110 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



of the old series, and in adding the new, which, if it won" :1 

 be of any interest to you, I will continue to send to yourself 

 at Burlington. My son-in-law, James D. Dana,* is now 

 principal acting editor, and I think you will find the work 

 more thoroughly digested than in earlier times ; but nothing 

 in the miscellaneous department can ever rival those rich 

 contributions which you made with so much punctuality 

 and judicious selection, and which I relinquished with great 

 regret on account of poverty of means, and the rude assault 

 made by a man, whom, had I then known him thoroughly, 

 I need not have so much regarded. I wish you could read 

 the historical sketch prefixed to the Index volume. That 

 volume was compiled by Mr. Dana, a vast labor. I shall 

 hope to hear from you when your volumes of the Journal 

 reach you, and you will then inform me whether I shall 

 continue to send the new series. 



I remember with pleasure my short call at your house, 

 in August 1848, and should be glad were it in my power to 

 renew it, and to become still better acquainted with the 

 very agreeable lady who cheers your evening of life. I have, 

 at snatches of time early and late, read through, this season, 

 the life of William Allen, and also that of Elizabeth Fry. 

 Such exhibitions of Christian benevolence are enough to 

 shame all common, every-day Christians. But all cannot 

 be Apostles, and we must do what good we can in our 

 humble spheres of life. 



I believe I mentioned these distinguished Christian friends 

 in a former letter. Mrs. Fry I never saw, but William 

 Allen I knew personally ; he changed, however, in his 

 person. As I knew him, he was a tall, slender and active 

 man, and I should never have dreamed that he could have 

 been transformed into the voluminous personage repre 

 sented in the frontispiece to his life. His intellectual and 

 moral sunshine do, however, illumine the face of the old 

 man, and no doubt they now shine in heaven. With my 

 * Professor Silliman, Jr., was at this time in Louisville, Ky. 



