But all will work for the best if we only look through the cloud and see a kind Parent directing all.

This reflection alone cheers me and gives me renewed strength." Conditions remained practically unchanged during the early part of the year 1842.

If it had not been for occasional bits of encouragement from different quarters the inventor would probably have yielded to the temptation to abandon all and depend on his brush again for a living.
Perhaps the ray of greatest encouragement which lightened the gloom of this depressing period was the following letter from Professor Henry, dated February 24, 1842:-- MY DEAR SIR--I am pleased to learn that you have again petitioned Congress in reference to your telegraph, and I most sincerely hope you will succeed in convincing our representatives of the importance of the invention.

In this you may, perhaps, find some difficulty, since, in the minds of many, the electro-magnetic telegraph is associated with the various chimerical projects constantly presented to the public, and particularly with the schemes so popular a year or two ago for the application of electricity as a moving power in the arts.

I have asserted, from the first, that all attempts of this kind are premature and made without a proper knowledge of scientific principles.