02 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



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2. 



So soft a dismission the musical throng 



Would mistake for a welcome as kind: 

 They would crowd to your mansion and beg for a song, 

 With ceaseless intrusion and visits so long, 

 That no refuge or rest could you find. 



And should you complain, like the diligent cleric, 



That you have for such visits no time, 

 They Ml join in your toils, at your furnace they '11 work, 

 In the bills of the students mischievously lurk, 



And compel you to write them in rhyme. 



From the early correspondence of Mr. Silliman 

 we select a few letters, most of which are addressed 

 to his brother. Two or three from his friends to him 

 are included. These letters serve to illustrate the 

 biographical statements which precede them in the 

 present chapter. 



TO MR. G. S. SILLIMAN. 



FAIRFIELD, March 11, 1797. 



MY DEAR BROTHER, Saturday evening brings me 

 home again to converse with one than whom none is dearer 

 to me ; for, believe me, in the last week I have hardly had 

 time to eat. Tired with murmuring at my situation, which 

 obliges me to stop short in a pursuit which is my delight, 

 and patiently to see my contemporaries outstrip me, I have 

 at length become quiet, and determined to submit where 

 resistance would be ineffectual. My last was from "VVal- 

 lingford. On my return home I stayed several days at 



New Haven, which I spent in visiting my friends 



I had the pleasure of seeing Miss Hepsa Ely at New 

 Haven, a lady whom I believe you have seen, although per- 

 haps, at such a distance of time and place as that at which 

 you now are, you may not recollect her. Ever since my 

 return I have been assiduously employed in domestic 

 concerns, and have the satisfaction to find that my health 



