THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 85 



As the building is not completed, this division is not yet obligatory 

 under the compromise resolutions. For some years the annual appro- 

 priations for the purposes of the Institution were specific, and were 

 applied accordingly. But during the last two years they have been 

 general, and a discretion has been exercised by the Secretary and the 

 Executive Committee, which has resulted in applying to researches, 

 publications, and lectures, an amount somewhat larger than that which 

 has been applied to the library, museum, &c. But this is clearly no 

 violation, as has been charged, of a compromise which is not by its 

 very terms to go into effect until the completion of the building. 



The commitee think it desirable that the appropriations should be 

 specific, and have already so reported to the Board by a resolution 

 submitted on the 11th of March, 1854 ; and at the last meeting of the 

 Regents the Executive Committee submitted estimates of appropria- 

 tions in detail for the present year. 



Before expressing an opinion on these resolutions, the committee 

 deem it their duty at this time to remark upon the plan which was 

 discussed seven years ago, but which is now revived, of devoting the 

 greater part of the income to the accumulation of a great library, thus 

 either abandoning the active operations of research and publications, 

 or so restricting this means of increasing and diffusing knowledo-e as 

 to deprive it of all sensible value. 



It has already been remarked that the language of the eighth section 

 which directs the gradual formation of a library, is not mandatory as 

 to the amount which shall be thus expended, and that the ninth section 

 authorizes the Regents, after applying so much of the income as may 

 be required for the purposes mentioned in the act, to dispose of the re- 

 sidue of the interest upon the Smithsonian fund in such manner " as 

 they shall deem best suited for the promotion of the purpose of the tes- 

 tator, anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding." It 

 is manifest, from what has been said before, that these sections of the 

 law leave to the Reojents a laro^e discretion as to the amounts to be 

 applied to the objects specified in the act, and in the choice of other 

 means f()r promoting the purpose of the testator. 



What, then, are the considerations which should govern them in re- 

 jecting this plan, which proposes a great library as the best and chief, 

 if not the only, means of executing the trust created b}'^ the will of 

 Smithson, and fulfilling their own duty under the law? 



The "increase and diffusion of knowledfje amons; men" are the in'eat 

 purposes of this munificent trust. To increase knowledge implies re- 

 search, or new and active investigation, in some one or more of the 

 departments of learning. To diffuse knowledge among men implies 

 active measures for its distribution, so far as may be, among mankind. 



Neither of these purposes could be accomplished or materially ad- 

 vanced by the accumulation of a great library at the city of Washnigton. 

 This would be to gather within the walls of a building here those fruits 

 of learning which had been reaped elsewhere. It would be the hivivg 

 of knowledge, not its increase and diffusion. It would be the collection 

 of what philosophical inquirers, men of research, of observation, and of 

 original thought had ascertained, conceived, or invented, and already 

 pubfished to the world. But it would not of itself add to the sum of 



