the
fertile brain of this same F.O.J. Smith.

While the inventor was fighting for his rights in his own country, his
invention, by the sheer force of its superiority, was gradually
displacing all other systems abroad. Even in England it was superseding
the Cooke and Wheatstone needle telegraph, and on the Continent it had
been adopted by Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Hanover, and Turkey. It is
worthy of note that that broad-minded scientist, Professor Steinheil, of
Bavaria, who had himself invented an ingenious plan of telegraph when he
was made acquainted with the Morse system, at once acknowledged its
superiority and urged its adoption by the Bavarian Government. In France,
too, it was making its way, and Morse, in answer to a letter of inquiry
as to terms, etc., by M. Brequet, thus characteristically avows his
motives, after finishing the business part of the letter, which is dated
April 21, 1851:--

"To be frank with you, my dear sir (and I feel that I can be frank with
you), while I am not indifferent to the pecuniary rewards of my invention
(which will be amply satisfactory if my own countrymen will but do me
justice), yet as these were not the stimulus to my efforts in perfecting
and establishing my invention, so they now hold but a subordinate
position when I attempt to comprehend the full results of the Telegraph
upon the welfare of my fellow men. I am more solicitous to see its
benefits extended world-wide during my lifetime than to turn the stream
of wealth, which it is generating to millions of persons, into my own
pocket. A few drops from the sea, which may not be missed, will suffice
for me."

In the early days of 1852 death took from him one of his dearest friends,
and the following letter, written in February, 1852, to Rufus Griswold,
Esq., expresses his sentiments:--

"I sincerely regret that circumstances over which I have no control
prevent my participation in the services commemorative of the character,
literary and moral, of my lamented friend the late James Fenimore Cooper,
Esq.

"I can scarcely yet realize that he is no longer with us, for the
announcement of his death came upon me most unexpectedly. The pleasure of
years of close intimacy with Mr. Cooper was never for a moment clouded by
the slightest coolness. We were in daily, I can truly say, almost hourly,
intercourse in the year 1831 in Paris. I never met with a more sincere,
warm-hearted, constant friend. No man came nearer to the ideal