PKOPOSED RESIGNATION. 91 



mimicate to the Board my intention to retire from the 

 service of the College at the end of the ensuing academical 

 year, that is, at the Commencement for 1850. I there- 

 fore wish this communication to be regarded as a prospec- 

 tive resignation to take effect at the time named above ; and 

 the Corporation will of course in their wisdom adopt in the 

 interim, any measures which the case may require. An 

 earlier retirement would, as I conceive, be inconsistent with 

 the interests of the Institution, and with existing duties, 

 both to the College proper, and to the Medical School ; and 

 I am therefore willing to serve for another year. If the 

 reasons of my retiring are asked, I will reply, that I am 

 daily admonished by the rapid flight of time, and often by 

 the departure of my contemporaries, that my work is nearly 

 done. Having now attained to the age of seventy, and fifty 

 years of my life having been passed in the service of the 

 College, I feel that I am entitled to a discharge, and that 

 a younger man ought, ere long, to fill my place. In the 

 retrospect I have the satisfaction to add, that from my col- 

 leagues and from my fellow-men, I have received sympathy 

 and encouragement, and from the Corporation, both con- 

 fidence and efficient aid ; but of those venerated men who 

 under President Dwight, invited me, in my youth, into the 

 service of the College, not one remains. The time of my 

 own departure from the College is at hand, and when it 

 shall arrive, I shall leave this long-cherished Institution 

 with deep affection and earnest solicitude for its prosperity, 

 and shall never cease to pray that God may continue to 

 regard it with favor, and to bestow upon it His blessing. 



I remain, gentlemen, 

 Very respectfully, your obt. servant, 



B. SILLIMAN. 

 YALE COLLEGE, August 8, 1849. 

 Die Natali. 



