356 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



and 1808, a very agreeable acquaintance with Mrs. Chan- 

 ning in her native city of Newport, when she was Miss 

 Ruth Gibbs. I dined at Judge Prescott's, the distinguished 

 son of a distinguished man, the Revolutionary Col. Pres- 

 cott, of Bunker-Hill memory. Mr. Loammi Baldwin, the 

 celebrated engineer, was of the party ; also Dr. Bigelow, 

 late Rumford Professor of the Useful Arts at Cambridge ; 

 Mr. Isaac P. Davis, always joyous and cordial ; Judge James 

 Savage, the genealogist ; the Rev. Dr. Kirkland, always 

 sparkling ; Rev. Mr. Young, Unitarian ; and Mr. Codman 

 and others. We had a very agreeable time, and I retired 

 early to review my lecture for the evening, when there was 

 a very full house. Although I spoke eighty minutes, the 

 audience was exceedingly attentive, and appeared deeply 

 interested in the history of the saurian and iguanodon age. 

 I spoke to-night more satisfactorily to myself than at any 

 other time since I have been in Boston. I was cool, self- 

 possessed, deliberate, and I believe easy and natural. This 

 manner I must endeavor to retain and improve. The par- 

 tiality and special kindness with which I am treated gives 

 me confidence, and places me at ease. 



April 2. I dined with a small and agreeable party at 

 Mr. Dunn's, a merchant living in Mount Vernon Street. 

 Mr. Dunn has taken so much interest in the " Journal of 

 Science " as to purchase an entire set. At Mr. Dunn's I 

 was introduced to Rufus Choate, Esq., a young advocate 

 then beginning to figure at the Boston Bar, and giving 

 more than indications that he would reach the eminence 

 which he afterwards attained. On this occasion he was 

 very silent and reserved, while the keen glance of his 

 brilliant and piercing black eye seemed to scan me as I 

 yielded to the efforts of the company to draw me out upon 

 professional subjects, which in mixed society I aim to avoid. 

 That chilling impression remained until an accidental inter- 

 view at the Court Room in Boston, where I came as a wit- 

 ness in a case managed by Mr. Choate. He then cheered 



