CHAPTER IV 



PREPARATION OF THE " MINERALOGY ", 1835-1838 



Waiting for Opportunities : A Period of Solicitude Assistant to Professor 

 Silliman The Yale Institute of Natural Science Preparation of the 

 Treatise on Mineralogy Chemical Nomenclature Letters to Berzelius 

 The Various Editions of the System of Mineralogy Models of 

 Crystalline Forms. 



THE interval between the cruise on the Mediterranean 

 and the Exploring Expedition was a period of solici- 

 tude, not without important occupations. Fortunately 

 the wilderness of waiting did not enclose " a slough of 

 despond." Dana never lost his courage, never swerved 

 from his purpose. Pallas Athene was constantly whisper- 

 ing to him, as she did to Odysseus, and inspiring his 

 enthusiasm. He heard the call to a life of scientific 

 research, and at the same time he felt the necessity of 

 securing pecuniary support. His father, a man of busi- 

 ness with a large dependent family, could not but ask 

 whether science would yield any income. The son 

 weighed all the considerations, and thus addressed his 

 father : 



" NEW HAVEN, July 27, 1835. 



" It is not very pleasant to be myself supported while 

 my brothers are supporting themselves. But I do not 

 know how to make it otherwise. I hardly know how to 

 arrange my plans for the future. I sometimes almost 

 wish that I had gone into the store, where it appears to 

 me that I should not have had to have lived a life of so 

 much doubt and uncertainty as appears now to be my 

 prospect. The law I cannot take up. I do not feel that 



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