulate for my studio models for my canvas. Its first application will
be to the study of your picture. Yet if any accident, any unforeseen
circumstances should prevent, I have made arrangements with my brother
Sidney to hold the sum you have advanced subject to your order. On these
conditions I accept it, and will yet indulge the hope of giving you a
picture acceptable to you."

The picture was never painted, for the discouraged artist found neither
time nor inclination ever to pick up his brush again; but we may be sure
that the money, so generously advanced by his cousin, was repaid.

It was in the year 1841 also that, in spite of the difficulty he found in
earning enough to keep him from actual starvation, he began to pay back
the sums which had been advanced to him by his friends for the painting
of a historical picture, which should, in a measure, atone to him for the
undeserved slight of Congress. In a circular addressed to each of the
subscribers he gives the history of the matter and explains why he had
hoped that the telegraph would supply him with the means to paint the
picture, and then he adds:--

"I have, as yet, not realized one cent, and thus I find myself farther
from my object than ever. Upon deliberately considering the matter the
last winter and spring, I came to the determination, in the first place,
to free myself from the pecuniary obligation under which I had so long
lain to my friends of the Association, and I commenced a system of
economy and retrenchment by which I hoped gradually to amass the
necessary sum for that purpose, which sum, it will be seen, amounts in
the aggregate to $510. Three hund