334 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



and his influence, which was fully commensurate with his 

 reputation, was freely given to whatever tended to im- 

 prove humanity and to promote religion. He was without 

 ostentation, and his actual acquirements as well as his self- 

 respect left no room for pretensions to universal knowl- 

 edge. He affected none which had not fallen within the 

 scope of his mature and proper studies. Hence he was ever 

 ready to receive information from any source which could 

 supply it; while he never failed to gratify the teacher, 

 whoever he might be, by the deportment of an attentive 

 and interested listener. 



His labors as a teacher and an editor were too absorb- 

 ing to allow him to devote much time to original research ; 

 what he did, however, in this line, gave indications that 

 more important results would have followed had his ener- 

 gies not been applied in the way in which the more imme- 

 diate and more urgent wants of his country had directed 

 them. 



It frequently happens, and perhaps too in accordance 

 with a general tendency, that the professed teacher falls 

 behind the actual state of the science of his day ; while on 

 the other hand the visionary speculator attempts vain ex- 

 cursions into the future, and by projects which are at the 

 time premature, if not entirely chimerical, only injures the 

 cause he has unadvisedly assayed to advance. Professor 

 Silliman fell into neither of these errors, but was emphati- 

 cally the man of his time, acting in accordance with its 

 spirit and laboring so to direct its energies and to control 

 its tendencies as to render the world wiser and better. His 

 whole career was prosperous in a remarkable degree. The 

 part he was called to act in the drama of life was well 

 adapted to his mental and moral peculiarities, was well 

 timed as to the scientific condition of his country and ad- 

 mirably well performed. Though professionally occupied 

 with the consideration of material phenomena he was 

 thoroughly imbued with the subordination of these to the 



