It would tend to elevate and refine the public feeling by turning their thoughts from sensuality and luxury to intellectual pleasures, and it would encourage and support a class of citizens who have always been reckoned among the brightest stars in the constellation of American worthies, and who are, to this day, compelled to exile themselves from their country and all that is dear to them, in order to obtain a bare subsistence.
"I do not speak of _portrait-painters;_ had I no higher thoughts than being a first-rate portrait-painter, I would have chosen a far different profession.

My ambition is to be among those who shall revive the splendor of the fifteenth century; to rival the genius of a Raphael, a Michael Angelo, or a Titian; my ambition is to be enlisted in the constellation of genius now rising in this country; I wish to shine, not by a light borrowed from them, but to strive to shine the brightest.
"If I could return home and stay a year visiting my friends in various parts of the Union, and, by painting portraits, make sufficient to bring me to England again at the end of the year, whilst I obtained commissions enough to employ me and support me while in England, I think, in the course of a year or two, I shall have obtained sufficient credit to enable me to return home, if not for the remainder of my life, at least to pay a good long visit.
"In all these plans I wish you to understand me as always taking into consideration _the will of Providence;_ and, in every plan for future operation, I hope I am not forgetful of the uncertainty of human life, and I wish always to say _should I live_ I will do this or that....
"I perceive by your late letters that you suppose I am painting a large picture.

I did think of it some time ago and was only deterred on account of the expenses attending it.

All this I will explain to your entire satisfaction when I see you, and why I do not think it expedient to make an exhibition when I return.
"I perceive also that you are a little too sanguine with respect to me and expect a little too much from me.

You must recollect I am yet but a student and that a picture of any merit is not painted in a day.
Experienced as Mr.West is (and he also paints quicker than any other artist), his last large picture cost him between three and four years' constant attention.