APPOINTED PROFESSOR: STUDIES IN PHILADELPHIA. 91 



understood its nature and its position among the physical 

 sciences. I was, on an early occasion, much impressed with 

 the correctness of his views, when I accidentally overheard 

 him on the door-steps of the Laboratory replying to a lady, 

 a stranger, who asked him, " Pray sir, what is chemistry ? " 

 To her he correctly and forcibly enunciated its nature and 

 object. 



I have already mentioned that I returned to New Haven 

 in 1798, (it was in October,) and that I then commenced 

 the study of the law. This course of study, after my ap 

 pointment as tutor in Yale College, I continued collaterally 

 with my duties of instruction ; and having advanced nearly 

 through the third year of my studies, I was favorably im 

 pressed by an overture for an establishment in a distant 

 State. A proposal was made to me, through some of my 

 college friends in Georgia, to take charge of the important 

 and flourishing academy at Sunbury in Liberty County, not 

 far from Savannah. As this county was settled by a Puritan 

 population, emigrants from the colony of Old Plymouth 

 and Dorchester, its people retained the institutions and 

 habits of their Northern friends ; and those persons from 

 Liberty County whom I had known contributed to confirm 

 my favorable impressions. My Southern friends represented 

 to me that a liberal income, enjoyed for a few years, would 

 aid me in passing into the practice of law in Georgia, and 

 thus I might obtain an establishment in a country where the 

 profession commanded more ample rewards than at the 

 North. 



While I was deliberating upon this important subject, I 

 met President Dwight, one very warm morning in July, 

 1801, under the shade of the grand trees in the street in 

 front of the college buildings, when, after the usual saluta 

 tions, we lingered, and conversation ensued. He had been 

 a warm personal friend of my deceased father ; and their 

 residences being but three miles apart, Holland Hill and 

 Greenfield Hill, both in Fairfield, an active interest was 



