168 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



and both in those regions, and in others marked by diversity 

 of structure, I had received the elements of geological and 

 mineralogical instruction ; and I was in the condition of a 

 hopeful pupil, who already understands enough, both to 

 enable and dispose him to know more ; keenly alive to see, 

 and prompt to understand, everything that was presented 

 to my view, industrious, persevering, and hopeful. My 

 Edinburgh life was one of constant effort, and my exertions, 

 while in that city, pressed hard upon my health, so that I 

 was compelled occasionally to relax my labors, and both to 

 take additional exercise and to indulge in the recreations 

 of social intercourse in society which was enlivened by 

 female conversation. No five months of my life were ever 

 spent more profitably ; and this residence laid the top stones 

 of my early professional education, which extended nearly 

 through four years. Not, however, that I considered the 

 work as even then done. As a teacher, I was still more 

 of a learner than my pupils, and I found my own pupilage 

 to be coextensive with my professional life of fifty years ; 

 for I have never ceased to learn, especially as the progress 

 of discovery in science unfolded new facts and modified or 

 substantiated old views. The discussions of Dr. Hope and 

 Dr. Murray afforded me a rich entertainment, and a wide 

 range of instruction. Dr. Murray would solve most geologi 

 cal phenomena by the agency of water. Even granite, and 

 of course the members of that family, were a crystalline 

 deposit from the primeval chaotic ocean ; and this being 

 granted, the Wernerians would fain give an aqueous origin 

 even to porphyry and basalt and all the traps. As far as 

 I had any leaning, it was towards the Wernerian system. 

 Water is always active upon the surface of the earth, and 

 it flows also from its interior ; and atmospheric waters are 

 ever descending upon the earth in rain, snow, and hail, as 

 well as in the gentle dews, not only to refresh the surface 

 and to sustain life, in all its various forms, but to replenish 

 the fountains themselves. Then again it reascends by 



