LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PORTER. 345 



science were, however, very distinctly impressed upon our 

 attention, and the properties of the most important ele- 

 ments, and the laws and effects of their combination, were 

 familiar to our thoughts, by the brilliant and attractive ex- 

 periments of the eloquent expounder. His treatment of 

 the practical uses of some of the more familiar, as of the 

 use of silex in glass-making, and of alumen in pottery, 

 were very instructive and interesting to every ingenious 

 mind. His many digressions might be open to objection 

 when tried by the rules of a severer method, but they 

 served the important office of stimulating and enlarging 

 the minds of his hearers. The incidental influences of 

 Professor Silliman's lectures in this regard were, perhaps, 

 more valuable than the knowledge which he imparted. 



In our Senior year we heard his course in chemistry in 

 full, as also his course in mineralogy and geology. The 

 last was the most exciting of all, and at a period still later 

 than this, these lectures were more brilliantly illustrated 

 by specimens and drawings, and they became still more 

 attractive. In them all, he was the same bland and pol- 

 ished gentleman, exerting a powerful influence for good by 

 his very presence and manners, and quickening the intel- 

 lects of his admiring hearers by the many points of truth 

 which he suggested, and the vast number of relations which 

 he brought to view. 



I was tutor in College from 1833 till 1835, at the time 

 when Professor Silliman entered upon that course of ac- 

 tive labor which he enjoyed so greatly. About that time 

 the relation of the discoveries of Geology to the truth of 

 the Mosaic record, attracted public attention, and I well 

 remember with what ready confidence he undertook to ex- 

 plain the difficulties involved, and to reconcile the discrep- 

 ancies which were supposed to be irreconcilable. The 

 students of theology proposed the discussion of the subject 

 in their debating society, and Professor Silliman was in- 

 vited to join in the debate. He very willingly assented, 



