[ Rep. No. 181. ] 3 



Knowledge is the attribute of his nature, which at once enables him to 

 improve his condition upon earth, and to prepare him for tlie enjoyment 

 of a happier existence hereafter. It is by this attribute that man discovers 

 his own nature as the link between earth and heaven ; as the partaker of 

 an immortal spirit ; as created for hio-her and more durable ends, than the 

 countless tribes of beiui^s which people the earth, the ocean, and the air, 

 alternately instinct with life, and melting into vapour, or mouldering into dust. 



To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is, therefore, the greatest 

 benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself, and 

 enlarges the sphere of existence. The earth was given to man for cultiva- 

 tion, to the improvement of his own condition. Whoever increases his 

 knowledge, multiplies the uses to. which he is enabled to turn the gift of 

 his Creator to his ovv^n benefit, and partakes in some degree of that good- 

 ness which is the highest attribute of Omnipotence itself 



If then the Smitlisonian Institution, under the smile of an approving 

 Providence, and by the faithful and permanent application of the means 

 furnished by its founder, to the purpose for which he has bestowed them, 

 should prove effective to their promotion ; if tliey should contribute essen- 

 tially to the I'^crea^e and diffasioa of knoivledge among men, to what 

 higher or nobler object could this generous and splendid donation have 

 been devoted ? 



The father of the testator, upon forming his alliance with the heiress of 

 the family of the Percys, assumed, by an act of the British Parliament, that 

 name, and under it became Duke of Northumberland. But. renowned as is 

 the name of Percy in the historical annals of England, resounding as it 

 does from the summit of the Cheviot hills, to the ears of our children, in 

 the ballad of GhcA'y Chase, with the classical commentary of Addison ; 

 freshened and renovated in our memory as it has recently been from the 

 . purest fountain of poetical inspiration, in the loftier strain of Alnwick 

 Castle, tuned by a bard of our own native land ;* doubly immortalized as it 

 is in the deathless dramas of Shakespear ; " confident against the world 

 in arms," as it may have been in ages long past, and may still be in the 

 virtues of its present possessors by inheritance ; let the trust of James 

 Smithson to the United States of America, be faithfully executed by their 

 Representatives in Congress ; let the result accomplish his object, " the in- 

 crease and diffusion of knowledge among men," and a wreath of more un- 

 fadino- verdure shall entwine itself in the lapse of future ages around the 

 name' of Smithson, than the united hands of tradition, history and poetry, 

 liave braided around the name of Percy, through the long perspective in 

 ages past of a thousand years. 



It is then a high and solemn trust which the testator has committed to the. 

 United States of^ America, and its execution devolves upon their Represen- 

 tatives in Congress, duties of no ordinary importance. The location of 

 the institution at Washington, prescribed by the testator, gives to Congress 

 the free exercise of all the powers relating to this subject with which they 

 are, by the constitution, invested as the local Legislature for tl;c District of 

 Columbia. In adverting to the character of the trustee selected by the 

 testator for the fulfilment of his intentions, your committee deem it no in- 

 dulgence of unreasonable pride to mark it as a signal manifastation of the 

 moral effect of our political institutions, upon the opinions, and upon the 

 consequent action of the wise and the good of other regions, and of distant 



* Fitz.srreen Halleck. 



