386 - LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



Although geology had been, five years before, discussed 

 by me successfully in the presence of a Boston audience, 

 the present occasion presented some advantages. The 

 ^subject had been more thoroughly studied by me, and I 

 was still an anxious and faithful student, having with me 

 a collection of the best books on the subject. The liberal 

 views of the trustee, Mr. Lowell, had enabled me to obtain 

 many new and excellent illustrations, so that the lecture- 

 room could be beautifully decorated, and the lectures made 

 both intelligible and attractive, by drawings, diagrams, and 

 pictures, which through the eye informed the mind and 

 sustained the positions that were to be assumed. ..... 



I have already copied the exordium of the introductory 

 lecture of the course. I now approached this public duty 

 with intense anxiety, and the more so as my voice was 

 not perfectly clear. I spoke, however, in the first lecture 

 apparently with good effect during an hour and a half. 

 Owing to my hoarseness, I was not perfectly heard by every 

 one, and I ran into my old fault of being too rapid ; but 

 still I was assured that the lecture was successful. 



The second lecture (Saturday, January 4) gave me con 

 fidence. My voice served me well ; I was deliberate and 

 animated, and was heard in every part of the house. From 

 the aspect of a very large and attentive audience I felt as 

 sured as I was informed was the fact that the lecture 

 gave great satisfaction. I spoke two hours on the founda 

 tion-rocks of the globe, allowing an interval of five minutes 

 at the end of an hour. It gave the audience a brief season 

 for conversation, for changing position, and for retiring, 

 should they wish so to do ; but I believe few or none of 

 them withdrew. I wrote home, January 10 : "My second 

 lecture was warmly commended. Mrs. John A. Lowell, wife 

 of the trustee, said to my son, at the end of the two hours, 

 that she should be willing to sit two hours more. The elder 

 Mr. John Lowell, father of the trustee, heard the lecture, 

 and is very warm and cordial. He is a very eminent man. 



