CORRESPONDENCE. 29 



them." You and I, as you are without doubt fully aware, 

 are on the shady side or down-hill of life, and to see our 

 children virtuous and happy, is one of the chief enjoyments 

 which one can anticipate, in the little time that remains to 

 us. My best respects to Mrs. Silliman and to the other 

 members of your family. I hope to be home sometime in 

 the approaching autumn, but cannot fix the time of my 

 return with certainty. It takes time to pick up books, if 

 the work is to be done advantageously. I should like, on 

 some accounts, to travel more on the continent of Europe, 

 and to visit more particularly Switzerland and Italy ; but 

 for reasons mentioned above, I shall not enter on such a 

 tour. I shall hasten my return as early as it can be done, 

 with a proper regard to the business I have undertaken. 



Yours truly, 

 PROF. B. SILLIMAN. J. L. KINGSLEY. 



About the same time another associate and friend 

 was travelling abroad ; and from a letter of his the 

 following extract is taken : 



FROM PROFESSOR T. D. WOOLSEY. 



ATHENS, March 12, 1845. 



The Piraeus seemed much larger than I had 



expected to find it. Though the entrance is narrow, it is a 

 very commodious harbor, and a very deep one. Several 

 ships of war were at anchor within its mouth ; although the 

 more favorite place for large ships is outside of the harbor, 

 in the roadstead between Salamis and the main land, just 

 where the sea-fight between Xerxes and the Greeks was 

 fought. And in fact at this time two large ships are lying 

 in this very roadstead. It is about five miles from the port 

 to Athens, by a road which ascends a little all the way. 

 The height of the plain above the sea is considerable, if, as 

 is stated in works of authority, the height of the Acropolis 

 is more than five hundred and thirty-four feet above the 



