created the
great forces of nature, not only as manifestations of his own infinite
power, but as expressions of good-will to man, to do him good, and that
every one of God's great forces could yet be utilized for man's welfare;
that modern science was constantly evolving from the hitherto hidden
secrets of nature some new development promotive of human welfare; and
that, at no distant day, magnetism would do more for the advancement of
human sociology than any of the material forces yet known; that he would
scarcely dare to compare spiritual with material forces, yet that,
analogically, magnetism would do in the advancement of human welfare what
the Spirit of God would do in the moral renovation of man's nature; that
it would educate and enlarge the forces of the world.... He said he had
felt as if he was doing a great work for God's glory as well as for man's
welfare; that such had been his long cherished thought. His whole soul
and heart appeared filled with a glow of love and good-will, and his
sensitive and impassioned nature seemed almost to transform him in my
eyes into a prophet."

It required, indeed, the inspirational vision of a prophet to foresee, in
those narrow, skeptical days, the tremendous part which electricity was
to play in the civilization of a future age, and I wish again to lay
stress on the fact that it was the telegraph which first harnessed this
mysterious force, and opened the eyes of the world to the availability of
a power which had lain dormant through all the ages, but which was now,
for the first time, to be brought under the control of man, and which was
destined to rival, and eventually to displace, in many ways, its elder
brother steam. Was not Morse's ambition to confer a lasting good on his
fellowmen more fully realized than even he himself at that time
comprehended?

The Reverend Henry B. Tappan, who in 1835 was a colleague of Morse's in
the New York University and afterwards President of the University of
Michigan, gave his testimony in reply to a request from Morse, and, among
other things, he said:--

"In 1835 you had advanced so far that you were prepared to give, on a
small scale, a practical demonstration of the possibility of transmitting
and recording words through distance by means of an electro-magnetic
arrangement. I was one of the limited circle whom you invited to witness
the first experiments. In a long room of the University you had wires
extended from end to end,