“You ask if you are to expect me the next summer.  This leads me to a little enlargement on the peculiar circumstances in which I am now placed.  Mr. Allston’s letter by the same cartel will convince you that industry and application have not been wanting on my part, that I have made greater progress than young men generally, etc., etc., and of how great importance it is to me to remain in Europe for some time yet to come.  Indeed I feel it so much so myself that I shall endeavor to stay at all risks.  If I find that I cannot support myself, that I am contracting debts which I have no prospect of paying, I shall then return home and settle down into a mere portrait-painter for some time, till I can obtain sufficient to return to Europe again; for I cannot be happy unless I am pursuing the intellectual branch of the art.  Portraits have none of it; landscape has some of it, but history has it wholly.  I am certain you would not be satisfied to see me sit down quietly, spending my time in painting portraits, throwing away the talents which Heaven has given me for the higher branches of art, and devoting my time only to the inferior.

“I need not tell you what a difficult profession I have undertaken.  It has difficulties in itself which are sufficient to deter any man who has not firmness enough to go through with it at all hazards, without meeting with any obstacles aside from it.  The more I study it, the more I am enchanted with it; and the greater my progress, the more am I struck with its beauties, and the perseverance of those who have dared to pursue it through the thousands of natural hindrances with which the art abounds.

“I never can feel too grateful to my parents for having assisted me thus far in my profession.  They have done more than I had any right to expect; they have conducted themselves with a liberality towards me, both in respect to money and to countenancing me in the pursuit of one of the noblest of professions, which has not many equals in this country.  I cannot ask of them more; it would be ingratitude.

“I am now in the midst of my studies when the great works of ancient art are of the utmost service to me.  Political events have just thrown open the whole Continent; the whole world will now leave war and bend their attention to the cultivation of the arts of peace.  A golden age is in prospect, and art is probably destined to again revive as in the fifteenth century.

“The Americans at present stand unrivalled, and it is my great ambition (and it is certainly a commendable one) to stand among the first.  My country has the most prominent place in my thoughts.  How shall I raise her name, how can I be of service in refuting the calumny, so industriously spread against her, that she has produced no men of genius?  It is this more than anything (aside from painting) that inspires me with a desire to excel in my art.  It arouses my indignation and gives me tenfold energy in the pursuit of my studies.  I should like to be the greatest painter purely out of revenge.