the creature to work. There is honor due to
Henry for his great discovery of the scientific principle; there is honor
also due to Morse for his invention of the ingenious machine which
accomplishes the work.

"Men of science regard the discovery of a new fact in science as a higher
attainment than the application of it to useful purposes, while the world
at large regards the _application_ of the principle or fact in science to
the useful arts as of paramount importance. All honor to the discoverer
of a new fact in science; equal honor to him who utilizes that fact for
the benefit of mankind.

"Has the world forgotten what Robert Fulton did for the navigation of the
waters by steamboats? It was he who first applied steam to propel a
vessel and navigated the Hudson for the first time with steam and
paddle-wheels and vessel in 1807. Do not we honor him as the Father of
steamboats? Yet Fulton did not invent steam, nor the steam-engine, nor
paddle-wheels, nor the vessel. He merely adapted a steam-engine to a
vessel armed with paddle-wheels. The combination was his invention.

"There is another example on record. Cyrus H. McCormick, the Father of
the Reaping and Mowing Machine, took out the first successful patent in
1837, and is justly acknowledged the world over as the inventor of this
great machine. Although one hundred and forty-six patents were granted in
England previous to McCormick's time, they are but so many unsuccessful
efforts to perfect a practical machine. The cutting apparatus, the device
to raise and lower the cutters, the levers, the platform, the wheels, the
framework, had all been used before McCormick's time. But McCormick was
the first genius able to put these separate devices together in a
practical, harmonious operation. The combination was his invention.

"Morse did more. He invented the form of the various parts of his machine
as well as their combination; he was the first to put such a machine into
practical operation; and for such a purpose who can question his title as
the Inventor of the Electric Telegraph?"

To the letter of Professor Gale, Morse replied on January 25:--

"Thank you sincerely for your effective interference in my favor in the
recent, but not unexpected, attack of F.O.J.S. I will, so soon as I can
free myself from some very pressing matters, write you more fully on the
subject. Yet I can add nothing to your perfectly clear exposition of the
difference between a discovery of