Ii6 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



Dwight, so that the Psalmist's limit had almost become the usage 

 of Yale College; although to this rule, there have been and there 

 ought to be exceptions. In Silliman's case, the authorities re- 

 quested him to recede from his purpose and he did so for a brief 

 period. His end came in New Haven, November 24, 1864, in his 

 eighty-sixth year, while his mental faculties were not impaired and 

 his bodily strength scarcely abated. 



He was the recipient of many scientific and academic honors, 

 though it was not customary to bestow them as freely in his days 

 as it is in these times, and their enumeration seems trivial compared 

 with the record of his work and the recognition bestowed upon 

 him by distinguished men. Of more value than diplomas are the 

 letters he received from his compeers at home flpd abroad. 



It is generally admitted that no one has ever been connected 

 with Yale College entitled to greater affection and admiration 

 than that bestowed on the one of its faculty who lived to be called 

 the Nestor of American Science. Among the innumerable trib- 

 utes to his memory, I will select these words of a man of rare 

 ability and discrimination, Professor Jeffries Wyman, the com- 

 parative anatomist, of Harvard University. 



/* "For Professor Silliman's life and character I have a feeling of 

 deep reverence. This is greater than that towards any other per- 

 son with whom I have come in contact in the relation of a teacher. 

 I prize highly, very highly, what he taught me in science, and the 

 direction he gave to my studies, all unconsciously to himself; but 

 I have no words to express my admiration of the moral dignity of 

 his character and its beneficent influence. After the lapse of a 

 quarter of a century, I find myself often recurring to the teach- 

 ings and example set before us during the seasons he passed in 

 Boston. His cordial greeting; his dignified, yet often joyous man- 

 ner; his freedom from bigotry; his earnestness and devotion to the 

 pursuits of knowledge; his readiness to impart his stores of learn- 

 ing; his kindness of heart, and, above all, his great Christian ex- 

 cellence, his peaceful and finished life, have made him to me a 

 model man." 



s 



Professor Fisher prefixed to his memoirs some lines of Cowper 

 which were copied again by Dr. Dwight, and with a third repeti- 



