PREFACE. 



Many individuals have become entitled to gratitude for gifts to, 

 a community or services to their country, but few have acquired 

 distinction as the benefactors of mankind. The desire for posthu- 

 mous fame has induced some to erect monuments to themselves by 

 founding libraries, others by endowing schools of learning or chari- 

 table establishments ; but very few have succeeded in devising 

 a plan by which their names should not only acquire world-wide 

 renown, but their benefactions be of universal application. 



To James Smithson belongs the rare and proud distinction that 

 his bequest is for no particular locality and confined to no limited 

 period. His aim is to benefit all men, and is never-ending in its 

 action. 



Smithson selected the United States of America to carry into eflfect 

 bis noble design, believing that to confer a benefit on all mankind 

 he could confide in a nation composed of representatives of all 

 races, where no narrow interpretation would be given to his words, 

 or selfish limitation be placed on his charity. Turning from the 

 unstable monarchies and decaying empires of Europe, he sought 

 for perpetuity of his ideas in the rising power and wonderful pro- 

 gress of the young republic. 



Smithsou's life was devoted to original research, as all his writ- 

 ings show, and accustomed to the use of the precise language of 

 scientific investigators, he made the words of his will brief, but as 

 explicit as his intention was clear to his own mind. Nevertheless 

 his idea was in advance of popular intelligence in this country, and 

 a discussion took place which rendered it impossible for eight years 

 for Congress to adopt a plan to carry out his beneficent intention. 



Legacies too often prove more fruitful of wasteful litigation or 

 disputation than of immediate or general benefit, and the history 

 of the Smithson bequest should prevent other philanthropists from 



