sition--a dying Hercules--and proceeded at once to act upon this
suggestion. Having prepared a model that exhibited the upper part of the
body--which alone would be visible in the picture--he submitted it to
Allston, who recognized so much truth in the anatomy and expression that
he urgently advised its completion. After six weeks of careful labor,
the statue was finished and sent to West for inspection. That venerable
artist, upon entering the room, put on his spectacles, and as he walked
around the model, carefully examining its details and general effect, a
look of genuine satisfaction beamed from his face. He rang for an
attendant and bade him call his son. 'Look here, Raphael,' he exclaimed,
as the latter appeared; 'did I not always tell you that every painter
could be a sculptor?' We may imagine the delight of the student at such
commendation. The same day one of his fellow pupils called his attention
to a notice issued by the Adelphi Society of Arts, offering a prize for
the best single figure, to be modeled and sent to the rooms of the
association within a certain period. The time fixed would expire in
three days. Morse profited by the occasion, and placed his 'Dying
Hercules' with the thirteen other specimens already entered. He was
consequently invited to the meeting of the society on the evening when
the decision was to be announced, and received from the hands of the
Duke of Norfolk, the presiding officer, and in the presence of the
foreign ambassadors, the gold medal. Perhaps no American ever started in
the career of an artist under more flattering auspices; and we can not
wonder that a beginning so successful encouraged the young painter to
devote himself assiduously to study, with a view of returning to his own
country fully prepared to illustrate the historical department of the
art."

Morse spent four years in Europe in close study, and was then obliged to
return to America by lack of means to carry on his education in the Old
World. He had not indeed reached the high degree of proficiency which he
had hoped to obtain before returning home, but he was possessed of
natural talents and acquired skill, which fairly entitled him to
recognition as one of our leading artists. This recognition never came
to him, however, and his artist life in this country was a series of
sorrowful disappointments. He found no opportunity of devoting himself
to the higher branches of his art, and was obliged to confine himself