XXX REPORT ON THE HENRY STATUE. 



ful enterprise, and unceasing experimentation. It would seem as 

 though every thunder storm brought him a new opportunity; every 

 gale of wind swept into his mind some new freightage of thought; 

 every apartment proposed or solved some problem in acoustics; every 

 morning dawn waked him for some fresh experiment, and every even- 

 ing shut down the day with some new acquisition. His very house 

 was made an enormous electric accumulator and conductor of electric 

 energy. In all these varied avocations it was not in that he was busy 

 or many-sided that his marked superiority was seen, but in that he was 

 original, wide-minded, and persevering. His insight seemed to pene- 

 trate at a glance into the secrets of nature, and his capacity for saga- 

 cious hypothesis almost to call into being the forces which it uncovered 

 and to impose the laws which it interpreted. Besides this there was a 

 largeness and originality in his experiments which invested him with 

 the authority of priest and magician in the presence of nature. In all 

 combined there was the strength and simplicity of scientific genius. 



This active and fruitful life continued for fourteen years, when, at the 

 age of forty-eight, in the year 1846, he was called to Washington as the 

 first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



At first it might seem that a situation like this would be attractive to 

 any man, but on second thought many reasons would suggest themselves 

 why, to a man like Professor Henry, interested as he was in teaching, 

 devoted to research, and with the scientific world watching eagerly his 

 experiments, the attractions of the place should be scanty and feeble. 

 It is only when we learn how he regarded the possibilities and demands 

 of the place, and his own capacity and purpose to meet them, that we 

 can explain the readiness with which he responded to this call. The 

 Secretary was to initiate and control the policy of a novel institution, 

 with a handsome but not extravagant endowment given to the United 

 States, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. Loosely 

 interpreted, the terms of the gift might admit any application of pop- 

 ular usefulness. But when read in the light of the known tastes of the 

 giver and the previous bequest of his estate to a society which was se- 

 verely scientific in its functions, and especially when interpreted by the 

 eminent need and certain usefulness of a special application, it became 

 clear to Professor Henry that this gift should be used exclusively in the 

 interests of the increase and diffusion of scientific Tcnoicledge. He fore- 

 saw and foretold that his theory would at first encounter active dissent 

 and opposition. He was equally confident that it would finally become 

 popular and attractive. Before he entered upon his duties the Institu- 

 tion had been partially committed to another policy. It was not till 

 after eight years of discussion and reports in committees and in both 

 houses of Congress, in which some of the ablest and most brilliant mem- 

 bers were conspicuous, that the policy of Professor Henry at last pre- 

 vailed, and has ever since justified itself to the approval of the nation. 

 It was not because Professor Henry despised literature that he did not 



