HIS SERVICES TO SCIENCE. 329 



regret, that neither my time nor power of expression will 

 enable me to do justice to the subject. I hope, never- 

 theless, that my communication, such as it is, may not be 

 too late for the object intended, for I should be sorry to 

 lose this opportunity of bearing testimony to my high ap- 

 preciation of the character of our lamented friend. 



I must leave to others to give an account of the details 

 and features of his every-day life ; for, although I flatter 

 myself that I shared his friendship, and know that on dif- 

 ferent occasions, and in various ways, I experienced his 

 kindness, yet my personal intercourse with him was casual, 

 and only at considerable intervals of time. My first 

 knowledge of Professor Silliman, beyond the occasional 

 hearing of his name, was derived from reading his " Trav- 

 els in England and Holland." The manner in which he 

 described what he saw and experienced in his visit to 

 Europe, at a time when visitors from the New World to the 

 Old were far less numerous than they are now, and the 

 candor and kind feeling which he manifested, awakened in 

 me, at a time of life when I was most susceptible of im- 

 pressions, a warm sympathy with the traveller, which ren- 

 dered him an object of special interest, and was destined 

 in time to be developed into friendship and admiration by 

 a more intimate acquaintance with his character. 



I carefully traced his route on the map, and gave such 

 attention to his statements, that many of the scenes which 

 he described, and the incidents which he related, still re- 

 main on my memory, without a renewal of the impression, 

 after the lapse of many years. This book was very pop- 

 ular with all classes of readers in this country ; the copy 

 which I read was met with by me in an ordinary farm- 

 house in a neighborhood in which I was teaching a district 

 school, and gave evidence, in its worn condition, of having 

 been frequently perused. From the candor of its state 

 ments, and the spirit which it evinced, this work tended 

 much to soften the asperities of feeling which existed at 



