In The Enlightened Professor, the story begins in 1801 at Yale College, where President Timothy Dwight proposes a revolutionary idea: to introduce chemistry into the academic curriculum. This idea is met with skepticism from his colleagues, who are entrenched in traditional subjects like Latin and Greek. They fear that incorporating a 'worldly' subject such as chemistry might lead to a decline in moral and religious values among students. However, Dwight believes that science is essential for the growth of the young nation and suggests Benjamin Silliman, a promising young man, as the first professor of chemistry.