"Early in the history of the invention, in forecasting its future, I was accustomed to predict with confidence, 'It is destined to go round the world,' but I confess I did not expect to live to see the prediction fulfilled. It is quite as wonderful to me also that, with the thousand attempts to improve my system, with the mechanical skill of the world concentrated upon improving the mechanism, the result has been beautiful complications and great ingenuity, but no improvement. I have the gratification of knowing that my system, everywhere known as the 'Morse system,' is universally adopted throughout the world, because of its simplicity and its adaptedness to universality." This remains true to the present day, and is one of the remarkable features of this great invention. The germ of the "Morse system," as jotted down in the 1832 sketch-book, is the basic principle of the universal telegraph of to-day. In another letter to Mr. Wood, of September 11, 1864, referring to the sad death of the son of a mutual friend, he touches on two of the great enigmas of life which have puzzled many other minds:-- "It is one of those mysteries of Providence, one of those deep things of God to be unfolded in eternity, with the perfect vindication of God's wisdom and justice, that children of pious parents, children of daily anxiety and prayer, dedicated to God from their birth and trained to all human appearance 'in the way they should go,' should yet seem to falsify the promise that 'they should not depart from it.' It is a subject too deep to fathom. "... It is my daily, I may say hourly, thought, certainly my constant wakeful thought at night, how to resolve the question: 'Why has God seen fit so abundantly to shower his earthly blessings upon me in my latter days, to bless me with every desirable comfort, while so many so much more deserving (in human eyes at least) are deprived of all comfort and have heaped upon them sufferings and troubles in every shape?'" The memory of his student days in London was always dear to him, and on January 4, 1865, he writes to William Cullen Bryant:-- "I have this moment received a printed circular respecting the proposed purchase of the portrait of Allston by Leslie to be presented to the National Academy of Design.