882 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITUSON S BEQUEST. 



tures; embarrassment has followed, and because tbcy bad 

 reckoned more upon striking tbc public eye witb the splendor 

 of tbeir exterior tbanwitb the excellence of their fruit, they 

 have ceased to be encouraged. Corinthian pillars and Gothic 

 halls are the bane of literary institutions, which so surely 

 as they are introduced take away from the working material. 

 There are men who will read this that will feelingbj respond 

 to it. The public is right — universities ought to learn that 

 they are held in estimation only for the quality of the in- 

 struction thej' can impart. The men who were raised in 

 the French Polytechnic school would have given a standing 

 to any place, even though it had been built of brick. The 

 effective part of a seminary of science is not its walls and 

 decorations; yet both in Europe and in America such in- 

 stitutions are to be seen, which remind one of a linc-of-battle 

 ship, with its decks carpeted and no guns aboard. 



That Mr. Smithson intended, wheii he gave this money 

 in charge to the United States, to found an institution for 

 the advancement and diffusion of science, there cannot be a 

 doubt. His whole life is a commentary on his intentions. 

 He had witnessed, during his repeated visits to the continent, 

 the successive plans adopted by the French Republic for the 

 rapid and perfect education of their youth — their Central, 

 their ISTormal, their Polytechnic schools — for Fourcroy, the 

 chemist, who was continually in the society that Mr. Smith- 

 son frequented, was the main mover, if not the originator, 

 of these different plans, and was a member at the time of 

 the ITational Convention and the Council of Ancients. J^o 

 one who contemplates the great results at last obtained from 

 these repeated trials, and the impetus given to all depart- 

 ments of knowledge, even the most difficult and sublime, will 

 deny that the schemes adopted were far superior to anything 

 that had preceded them. 



This brings me now to the main point of my letter. Partly 

 because the funds allotted to this purpose are limited — partly 

 because great and successful universities cannot spring up 

 in a day, but must be of slower growth — partly because it is 

 uncertain whether Congress will give munificently, or even 

 give anything to the cause — partly because it is most suitable 

 to the genius and character of institutions now existing in 

 the different States — partly because the successful results 

 which can be produced from it will appeal at once to the 

 understanding of the whole people, and inevitably lead to the 

 establishment either by the national councils or by patriotic 

 individuals of a great National University, but chiefly be- 

 cause I believe it to have been the intention of the testator — 



