ybody else. Mr.
Allston was with me and told me afterwards that, however superior his
last piece was, this would far exceed it. The subject is Christ before
Pilate. It will contain about fifty or sixty figures the size of life."

"Mr. West is in his seventy-sixth year (I think), but, to see him, you
would suppose him only about five-and-forty. He is very active; a flight
of steps at the British Gallery he ran up as nimbly as I could.... I
walked through his gallery of paintings of his own productions; there
were upward of two hundred, consisting principally of the original
sketches of his large pieces. He has painted in all upwards of six
hundred pictures, which is more than any artist ever did with the
exception of Rubens the celebrated Dutch painter....

"I was surprised on entering the gallery of paintings in the British
Institution, at seeing eight or ten _ladies_ as well as gentlemen, with
their easels and palettes and oil colors, employed in copying some of the
pictures. You can see from this circumstance in what estimation the art
is held here, since ladies of distinction, without hesitation or reserve,
are willing to draw in public....

"By the way, I digress a little to inform you how I got my segars on
shore. When we first went ashore I filled my pockets and hat as full as I
could and left the rest in the top of my trunk intending to come and get
them immediately. I came back and took another pocket load and left about
eight or nine dozen on the top of my clothes. I went up into the city
again and forgot the remainder until it was too late either to take them
out or hide them under the clothes. So I waited trembling (for contraband
goods subject the whole trunk to seizure), but the custom-house officer,
being very good-natured and clever, saw them and took them up. I told him
they were only for my own smoking and there were so few that they were
not worth seizing. 'Oh,' says he, 'I shan't touch them; I won't know they
are here,' and then shut down the trunk again. As he smoked, I gave him a
couple of dozen for his kindness."

What a curious commentary on human nature it is that even the most pious,
up to our own time, can see no harm in smuggling and bribery. And, as
another instance of how the standards of right and wrong change with the
changing years, further on in this same letter to his strict and pious
parents young Morse says:--

"I have just received letters and papers from you by the Galen which h