The venerable Professor then arose amid tumultuous applause. He was laboring under deep feeling, too strong to be concealed.
As he did so the whole company made cheer follow cheer in testimony of their admiration and respect. At last in a clear voice he addressed the company at considerable length, reciting the history of the telegraph, and concluding as follows:
“In casting my eyes around I am most agreeably greeted by faces that carry me back in memory to the days of my art struggles in this city, the early days of the National Academy of Design.
“Brothers (for you are yet brothers if I have left your ranks), you well know it cost me many a pang. I did not leave you until I saw you well established and entering on that career of prosperity due to your own just appreciation of the important duties belonging to your profession.
“You have an institution which now holds, and (if true to yourselves) will continue to hold, a high position in the estimation of this appreciative community.
“If I have stepped aside from art to tread what seems another path, there is a good precedent for it in the lives of artists. Science and art are not opposed.
“Leonardo da Vinci could find congenial relaxation in scientific researches and invention, and our own Fulton was a painter, whose scientific studies resulted in steam navigation.
“It may not be generally known that the important invention of the percussion cap is due to the scientific recreations of the English painter, Shaw; but I must not further detain you from more instructive speech. One word only in closing.
“I have claimed for America the origination of the modern telegraph system of the world; impartial history, I think, will support that claim.
“‘Not unto us, not unto us,
But to God be the glory
What hath God wrought.’”