306 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



FEOM DR. EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 



AMHERST, May 7, 1863. 



DEAR SIR, When I opened your letter, my eyes fell 

 first upon the photograph, and it is so very perfect, and 

 gives the expression of your face so exactly like what it 

 was when more than forty years ago I first heard you lec- 

 ture, and a hundred times afterwards, that a crowd of 

 reminiscences came over me, and I had quite a crying spell 

 before reading the letter. This shows the weakness of my 

 nerves ; but it also shows how powerful was the influence 

 of your eloquence and your kindness upon me in those 

 early days, when I was bashful and uncultivated, poor and 

 without scientific friends. Certain it is that your instruc- 

 tion and encouragement and example have had more influ- 

 ence upon me to make me what I have been, than those of 

 any other man, and, if I have not been grateful, God for- 

 give me ! 



We have both, as you say, had interesting fields of 

 labor ; yours much the widest and most important ; mine 

 was humbler and rough, but still opening opportunities for 

 doing good. I thank God for it, and only lament that it 

 has been so poorly cultivated. How cheering it is to know 

 that we have the righteousness of another to depend upon 

 when we come into judgment 



The following letter from the same source is dated 

 a few months later. 



FROM DR. EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 



AMHERST, August 26, 1863. 



I STILL linger on the shores of time, balancing, 



as it were, between life and death, and suffering intensely. 

 Still God mingles many mercies in the bitter cup, and 

 allows me to accomplish several things which I had never 

 hoped to do. I have been able, for instance, to correct all 



