376 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



was hardly sufficient, as one duty could not be allowed to 

 crowd out another. I do not remember to have had any 

 further personal interviews with Mr. Silliman, while I re 

 mained at New Haven, except that just at the close of my 

 College life he did something towards procuring me a place 

 as a teacher, and showed great kindness in introducing me 

 to it. 



After I left College, I occasionally met Mr. Silliman at 

 New Haven and elsewhere ; but though I ventured to 

 reckon him among my friends, and more than once received 

 from him expressions of good-will, I never felt that my 

 relations with him were intimate until some ten or twelve 

 years ago. At the dedication of the Dudley Observatory 

 in 1856, an occasion which I believe brought together 

 a greater number of distinguished persons than were ever, 

 at any other time, assembled in our city, our venerable 

 friend was present, and I had the honor of having him for 

 a guest ; and I never saw him when he was more communi 

 cative or agreeable. Mr. Everett, and one or two other 

 kindred spirits were with us at the same time ; and each 

 rendered the others more brilliant and interesting. Though 

 the Professor had then numbered more than his threescore 

 and ten years, he was just as bright and sociable and cheer 

 ful, just as ready to impart, and as eager to obtain, informa 

 tion on every subject, as if he had been at the zenith of his 

 activity. 



The last time I saw him was at the Yale College Com 

 mencement in 1860, when his mind and his heart were full 

 of the perils that seemed to hang over the country. He 

 expressed the strongest conviction that slavery was at once 

 our great national calamity and sin, and that that must be 

 wiped out before our nation could ever attain to the glo 

 rious destiny that awaits it. Either in conversation or in 

 one of his letters, he gave me a detailed account of the 

 outrageous insult of which he was the subject from a set of 

 rebel vandals in New Orleans, who removed from its place, 



