588 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



a library. Such an application of the funds would, indeed, lessen the abil- 

 ity of the institution to accomplish its great object, which is declared by 

 its founder to be, to increase and diffuse l<nowledge among men, to the full 

 extent to which they may be spent unduly to increase the library. More- 

 over, American students havH a just claim upon their own country for such 

 local facilities as the accumulation of books aflfords. 



" If I am allowed to state, in conclusion, my personal impression re- 

 specting the management of the institution thus far, I would only express 

 my concurrence with the plan of active operations adopted by the regents, 

 •wbich has led to the publication of a series of volumes equal, in scientific 

 value, to any productions of the same kind issued by learned societies any- 

 where. The distribution of ihe Smithsoniaji Contributions to Knowledge 

 has already carried the name of the institution to all parts of the civilized 

 world, and conveyed with them such evidence of the intellectual activity 

 of America as challenges everywhere admiration; a result which could 

 hardly be obtained by applying a large part of the resources of the institu- 

 tion to other purposes." 



Mr. Chairman, with the following letter from Professor 

 Benjamin Peirce, I shall yield the floor, satisfied to suhmit 

 the question whether the Smithsonian Institution is being 

 properly managed, to the judgment of Congress and the 

 scientilic world : 



"Of all men, none can be more sensible of the value of the great store- 

 houses of the wisdom of past ages than they who are obliged to resort to 

 them in the development of their own researches. The knowledge which 

 has already been given to the world, and which is accumulated in the 

 library, stimulates and invigorates the mind for original thought, and sup- 

 plies important materials fur investigation. It is to the author what the 

 collection of models in the Patent Office is to the inventor ; but, neverthe- 

 less, the increase of knowledge depends chiefly upon the native vigor of in- 

 tellect, and its diffusion is performed by the press. To the strong mind 

 the collections of the Vatican are a golden opportunity, richer than the 

 mineral harvest of California; but not richer than the hills and streams 

 which abound within every man's siirht; not richer than the stone beneath 

 our feet on which is written the history of the world; than the leaf of the 

 forest, on which is inscribed the thought of its Creator ; or than the cloud 

 in the lightnings of which the laws and the glory of God are as distinctly 

 revealed to the faithful of the present generation as they were upon Mount 

 Sinai. 



"The valuable contributions to knowledge which have already been 

 made by the Smithsonian Institution are a living proof that vast libraries 

 are not necessary to the development of new thoughts. If you will com- 

 pare these memoirs with the scientific productions of the same period in 

 Europe, you may find them, perchance, inferior in erudition, but not in 

 profoundness and originality of thought. Do you believe that Smithson, 

 who was himself engaged in chemical investigations, could have intended a 

 Ubrartj by his words 'an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among men?' If you will examine his nine memoirs to the Eoyal 

 Society, of \vhich he was'an active member, and his eighteen other contri- 

 butions to science, you will not find one of them which required a library 

 for its production. Each was the natural growth of a deeply thinking 

 mind. Smithson was emphatically a maker and not a collector of books; 

 and in the scientific circle to which he belonged, the ordinary use of lan- 

 guage would have totally precluded the interpretation which some m6n of 

 quite a different cast of mind have presumed to impose upon his words. 

 Expand his largeness of expression to its utmost extent, include in it all 

 that a generous mind like his own would desire it to embrace; but let it 



