Morse must have penned these words with peculiar satisfaction, for they epitomized his own sublime faith in his future.  In 1837 he also was passing through some of his darkest hours, but he too had had faith, and now, thirty years afterwards, his dreams of glory had been triumphantly realized, he was an honored guest of that other man of destiny, and his name was forever immortalized.

The spring and early summer of 1867 were enjoyed to the full by the now venerable inventor and his family.  The Exposition was a source of never-ending joy to him, and he says of it in a letter to his son-in-law, Edward Lind:—­

“You will hear all sorts of stories about the Exposition.  The English papers (some of them), in John Bull style, call it a humbug.  Let me tell you that, imperfect as it is in its present condition, going on rapidly to completion, it may without exaggeration be pronounced the eighth wonder of the world.  It is the world in epitome.  I came over with my children to give them the advantage of thus studying the world in anticipation of what I now see, and I can say that the two days only in which I have been able to glance through parts of its vast extent, have amply repaid me for my voyage here.  I believe my children will learn more of the condition of the arts, agriculture, customs, manufactures and mineral and vegetable products of the world in five weeks than they could by books at home in five years, and as many years’ travel.”

He was made an Honorary Commissioner of the United States to the Exposition, and he prepared an elaborate and careful report on the electrical department, for which he received a bronze medal from the French Government.  Writing of this report to his brother Sidney, he says:  “This keeps me so busy that I have no time to write, and I have so many irons in the fire that I fear some must burn.  But father’s motto was—­’Better wear out than rust out,’—­so I keep at work.”

In a letter to his friend, the Honorable John Thompson, of Poughkeepsie, he describes one of his dissipations:—­

“Paris now is the great centre of the World.  Such an assemblage of sovereigns was never before gathered, and I and mine are in the midst of the great scenes and fetes.  We were honored, a few evenings ago, with cards to a very select fete given by the emperor and empress at the Tuilleries to the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, to the Queen of Portugal, the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, sister of the late Emperor Nicholas, a noble looking woman, the Princess Metternich of Austria, and many others.

“The display was gorgeous, and as the number of guests was limited (only one thousand!) there was more space for locomotion than at the former gatherings at the Palace, where we were wedged in with some four thousand.  There was dancing and my daughter was solicited by one of the gentlemen for a set in which Prince Alfred and the Turkish Ambassador danced, the latter with an American belle, one of the Miss Beckwiths.  I allowed her to dance in this set once.  The Empress is truly a beautiful woman and of unaffected manners.”