354 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



ested kindness by an instance which cannot possibly be 

 open to a question as to the purity and disinterestedness of 

 his motives. This instance is my own case. When I first 

 met Professor Silliman, forty years ago last February, he 

 was a man of wide and firmly established reputation as a 

 scientific man, of an honorable and influential social posi- 

 tion, and trusted and looked up to by his fellow-citizens, 

 /was an unknown stranger, with no friends, who had come 

 to this country in search of free political institutions, and a 

 sphere of usefulness suited to his acquirements and abil- 

 ity, certainly a very unpromising subject to bestow favor 

 upon, if hope or expectation of a return had had a place 

 in Mr. Silliman's mind. Such were our relative positions 

 at our first meeting. Yet the reception which he gave me 

 could not have been more kind, more considerate, if I had 

 been a valued friend of many years. With that delicate 

 tact which distinguished all his acts of kindness, adapting 

 them to the condition, wants, and taste of the recipient, he 

 introduced me immediately to another of the distinguished 

 scholars of Yale, Professor Gibbs, who was, even then, 

 deeply read in the works of German theologians and phi- 

 lologists, thinking that it would be pleasant for me to hold 

 intercourse with one of similar pursuits to mine. 



I had also an opportunity of judging of his mode of lect- 

 uring, being present at one of his lectures on chemistry. 

 The first circumstance which struck me very forcibly, was 

 the presence of a large number of young ladies, who evi,- 

 dently followed the eloquent lecturer with as close an atten- 

 tion as the students of the College. Though my imperfect 

 knowledge of the language did not enable me to form a 

 competent judgment of the matter and form of Professor 

 Silliman's lecture, I could judge from the effect upon his 

 audience, how successful he was in imparting to others the 

 same deep interest for his science which he felt himself. 



The genuine kindness which marked my first reception 

 by Professor Silliman, characterized our succeeding inter- 



