228 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



ing that I could still " roar " effectively. I sent a wagon- 

 load of fossils and diagrams ; the room was crowded to the 

 ceiling. Herschel, Brewster, Babbage, Faraday, Murchi- 

 son, even Lyell and all our best men, were there ; and Far- 

 aday (who was as kind and attentive to me as ever) said it 

 was the most successful and eloquent discourse ever deliv- 

 ered there : so I made my exit in glory ; and I will never 

 lecture there again. 



FROM DR. MANTELL. 



April 22, 1852. 



I GAVE four lectures (called a course of geology) 



to the Mechanics' Institution at Leeds, one of our great 

 clothing-towns, of some 220,000 inhabitants ; the greater 

 number being the slaves of our factory lords. I never was 

 in the town before, and never wish to visit it again ; the 

 moral and physical atmosphere are alike most depressing. 

 You eat coal, drink coal, respire coal, imbibe, coal, sleep in 

 coal, and " live and move, and have your being " in coal ; 

 and should you die at Leeds, you will be buried in coal. 

 Nothing but the consideration that the smoke which ren- 

 dered the atmosphere darker than that of London, and 

 which pervades all things, is the impalpable detritus of the 

 carbonized remains of lepidodendra and sigillaria, and other 

 beautiful trees, rendered my sojourn endurable, even for 

 the week which my engagement compelled. Yet there is 

 a good local museum in the town ; and the Philosophical 

 Institution and the Mechanics, must draw large audiences. 

 My lectures were eminently successful ; the room being 

 filled to the top gallery. I took my footman with me, who 

 attended to the diagrams, &c. ; then I was able to visit my 

 friends at York, and after ten days' absence, I returned 

 home not the worse for the exertion, and with 35 clear of 

 expenses. When lecturing to my miscellaneous but intel- 

 ligent audiences at Leeds, (many Quakers among them,) 

 I could not but think that if I were preaching in your coun- 



