398 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



"Professor Silliman, whom all the Bostonians love as a 

 Christian, and honor as a man of science, concluded his 

 series of valuable and instructive lectures to one of his au- 

 diences, and will complete this evening, before another audi- 

 ence, his engagements in the Lowell Institute, which, as is 

 well known, have been continued for four years, and have 

 diffused among our people much useful knowledge, exciting, 

 as we do not doubt, many a dormant intellect, and compel- 

 ling the awakened mind to renewed activity and investiga- 

 tion. Admiring as we do the perfection of science exhib- 

 ited continually by the lecturer in all that he has undertaken 

 to explain, we have yet a higher love and reverence for that 

 beautiful exhibition of divine truth to which Mr. Silliman 

 constantly alludes, 'as seen in the wonderful works which 

 he has successfully presented as designed by the Almighty 

 power, and made known to man by human intelligence. 

 This is the source of our respect for this accomplished Pro- 

 fessor, in comparison with which our admiration for his 

 scientific attainments sinks into insignificance. In the con- 

 clusion of last evening's lecture, Mr. Silliman paid a just 

 encomium to the progress of art and science in Boston, 

 and ended with a heartfelt tribute to the city itself and its 

 excellent citizens. * This noble city,' he said, ' for which 

 his prayer was, that peace might be within her walls, and 

 prosperity within her palaces.' " 



He thus finishes the record of his work in Bos- 

 ton : 



In concluding my labors in Boston during the six anxious 

 years, the most arduous scientific engagements of my life, 

 I did not indulge, and have never felt any sentiment of 

 pride or vanity. Deeply impressed with my responsibility 

 for the honor of Yale College, and with still higher moral 

 obligations, and being ably assisted by my excellent son 

 and a devoted artist,* I labored earnestly to fulfil every 

 * Mr. Wightman, philosophical instrument-maker in Boston. 



