CHAPTER III. 



X TEACHER: A STUDENT OF LAW, AND TUTOR IN COLLEGE. 



His Labors on the Farm at Home. Teaches School in Wethersfield. 

 Becomes a Law-Student in New Haven, and Tutor in Yale College. 

 Letters of Rev. Dr. Marsh and Rev. Dr. Porter. His Early Friends. 

 His Early Productions. Early Letters. His Religious Impressions. 



THE year following his graduation Mr. Silliman 

 spent at the home of his mother, in Fairfield. His 

 father's business as a lawyer had been broken up by 

 the Revolutionary War; he had been obliged to neg 

 lect his farm ; and as he was not in the continental 

 line, nor in active service at the time of his capture, 

 he was never reimbursed for the serious losses and 

 expenses incident to his protracted imprisonment. 

 His life terminated before he had extricated his af 

 fairs from embarrassment, and although his property 

 proved to be more than sufficient to meet the de 

 mands upon his estate, careful management was re 

 quired. Mr. Silliman, on graduating, was still a suf 

 ferer from the effects of the hurt above mentioned, 

 and disabled for the most part from intellectual la 

 bor. For this reason, and moved by the stronger im 

 pulse of filial duty, he devoted himself to reclaiming 

 the farm-lands, which had run to waste. He went 

 into the field with the laborers, and had the satisfac 

 tion of conferring a substantial benefit upon his sur 

 viving parent. But during this period he was cut 



