loneliness during the
absence of her husband, and yet of forced cheerfulness and submission to
the will of God.

On the 17th of March, 1823, another child was born, a son, who was named
for his maternal grandfather, Charles Walker. The child was at first very
delicate, and this added to the anxieties of the fond mother and father,
but he soon outgrew his childish ailments.

Morse's active mind was ever bent on invention, and in this year he
devised and sought to patent a machine for carving marble statues,
"perfect copies of any model." He had great hopes of pecuniary profit
from this invention and it is mentioned many times in the letters of this
and the following year, but he found, on enquiry, that it was not
patentable, as it would have been an infringement on the machine of
Thomas Blanchard which was patented in 1820.

So once more were his hopes of independence blasted, as they had been in
the case of the pump and fire-engine. He longed, like all artists, to be
free from the petty cares and humiliations of the struggle for existence,
free to give full rein to his lofty aspirations, secure in the confidence
that those he loved were well provided for; but, like most other
geniuses, he was compelled to drink still deeper of the bitter cup, to
drain it to the very dregs.

In the month of August, 1823, he went to Albany, hoping through his
acquaintance with the Patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, to establish
himself there. He painted the portrait of the Patroon, confident that, by
its exhibition, he would secure other orders. In a letter to his wife he
says:--

"I have found lodgings--a large front room on the second story,
twenty-five by eighteen feet, and twelve feet high--a fine room for
painting, with a neat little bedroom, and every convenience, and board,
all for six dollars a week, which I think is very reasonable. My landlord
is an elderly Irish gentleman with three daughters, once in independent
circumstances but now reduced. Everything bears the appearance of
old-fashioned gentility which you know I always liked. Everything is neat
and clean and genteel.... Bishop Hobart and a great many acquaintances
were on board of the boat upon which I came up to this city.

"I can form no idea as yet of the prospect of success in my profession
here. If I get enough to employ me I shall go no farther; if not, I may
visit some of the smaller towns in the interior of the State. I await
with some anxiety the result of