the public mind to be in great agitation. The play of 'Venice
Preserved' is not a moral play, and I should not ask you to read any part
of it if I could better explain to you the feelings of the public."

A few days later, on May 17, he says in a letter to his brothers:--

"The assassin Bellingham was immediately taken into custody. He was tried
on Friday and condemned to be executed to-morrow morning (Monday, 18th).
I shall go to the place to see the concourse of people, for to see him
executed I know I could not bear."

In a postscript written the day after he says:--

"I went this morning to the execution. A very violent rain prevented so
great a crowd as was expected. A few minutes before eight o'clock
Bellingham ascended the scaffold. He was very genteelly dressed; he bowed
to the crowd, who cried out, 'God bless you,' repeatedly. I saw him draw
the cap over his face and shake hands with the clergyman. I stayed no
longer, but immediately turned my back and was returning home. I had
taken but a few steps when the clock struck eight, and, on turning back,
I saw the crowd beginning to disperse. I have felt the effects of this
sight all day, and shall probably not get over it for weeks. It was a
dreadful sight. There were no accidents."

In spite of all these momentous occurrences, the young artist was
faithfully pursuing his studies, for in this same letter to his brothers
he says:--

"But enough of this; you will probably hear the whole account before this
reaches you. I am wholly absorbed in the studies of my profession; it is
a slow and arduous undertaking. I never knew till now the difficulties of
art, and no one can duly appreciate it unless he has tried it.
Difficulties, however, only increase my ardor and make me more determined
than ever to conquer them.

"Mr. West is very kind to me; I visit him occasionally of a morning to
hear him converse on art. He appears quite attached to me, as he is,
indeed, to all young American artists. It seems to give him the greatest
pleasure to think that one day the arts will flourish in America. He says
that Philadelphia will be the Athens of the world. That city certainly
gives the greatest encouragement of any place in the United States.
Boston is most backward, so, if ever I should return to America,
Philadelphia or New York would probably be my place of abode.

"I have just seen Mr. Stephen Van Rensselaer, who you know was at college
with us, and with whom I was in