•694 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



only at the act, in ascertaining the duty of those who ad- 

 minister the aifairs of the institution, and there can be no 

 ground for a controversy in reference to the meaning of the 

 will, as against the act, or vice versa. 



The will and tlie two acts of Congress that have been 

 spread out on the foregoing pages in full, interpret them- 

 selves to the common sense and adequate apprehension of 

 every reader. It is only necessary to regard the words as 

 used in their ordinary sense, to avoid a mental interpolation 

 of language not in the text, and to allow its natural mean- 

 ing to flow out from all the language used in the instrument. 

 In this spirit of fair and unstrained interpretation, we pro- 

 pose to consider for a moment the language of the act 

 establishing the Smithsonian Institution, of which different 

 and conflicting interpretations are advocated. 



The word " increase" is held by some of the zealous com. 

 batants in the Smithsonian controversy to be identical with 

 "DISCOVERY." The idea seems to be that knowledge 

 can only be increased by the discover >j of new truth. This is 

 an arbitrary and untenable position. A mind experiences 

 an increase of knowledge if it knows more than it did be- 

 fore, although all the ideas it has received may be in the 

 commonest text books. There has been an increase of 

 knowledge in the school, in the congregation, in the lecture 

 room, if ideas not before known to them have been received 

 into the minds of the hearers ; even, indeed, it matters not 

 if those ideas have been recorded for thousands of years in 

 languages, classical or sacred, that have been dead long 

 ago. Knowledge has been increased, if one mind has re- 

 ceived more, whether it be new or old truth. The language 

 of Smithson is perfectly simple, and in its natural sense 

 covers the whole ground — it includes, but does not require, 

 ne2V truth. Truth discovered a thousand years ago is as good 

 as truth discovered yesterday. Knowledge embraces it all 

 alike, and Smithson's object was to carry knowledge where 

 it was not before, and to increase it where it was ; to spread 

 it over a wider area, and to a greater depth. 



In like manner a particular meaning has been crowded 

 npon the word " knowledge" — not its ordinary meaning in 

 common usage ; but a narrow, technical, and special mean- 

 ing. This has been done by confounding it with " science." 

 It is true that, in their primitive origin, or roots, in the 

 languages from which they are derived, these words ma}^ be 

 identical in their meaning, but not so as actually used in 

 common conversation and familiar and general literature. 

 " Knowledge " is all-comprehensive — embracing science, art, 



