HIS RETIREMENT FROM OFFICE. 127 



in vain, for the colleagues and fellow-laborers of that re- 

 mote period ; and among them, I find only a solitary indi- 

 vidual survivor, " Clarum et venerabile nomen " ; serus in 

 coelum redeat. As, by God's blessing, my health is unim- 

 paired, I am not constrained by, infirmities to resign my 

 post of duty; but I think it right to retire before that 

 necessity shall arise. The interests of Yale College, hav- 

 ing been identified with almost my whole life, will ever re- 

 main very dear to me, and I shall be still happy to promote 

 them by any effort and influence in my power. 

 I remain, Rev. and dear sir, 



Very respectfully and truly yours, 



B. SILLIMAN. 



The attention of the assembled graduates at Com- 

 mencement, was taken up by the death of Professor 

 Kingsley, and the resignation of Professor Silliman. 

 The extracts which follow, are from the Diary. 



Wednesday, July 27, 1853. Day before Commencement. 

 A meeting of the Alumni was held in the Linonian Eoom, 

 in the new Alumni Hall, A. N. Skinner, Esq., in the chair. 

 The necrology for the year was read. The number of deaths 

 among the Alumni during the year had been over sixty, 

 and among them were three of our Professors, Kingsley, 

 Norton, and Stanley. After the necrology was finished, I 

 was invited by the chairman to say something of Professor 

 Kingsley. My remarks were, however, not much extended, 

 as I preferred to refer, for a masterly exhibition of his char- 

 acter, to the excellent published discourses of President 

 Woolsey and Professor Thacher, who had very skilfully 

 dissected a character whose principal traits were not super- 

 ficial, but lay deep in the mine of his intellectual and moral 

 nature. I spoke of the early union of the three, Day, 

 Silliman, and Kingsley, in office in Yale College, a union 

 which was continued in great harmony during nearly fifty 



