272 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



by only a few steps. The " Journal of Science," on 

 which he had toiled for so many years, was regularly 

 laid on his table by these gentlemen, his successors 

 in editorial, as well as academical duty. From their 

 families he was daily receiving expressions of honor 

 and affection. On every Sunday evening a troop 

 of grandchildren gathered about him, whose songs 

 he heard with delight, dismissing each little guest 

 with a kiss. None of them will forget his beam 

 ing countenance in the midst of this family-circle. 

 Numerous strangers, and among them many of his 

 former pupils, who had occasion to pass through 

 New Haven, resorted to his house to pay their re 

 spects to him. Occasionally he left home to visit 

 relatives at a distance. These journeys drew him 

 as far as Hanover, New Hampshire, the abode of his 

 daughter, Mrs. Hubbard, and even to Bangor, then 

 the residence of Mrs. Gilman. Social duties about 

 home, a class of obligations which he always ful 

 filled with scrupulous punctuality, consumed a 

 portion of his leisure. He did not make the mistake 

 which is often committed by men who have led a 

 busy life, and allow himself to .be without employ 

 ment. He was industrious to the end. He knew 

 how to fill up the time. Many hours in the week, 

 especially after visitors had retired at night, he read 

 aloud with Mrs. Silliman. In a list of a part of the 

 works which were thus read in 1857, are found the fol 

 lowing : Barnes's " Scriptural Views of Slavery," 

 " a very searching and decisive work ; " Commodore 

 Perry's " Expedition to Japan," including the obser 

 vations on Zodiacal Light, by Rev. George Jones ; 

 Kane's "Arctic Explorations," " full of intensely inter- 



