COLLEGE DAYS 



manner, his engaging mien, and his devotion to their 

 improvement. He introduced to the class the natural 

 method of studying botany in lieu of the Linnaean system 

 that had before been in use, and with his microscope he 

 laid open to the learners the as yet unseen mysteries of 

 the vegetable creation." 



Dr. Bagg has an impression that Dana was taught by 

 Asa Gray. No trace of this relation has appeared in the 

 correspondence of these two naturalists and friends, nor 

 is it among the traditions of Mrs. Dana or of Mrs. Gray, 

 although it is possible that Dana may have been in the 

 school after Gray became one of its teachers. 



Among Dana's schoolmates was Dr. S. Wells Williams, 

 who continued to be his intimate friend through life. The 

 residence of Dr. Williams in China, where he won distinc- 

 tion as a lexicographer and historian, and where he ren- 

 dered important services to the legations of the United 

 States as well as to the work of foreign missionaries, 

 separated the two friends ; but they exchanged letters of 

 an intimate character, and late in their lives were brought 

 together again as neighbors and colleagues in New Haven. 

 Dr. Williams became Professor of the Chinese Language 

 in Yale University in 1874, and died there in 1884. 



From the Utica High School, Dana went to Yale Col- 

 lege in 1830, attracted, as he often said, by the reputation 

 of Professor Benjamin Silliman, who was then at the 

 height of his reputation as a teacher, lecturer, and editor. 

 He began his new life at the beginning of the sophomore 

 year, and graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1833. The col- 

 lege was then a very small institution, where everything 

 was managed upon a simple and economical plan ; but it 

 represented the best traditions of New England, and gave 

 to its pupils a thorough training in Latin and Greek, and 

 in mathematics, with an introduction to natural phi- 

 losophy and astronomy, as well as to chemistry, mineral- 

 ogy, and geology. Day, Silliman, and Kingsley were 



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