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and when we read the "Old Arm Chair," "Sights from a Steeple," "Little Annie's Ramble," "Sunday at Home," "A Rill from the Town Pump," "The Toll Gatherer's Day," "The Haunted Mind," "The Snow Flakes," "Night Sketches," and the "Celestial Railroad," we find as many figures and as much dreaming in Hawthorne's progress as we do in Pilgrim's Progress." He has not the polish of Irving, the poetry of Lamb, nor the variety of Hazlitt. The subject of this sketch is to all intents and purposes a first-rate storyteller; for he has invention and imagination, refined style, exquisite taste, delicate humor, melting pathos, and scholarship sufficient and ingenuity enough to employ all the materials and attributes he possesses to the best account.

A friend of mine informed me to-day that Hawthorne is such a modest man that he will not look another in the face —that he is so bashful he avoids society, and will sometimes leave his house to avoid the contact of visitors.

In person he is a little above the ordinary stature has dark hair and dark, dreamy eyes. He is seen so seldom in public, it is as difficult to describe him as to paint a figure of the fleeting air.

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

WHAT an age of invention and improvement is this! Our path is paved with rails of iron, on which steeds of steam outrace the eagle; our portraits are painted by the sun, so accurately that ugly people, who are vain, seldom look a daguerreotypist in the face; but the greatest and most important invention of this century, is the Magnetic Telegraph, as a communicator of intelligence by signs, which it records in characters so palpable that he who runs may read—while no one can run so fast as the news can fly. The railroad, the steamboat, sun-painting, are not to be compared for a moment with the invention perfected by Professor Morse. Watts, Fulton, Franklin, and other men deserve our affectionate admiration, but Morse overshadows them all; and he will live for ever, fresh in the recollection of his countrymen; while those who would deprive him of his honor, fairly won, and his reward, so niggardly bestowed, will sink to insignificance. I do not now refer to the men who have suggested improvements in the method of recording the communication received and transmitted on the wires, but to those who, through envy and jealousy, manifest a mean reluctance to give honor to whom honor is due, and withhold the consideration to which Professor Morse is so well entitled.

The distinguished American artist who invented the Elec

tric Telegraph, is the eldest son of the Rev. Jedediah Morse, the first writer on geography in this country. He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and is now about sixty years of age. He studied at Yale College, where he graduated in 1810. Having an irresistible desire to become a painter, his father reluctantly gave his consent, and permitted him to sail for London under the care of Washington Allston. After his arrival in the great Babylon of Britain, he became acquainted with Leslie, and their first efforts were portraits of each other. So industrious and successful was Mr. Morse in his profession, that two years after his landing in London he exhibited, at the Royal Academy, his famous picture of "The Dying Hercules." He received the most flattering compliments from connossieurs, and the model which he made to assist him in painting his picture, obtained the sculpture prize for him.

When he returned to the United States, he settled in Boston, where he had to contend with so many discouragements, he quitted the city of "Notions" and went to New Hampshire, and painted portraits for a trifling consideration—say from $10 to $15 each. Afterwards he plied his pencil in Charleston, South Carolina, where his talents were appreciated, and where he was more generously compensated for his labors. In 1822 he commenced operations in the city of New York, where he became popular as a painter, and where he was handsomely compensated for his skill. It was there, under the auspices of the City Corporation, he painted the full-length likeness of Lafayette.

About this time he was mainly instrumental in organizing

the Artists' Association, from which grew the National Academy of Design. He was, the first president of this famous institution, and he delivered the first course of lectures on Art in America. In the year 1829 he again visited Europe, and was absent from his native land three years. 66 On his return from Europe," says the author of the "Men of the Time," "a gentleman in describing the experiments that had just been made in Paris with the electro magnet, the question arose as to the time occupied by the electric fluid in passing through the wire, stated to be about one hundred feet in length. On the reply that it was instantaneous (recollecting the experiments of Franklin), he suggested that it might be carried to any distance, and that the electric spark could be made a means of conveying and recording intelligence. This suggestion, which drew some casual observation of assent from the party, took deep hold of Professor Morse, who undertook to develope the idea which he originated, and before the end. of the voyage, he had drawn out and written the general plan of the invention, with which his name will be inseparably connected."

After landing in New York, he resumed the practice of his profession, devoting his leisure moments to the accomplishment of his object. In 1835 he demonstrated the feasibility of his plan in the New York University, by putting a model telegraph in operation. Two years afterwards, Wheatstone, of England, and Steinheil, of Bavaria, also invented magnetic telegraphs, differing from each other, and both inferior to the invention of Professor Morse.

Since that time the entire world has been made acquainted with the progress and history of the invention. Professor Morse has received honors and presents from various sources. At the suggestion of Steinheil, his system was adopted in Germany; the sultan of Turkey bestowed on him the "order of glory," with a diploma decorated with diamonds; the king of Prussia, though not wishing the discovery to be sneezed at, gave him a gold snuff-box; the king of Würtemberg gave him a gold medal. In 1840 he received his patent from Washington. The first news carried over the wires was the announcement of the nomination of James K. Polk as the candidate selected by the Democrats for the Presidency. Now there are nearly twenty thousand miles of wire in operation in this and other countries. This lightning compeller has such a passion for painting, that even now he speaks of resuming his pencil. I do not like to hunt up coincidences, but it is somewhat singular that the man who taught our fathers and grandfathers geography, should have a son whose inventive genius has taught us how to annihilate the distance which divides one part of the world from the other—and that the inventor should have a brother, the editor of the "New York Observer," whose business can be so much improved and accelerated by this great discovery. Columbus discovered this continent, Washington made it free, Franklin caught the lightning, and Morse has harnessed it and made it our messenger,