No sooner was he settled in Mr. Barlow’s home than Fulton commenced the study of the French language, and later German and Italian. As his need arose, in the development of his inventions, he also studied higher mathematics, chemistry, perspective drawing and physics. He was twenty-nine years of age at this time but was wise enough to know that “one is never too old to learn.”
Of course he needed money and naturally he took up his brush to earn it. About this time he painted several portraits, one a fine likeness of his good friend Joel Barlow. West had probably given him letters of introduction to the artists of Paris, for Fulton was soon at home among them. Vanderlyn made a charming pencil sketch of Fulton; and Houdon, the famous sculptor, who had visited America with Benjamin Franklin, carved a marble bust of Fulton which is now preserved in the Louvre. During the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, this bust was reproduced in bronze for the New York Historical Society and also for the Metropolitan Museum.
The great men of the world are always the busiest. Fulton accomplished much during the fifty years of his life. He was never idle, and he made each day count for something. This is a good rule to remember, for so many days are likely to slip by without real result. The sum total of a life’s work is only the mere addition of many so-called “small” duties.
Fulton still remembered his dear old mother in the distant farm-home of Pennsylvania, and in 1799 sent her so delightful a letter, with a present of thirty-six guineas, that you will want to read this proof of his faithful affection; and, perhaps, smile a little over his merry pleasantries about the French ladies, and his sturdy preference for the ladies of his own land.
Paris, July 2, 1799.
My dear Mother;
Still Europe holds me, not by ties of affection but by the bonds of business with which I am ever so much engaged that I have not had time even to fall in love: And now having arrived at the age of 32 years the ladies of my acquaintance, who, good creatures, are much concerned for my future happiness and honour, begin to fear that I shall die an Old bachelor; hence with eyes full of regard and the sweetest arguments they persuade me to avoid so miserable an end: In my own mind I have determined to avoid it but it is my intention to reserve all my affections for some amiable American whose customs and manners I prefer to anything I have yet seen in Europe. You will now ask when shall this be,—when will I return. This I will no longer promise because having promised frequently without being able to perform there is not much reliance in them: But still I hope the time is not distant when I will step into your little neat room, in one corner of which perhaps you have my picture, the only donation which I then had in my power to present, because being my own work it was attended with very little expense.
But in this letter I send you thirty six pictures of the late King of France, known in America by the name of French guineas; these, my dear mother, I hope will be of use to you, and help to take some weight of cares off your weight of years. And each year I will endeavor to aid you in proportion to my circumstances.
I am in excellent health, six feet high and thin; this being thin I think rather an advantage because it suffers (allows) a man to be active. I would not be loaded with the quantity of fat which some gentlemen are obliged to carry into company, not for their whole estate.…
To Mr. Smith, my Sisters, Brothers in law and friends, remember me with love and friendship, and believe me everything which is right in an affectionate son,