[ 108 ] 10 



try, and in scarcely a single case has application for assistance in this way 

 been refused. By the operation of the plan adopted, the Institution can 

 command the talents and learning of the world, and with a small corps of 

 permanent officers, or a sufficient clerical force, can discharge the duty of 

 an association to which subjects, relative to all branches of knowledge, can 

 be referred. 



There is one class of requests which, by a resolution of the Board of Re- 

 gents, we are directed to refuse, viz : those for the examination and approval 

 of the innumerable inventions by which the ingenious and enterprising seek 

 to better their own condition and that of the public. Were it not for this 

 resolution, originally proposed by Governor Cass, we would be overwhelmed 

 with applications of this kind, and have forced upon us the business of the 

 Patent Office. Besides this, the principal object of the organization is the 

 discovery of new truths, rather than the application of known principles to 

 useful purposes. Not that we would undervalue the labors of the inventor ; 

 but because practical knowledge has a marketable value which always in- 

 sures its Cultivation, provided the higher philosophical truths on whicli it is 

 founded are sufiiciently developed and made known. 



The idea is still very generally entertained that Smithson bequeathed his 

 property to this country for the diffusion of useful knowledge among the 

 people, and that his intention would be best consulted by the expenditure 

 of all the income in the publication and general distribution of tracts on 

 practical subjects. The adoption of this plan would be to dissipate the 

 funds without beneficial eifect. A single report of the Patent Office costs, 

 in some instances, more than three times the income of the Smithsonian 

 fund, wdiich itself would be insufficient for the general diffusion of a single 

 octavo page of j)rinted matter. The property, however, was not left to the 

 inhabitants of the United States, but to the government, in trust for the 

 good of man; and not merel for the dissemination or difiusion of know- 

 ledge, but, first of all, for creating, originating, increasing it. Furthermore, 

 Smithson does not confine his bequest to the promotion o( useful knowledge 

 alone, in the lower sense of the term, but includes all knowledge in his 

 liberal and philosophical design. The true, the beautiful, as well as the 

 immediately practical, are all entitled to a share of attention. All know- 

 ledge is profitable : profitable in its ennobling effect on the character, in 

 the pleasure it imparts in its acquisition, as well as in the power it gives 

 over the operations of mind and of matter. All knowledge is useful ; every 

 part of this complex system of nature is connected with evejy other. Nothing 

 is isolated. The discovery of to-day, which appears unconnected with any 

 useful process, may, in the course of a few years, become the fruitful source 

 of a thousand inventions. 



That the encouragement of the discovery of new truths, the publication of 

 original memoirs, and the establishment of new researches:, are in conformity 

 with the design of Smithson, is not only manifest from the terms of his 

 will, but also from the fact, which has lately come to our knowledge, that 

 he at first left his property to the Royal Society of London, for the very 

 object embraced in this part of the plan. And what prouder monument 

 could any man desire than the perpetual association of his name with a 

 series of new truths I This building and all its contents may be destroyed, 

 but the volumes of the Smithsonian Contributi^ons, distributed as they are 

 among a thousand libraries, are as wide-spread and lasting as civilization 

 itself. 



