National Scientific and Edncationat Institutions. 283 



and labors to those objects which are l)esl calculated to improve its state of society, 

 its science, literature, and education. The disinterested exertions of such a man 

 merit the national attention.' 



Barlow's prospecttis, we are told, was circtilated throtij^liout the cotintry , 

 and met with so favorable a response that in 1806 he drew up a bill for 

 the incorporation of the in.stitution, which Mr. Logan, of Philadelphia, 

 introduced in the Senate, which passed to a second reading, was referred 

 to a conunittee which never reported, and so was lost. 



Barlow's National Institution resembled more closely the House of 

 Salomon in The New Atlantis of Bacon than it did the eminently i^rac- 

 tical university project of Washington. It would be interesting to know 

 to what extent President Jefferson was in sympathy with Barlow. The 

 mind which a few years later directed the organization of the Univer- 

 sity of Virginia could scarcely have approved all the features of the 

 Kalorama plan. He was undoubtedly at this time anxious that a national 

 university should be founded, as is shown by his messages to Congress in 

 1806 and 1808,= though it is probable that he wished it to be erected in 

 some convenient part of Virginia, rather than in the city of Washington. 

 The project for transplanting to America the faculty of the College of 

 Geneva, which, but for the opposition of Washington, would probably have 

 been attempted in 1794, had reference rather to the formation of a State 

 university, national in influence, than to a central Federal instittition.^ 



Although Barlow's plan was, in its details, nuich too elaborate for the 

 times, the fundamental ideas were exceedingly attractive, and led to very 

 important and far-reaching results. 



Barlow expected, of course, that his institution should be established 

 and maintained at Government cost. This was soon found to be imprac- 

 ticable, and those who were interested in the intellectual advancement of 

 the capital soon had recourse to the idea of beginning the work at private 

 expense, relying upon Government aid for its futtire advancement. 



Barlow's classmate, Josiah Meigs, his friend and neighbor Thomas 

 Law, aided by Edward Cutbush, Judge Cranch, and other citizens of 

 Washington, proceeded forthwith to attempt that which the politicians 

 dared not. 



The essential features of Barlow's plan were: 



( 1 ) The advancement of knowledge by associations of scientific men ; 

 and 



(2) The dissemination of its rudiments by the instruction of youth.'' 

 To meet the first of these requirements they organized the Columbian 



Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, in 18 19 ; and for the sec- 

 ond, the Columbian College, incorporated in 182 1. Most of the promi- 

 nent members of the Columbian Institute were also among the friends 



' National Intellingencer, November 24, 1806. 



= Henry Adams, History of the United States, 1805-1809, I, pp. 346, 347; II, p. 365. 



3 Idem., pp. 45, 46. 



■•The Old Bachelor, by William Wirt, p. 186. 



