“I have just heard of the unfortunate capture of the Chesapeake.  Is our infant Hercules to be strangled at his birth?  Where is the spirit of former times which kindled in the hearts of the Bostonians?  Will they still be unmoved, or must they learn from more bitter experience that Britain is not for peace, and that the only way to procure it is to join heart and hand in a vigorous prosecution of the war?

“It is not the time now to think of party; the country is in danger; but I hope to hear soon that the honor of our navy is retrieved.  The brave Captain Lawrence will never, I am sure, be forgotten; his career of glory has been short but brilliant.

“All is rejoicing here; illuminations and fireworks and feux de joie for the capture of the Chesapeake and a victory in Spain.

“Imagine yourself, if possible, in my situation in an enemy’s country and hearing songs of triumph and exultation on the misfortunes of my countrymen, and this, too, on the 4th of July.  A less ardent spirit than mine might perhaps tolerate it, but I cannot.  I do long to be at home, to be in the navy, and teach these insolent Englishmen how to respect us....

“The Marquis Wellington has achieved a great victory in Spain, and bids fair to drive the French out very soon.  At this I rejoice as ought every man who abhors tyranny and loves liberty.  I wish the British success against everything but my country.  I often say with Cowper:  ’England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.’

“I am longing for Edwards’ comparison between poetry and painting, and to know how he will prove the former superior to the latter.  A painter must be a poet, but a poet need not be a painter.  How will he get over this argument?

“By the way, Mr. Allston has just published a volume of poems, a copy of which I will endeavor to send you.  They are but just published, so that the opinion of the public is not yet ascertained, but there is no doubt they will forever put at rest the calumny that America has never produced a poet.

“I have lately been enquiring for the coat-of-arms which belongs to the Morse family.  For this purpose I wish to know from what part of this Kingdom the Morses emigrated, and if you can recollect anything that belongs to the arms.  If you will answer these questions minutely, I can, for half a crown, ascertain the arms and crest which belong to the family, which (as there is a degree of importance attached to heraldry in this country) may be well to know.  I have seen the arms of one Morse which have been in the family three hundred years.  So we can trace our antiquity as far as any family.”

A letter from a college-mate, Mr. Joseph Hillhouse, written in Boston on July 12, 1813, gives a pretty picture of Morse’s home, and contains some quaint gossip which I shall transcribe:—­

“On Saturday afternoon the beauty of the weather invited my cousin Catherine Borland, my sister Mary (who is here on a visit), and myself to take a walk over to Charlestown for the purpose of paying a visit to your good parents.  We found them just preparing tea, and at once concluded to join the family party.