Viii PREFACE. 



of this Institution than to others ; and yet even the 

 European friends of Professor Silliman, into whose 

 hands this work may fall, will, perhaps, be interested 

 in marking the steps by which the higher Institutions 

 of learning in this country have risen to their present 

 degree of prosperity. On other topics, also, details, 

 which might appear to some gratuitous, I have fre 

 quently admitted for the reason that they served to 

 fill out a picture, or were characteristic of the Author. 

 Little circumstances that aid us in reproducing the 

 features of social life in the past, have a constantly 

 increasing value. 



But a small part of the correspondence on the fol 

 lowing pages has to do with strictly scientific in 

 quiries. Professor Silliman did a great work for 

 science ; but he was not given to speculation, nor 

 did he devote himself, as under other circumstances 

 he might have done, to original investigations. Hence 

 his strictly scientific correspondence is mainly that 

 of an Editor, and affords comparatively little matter 

 of permanent value. But his epistolary intercourse 

 with men of science was, nevertheless, large, and is 

 probably of more interest to the general reader than 

 if it were predominantly made up of scientific dis 

 cussions. To the persons who have granted me the 

 use of correspondence, I render my thankful acknowl 

 edgments. In the case of a very few foreign letters, 

 it has been inconvenient to consult their authors; 

 but these letters contain nothing of a private nature, 



