90 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



freezes, and still the freezing water is not warmed by the 

 escaping heat, except when the water has been cooled be- 

 low the freezing-point before freezing ; then, when it actu- 

 ally freezes, the temperature rises to 32 ; and that all this 

 heat must be reabsorbed by the ice when it melts, and then 

 becomes latent, as if it were extinguished, but is again to 

 escape when the ice melts anew. This appeared to me 

 very surprising ; and still more astonishing did it appear 

 that boiling water cannot be made any hotter by urging 

 the fire. My curiosity being awakened, I opened an 

 encyclopedia, and there read that balloons were inflated 

 by an inflammable gas obtained from water ; and I looked 

 with intense interest at the figures representing the ap- 

 paratus, by means of which steam, made to pass through 

 an ignited gun-barrel, came out inflammable gas at the 

 other end of the tube. These and similar things created 

 in my youthful mind a vivid curiosity to know more of 

 the science to which they appertained. Little did I then 

 imagine that Providence held this duty and pleasure in 

 reserve for me. 



President Dwight and his enlarged Views. (1795 to 

 1817.) This great man was the successor of the Rev. 

 Dr. Stiles, who was both a living polyglot and a living 

 encyclopedia. President Dwight, if his vigorous mind at 

 the meridian age of forty-three was not overrunning, like 

 that of Dr. Stiles, with every variety of curious lore, it in- 

 cluded in his wide range of vision all the great branches 

 of human knowledge. A divine, a poet, a rhetorician, a 

 scholar, and a high-bred gentleman, he, when physical 

 science did not sway the universal mind as now, still saw 

 with a telescopic view both its intrinsic importance and its 

 practical relations to the wants of man and to the progress 

 of human society. Chemistry early attracted his attention, 

 and although he had never been personally conversant 

 with the science, it was apparent from his remarks that he 



