218 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



summer, I labored with zeal and untiring industry to im- 

 part instruction in chemistry, including also mineralogy 

 and geology, as far as I had means of illustrating them. 

 I gave three and four lectures in a week, and the mineral- 

 ogy and geology were interspersed among the chemical 

 lectures, wherever there were mutual relations. 



This course of lectures in 1806-7 was more satisfactory 

 to myself than either of the more imperfect courses which 

 I had given. Among the members of this class were some 

 men of note: Thaddeus Betts, Lieutenant- Governor of 

 Connecticut and Senator in Congress ; J. P. Cushman, mem- 

 ber of Congress ; William Dubose, Lieutenant-Governor of 

 South Carolina ; Thomas Smith Grimke, of Charleston, an 

 eminent jurist and scholar ; William Jay, judge, and son of 

 the distinguished John Jay ; Dr. Alexander H. Stevens, 

 of New York, an eminent surgeon ; James Sutherland, 

 judge, &c. in the State of New York ; Dr. Nathaniel W. 

 Taylor, an eminent divine and theological professor ; Jon- 

 athan George Washington Trumbull, an amiable and ex- 

 cellent man, but never in public life. 



Colonel George Gibbs having returned from Europe, I 

 was introduced to him in Newport, where, after the lectures 

 were finished, I passed many weeks in the summer and 

 autumn of 1807. He was a courteous gentleman, and a 

 zealous promoter of physical science, especially of min- 

 eralogy and geology. Having been made acquainted with 

 my pursuits he warmly espoused my cause, and made me at 

 home in his house and in the family of his mother and 

 sisters. He was a bachelor, but he maintained a distinct 

 establishment in a mansion on the hill opposite to the old 

 stone tower, (doubtless once the foundation of a wind-mill, 

 although some assigned to it a fabulous origin and antiquity). 

 In this house, Colonel Gibbs Colonel Gibbs, although he 

 cherished a martial spirit, had never seen service ; the title 

 of Colonel is given by courtesy to an aid of the commander, 

 who in this case was Governor Fenner of Rhode Island 



