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I at once resolved to go to see him, which I did at the expense of a long walk & a good wetting, for he has a new studio quite out in the fields. I looked at his studies and found them extremely good - the best made by any young Philadelphian coming from abroad. I told him I had come to secure some of his best efforts for the Exh. He replied that he could send nothing, that he never again intends to enter the Academy &c , and after a little while he told me the whole story which he declared he had [[underlined]]kept to himself [[/underline]], except that he had related the circumstances to three friends to get their advice. I told him he would make a great mistake to begin his career with such an obstacle upon it - that [[end page]] [[start page]] even according to his story, the Directors could do nothing else; that they must sustain Corliss, or else dismiss him, which they would not be justified in doing, unless with clear proof of lying on his part &c. That I could easily see how a mere verbal agreement, passed hurriedly might have a very different signification to the two parties & that he ought to believe in the possibility of Corliss considering himself in the right. &c &c. He said that you had written him a good-natured note, in reply to one from him, asking why he had been dropped. For some time he held out that what he did was right & inevitable, & that he would not exhibit. But in the end he agreed to reconsider the matter of his determination, & I have no doubt at all of securing [end of page]