118 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



a few days, by the death of a younger colleague, 

 Mr. John P. Norton, Professor of Agricultural Chem 

 istry. Of him, Professor Silliman writes : 



Alas ! Death took the oldest, save one, of the veteran 

 officers of Yale College, and now the youngest has been 

 called away. Thus many hopes are blasted, all hopes, 

 indeed, connected with the deceased, except the most im 

 portant of all, that hope which assures us that it is well 

 with our lamented young friend. My first thoughts regard 

 ing him are expressed in a printed obituary, and I hope 

 that a memoir of him will be prepared by a literary friend. 

 There are abundant materials, and his character was so 

 beautiful, that it would form an excellent model for imi 

 tation. 



Professor Silliman accompanies his mention of 

 the death of Daniel Webster with an interesting 

 account of his acquaintance with that distinguished 

 man. 



This great man died at his country-place at Marshfield, 

 Plymouth County, Mass., on Sabbath morning, October 24, 

 1852, at twenty-two minutes before three o'clock, A. M. 



We shall, of course, have his biography, which 



will, I trust, embody many passages of his private life, and 

 many of his colloquial remarks. At Washington, early in 

 1851, he gave me and my son a private document to serve 

 us in Europe, if needed, and President Fillmore did the 

 same. I met him, February, 1851, at the levee of the 

 President ; but I did not advance ; he came to meet me, 

 and, with great cordiality of manner, expressed his esteem 

 and regard, and quoted from my English travels an expres 

 sion which I had used respecting Castlereagh, namely, that 

 hearing him among other great men in Parliament, Pitt, 

 Fox, Sheridan, and others, I said of Castlereagh, that, 



