Letter to Abner Benedict, Troy N.Y. Benedict papers box 1, folder 6.

Burlington April 14, 1826

Dear Brother

Your letter from Windham was recd., & very soon answered. As was unable to tell with certainty from your communication wether you would be there or not, I directed it to the care of W. Stimpson, presuming that if you had left W you would have left word to have your letters forwarded to your residence. It seems however by yours of April 3d that you have not recd it. I mentioned in it that it would give me pleasure to make out a list of minerals for you - that I would not do it immediately till I get into my house - that as early as June I may be able to send you a box; but that it will be my object to send you from time to time, as I can - that your offer to pay me 20 dollars for so doing , was very liberal: but I should not take that sum for so doing. To be sure I would not make out a suit for another person save another even for that. I wish however to do all I can to help you in your present laudable course. As however the exchange of minerals is to be an item of considerable expense & the selecting preparing & making a suit, an affair of considerable time, which to me is of immense value. I told you that I would, if perfectly convenient to you receive 10 dollars or any sum less than that, to part with which would not give you inconvenience. I mentioned also that I should furnish you specimens rather larger than those which I made up for Mr. Belknap of N. B___. They will thus be better for you to lecture & study with.

The difficulties which you mention as being in the way lecturing so as to suit yourself & your hearers are real ones & are not easily removed. Indeed they cannot be entirely done away. I should not think it worthwhile for you (to) hold a lecture more than 40 minutes, unless it happened to be one accompanied with an unusual share of experiments. In such a case it might be twice as long. There will be however, many lectures, that must be dull, to most of the learners, & yet the subject must not be neglected. To choose the middle way between the dry detail & reasoning & a mere mountebank show of lights, is no easy matter, at all times. I made it my role, to exhibit before my class, as far as is practical, not only the experiment which was to prove a point, but the preparation for the expt. I endeavored also to illustrate the expt. With great plainness - recapitulating where there was the least chance of their misapprehending it. When I passed through a topic - for instance the laws of chemical affinity - the laws of the action of _____. I used to review the subject touching upon the prominent points of the whole. This served both to interest and benefit my class. On all subjects I pursued a strict method & so far as I could according to the nature of the subject, I had a similar method through he whole. How many lectures did you deliver at Windham? What did your school bring you & what are its prospects the coming season?

On Wednesday morning Elisa and Charles set out in the stage for Wms Town via Bennington. So I am alone. They will go thence to Shef ‘d & Chatham, & through Troy back here again. I suppose they will not leave Chatham much before the last of May. Should you be there at Troy,

you will of course see them. It was not profitable for me to go down this spring, though I much wished to. I can set no time, when I now think I shall go. If you can call on W. E. Bell & pay him a little freighting amount - between one & two dollars - I will thank you & will account to you for it. I am not able to send the money now. If you are able to collect any interesting objects of Nat. History - wether in mineralogy , Conchology - petrification & I shall be glad of a share.

You must write to me before you leave the school.

Your brother, Geo. W. Benedict

My special regards and respects to Mr & Mrs. Eaton.

Which do you make with the longest top - a d, or an a ?