346 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



At Dr. Bigelow's in the evening, a soiree. Present : 

 President Quincy, President Kirkland, Alexander Everett, 

 and many other eminent men, thirty to forty in number. 

 All stood in two rooms ; a table of refreshments was 

 spread in one of them ; came home at ten p. M. Met 

 Dr. Wainwright, who says that the impression concerning 

 *the lectures is favorable. 



March 7. Called on Willard the painter, who wished 

 to paint my portrait, and I am to sit for him on Monday, 

 March 9th. At home, looking over my notes. Called at 

 W. D. Ticknor's about the tickets; on Dr. Bowditch for 

 missing volumes of the Academy, very kindly welcomed ; 

 invited to tea. Dined at home. 



" The first week of my very important and interesting 

 probation in Boston is now closed, and very happily. We 

 have been signally prospered in everything. Nothing has 

 failed, either in the lecture-room or in the city. The in- 

 terest excited and the numbers in attendance are for beyond 

 my expectation. I suppose that in both the courses there 

 are twelve hundred persons. Surely goodness and mercy 

 have followed me hitherto, and I will humbly and audibly 

 acknowledge them in my chamber, and privately in my 

 thoughts in the house of the Lord." 



March Sth, Sabbath. A storm of snow and rain ; and a 

 cold I had taken kept me at home in the morning. Read 

 Dick's Philosophy of Religion." P. M., attended in the 

 Stone Chapel, it was the King's Chapel before the Revo- 

 lution ; sermon by Mr. Greenwood, Unitarian, on the Temp- 

 tation of our Saviour. After coffee at Dr. Wai nw right's, 

 went with him to the Boylston Hall to hear the Oratorio 

 of the Handel and Haydn Society. 



March 9^7*, Monday. I sat one hour for Willard the 

 artist, and wrote business letters. I dined with Dr. Jack- 

 son in his family, one son and four daughters, and two 

 gentlemen friends. The sitting was rendered agreeable by 

 rational and animated conversation. Tea at Mr. Edmund 



