It is one of the most difficult undertakings to endeavor to take a portrait from recollection of one whose countenance has not been examined particularly for the purpose.

When I made the first attempt, not a single feature could I recall distinctly to my memory and I almost despaired of a likeness, but the thought of lessening the affliction of such a distressed family determined me to attempt it a second time.

The result is on the ivory.

I then showed it to my brothers, to Mr.Evarts, to Mr.Hillhouse, to Mr.
Mallory, and to Mr.Read, all of whom had not the least suspicion of anything of the kind, and they have severally and separately pronounced it a likeness of young Mr.Daggett.This encouraged me, and I made the two other sketches which are thought likewise to be resemblances of him.
"If these or any one of them can be recognized by the afflicted family as a resemblance of him they have lost, it will be an ample compensation to me to think that I have in any degree been the means of alleviating their suffering...." On December 8, 1810, he writes to his brother: "I have almost completed my landscape.

It is 'proper handsome,' so they say, and they want to make me believe it is so, but I shan't yet awhile." This shows the right frame of mind for an artist, and yet, like most youthful painters, he attempted more than his proficiency warranted, for in this same letter he adds: "I am going to begin, as soon as I have finished it [the landscape], a piece, the subject of which will be 'Marius on the Ruins of Carthage.'" On December 28, 1810, he writes: "I shall leave Mr.Mallory's next week and study painting exclusively till summer." He had at last burst his bonds, and his wise parents, seeing that his heart was only in his painting, decided to throw no further obstacles in his way, but, at the cost of much self-sacrifice on their part, to further in every way his ambition.
January 15, 1811.
MY DEAR BROTHERS,--We have just received Richard's letter of the 8th inst., and I can have a pretty correct idea of your feelings at the beginning of a vacation.