362 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



beautiful refinement of thought and style, simplicity and 

 purity of language united with force, in manners a refined 

 gentleman, with a modest gentleness, creating assurance 

 and ease in tjie stranger, and inviting confidence in one 

 whom you would fain make your friend. He has a large 

 and select library, chiefly literary, for although he appre 

 ciates science, his taste has not led him so much in that 

 direction as into the fields of literature. He did me the 

 honor to attend my course of lectures, and after they were 

 finished, he in conversation reminded me of an opinion 

 which I had early and strongly expressed in the lecture- 

 room, namely, that after astronomy there was no branch 

 of natural science which possessed such grandeur as geol 

 ogy, and none which was sustained by so many and such 

 interesting facts. He was so candid as to add : " I could 

 not at the time admit the correctness of your opinion, 

 but now that I have heard the entire course, I am ready to 

 say that you have sustained your statement, and as I judge 

 I should give the case in your favor." I am happy to say 

 (November 28, 1859,) that this venerable gentleman, some 

 years over fourscore, is still living in the full possession of 

 his powers, intellectual and moral. 



We returned to New Haven in the last week of May. 

 All our geological establishment was transported back to 

 Yale College, and was ready for use there in the regular 

 academic course. I had little respite from my foreign 

 labors, when I opened the College course of geology in the 

 first week in June. Much enthusiasm existed respecting 

 geology, and there was a great pressure from without to 

 attend on the lectures. Ladies attended in crowds, and the 

 students were induced from politeness to relinquish their 

 seats, greatly to their inconvenience. I was, therefore, in 

 duced by request to give a distinct course of geology to an 

 audience of about seventy persons of both sexes. I gave 

 this second course parallel with the College course, allow 

 ing one hour between the lectures to afford time for rear- 



