LETTER FROM PROFESSOR C. U. SHEPARD. 373 



that it will be pleasant to think of in heaven." He was 

 neither elated by success or depressed by disappointment. 

 His cheerfulness of mind and bodily elasticity were wonder- 

 ful. I never saw him out of humor, or apparently fatigued. 

 He was never idle, never in a hurry. His temperance was 

 remarkable. The pleasure he derived from the table could 

 only be seen in the agreeable flow of conversation attend- 

 ing the meal. I never heard him remark upon a dish, nor 

 did I ever see him drink wine. His health was perfect. 

 During our entire acquaintance he never complained of an 

 uneasiness in my hearing. He required the least amount 

 of sleep for the preservation of all this vigor and freshness, 

 of any man of whom I have read. Gloomy anticipations 

 found with him no resting-place. Of death he used to 

 speak with the utmost composure ; and he has said to me 

 while we were occupied with the experiments to be pro- 

 duced at his lecture, that he was just as ready to go then, 

 if it was God's will, as from any other place, or at any other 

 time. 



I do not of course speak of the claims of Professor 

 Silliman as a patriot, a philanthropist, a scholar, or a 

 Christian ; others will better testify on all these points. 

 But I may perhaps be permitted to observe in closing that 

 I cannot doubt of his free admission to a place among the 

 deserving names of mankind. Had the energies of his life, 

 instead of being devoted to the diffusion of science in a 

 new country, been concentrated upon a single department 

 of knowledge, his claims to scientific eclat would be more 

 easily established ; just as the deep grooves across a moun- 

 tain of granite produced by the passage of an ancient ice- 

 berg, are better seen than the more beneficent effects, even, 

 that result from the deposition of the same amount of 

 water over fertile fields, under the gentle form of dew. 



