346 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



and entered the lists with his recent pupils, with all the 

 ardor of a young student; never embarrassed, however 

 hardly he might be pressed; always ingenious, however 

 skilfully he might be assailed ; frank to confess his want of 

 acquaintance with some of the principles of evidence and 

 argument, which his logical antagonists brought against 

 him, but challenging their explanation of the multitude of 

 facts which he so fluently recited and so eloquently en 

 forced. 



I was acquainted with Professor Silliman, as his col 

 league, from 1847 till the time of his death, being, during 

 all this time, a very near neighbor, seeing him in the most 

 familiar and sacred relations of life. He was the same to 

 the end. After he remitted the active duties of his profes 

 sion, he gave himself up to reading, to writing, and to social 

 intercourse. Conducting his life, in all particulars, after a 

 system such as would be annoying and burdensome to most 

 men, but which was natural to one who dignified every 

 thing that pertained to himself, even the minutest acts 

 and events. 



As a College officer, Professor Silliman was conscientious 

 and faithful. He never shrunk from any labors or duties 

 which the College required at his hands. His whole heart 

 and being and pride were in the College. He did not in 

 terest himself in all the details of its management and dis 

 cipline, for he wisely judged that he had less capacity than 

 some others to direct and act as the exigency might require. 

 He was at times, perhaps, too careless of detail and routine, 

 inclined to be lenient when severity was imperatively de 

 manded ; but he was always true to the government, and 

 sustained it by his dignity, and not unfrequently his stern 

 rebuke. In what was called the Great Rebellion of 1828, 

 he was very prominent in sustaining the most vigorous acts 

 of the College Faculty, as well as active in reclaiming 

 those who had committed themselves to the wrong. He 

 was a swift witness against vice and profligacy, in all their 



