884 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITIISON's BEQUEST. 



from them the channels of their accustomed support. As 

 its origin and objects are different from theirs, so there must 

 be impressed upon it a character perfectly distinct. Instead 

 of coming forward as a competitor with them in the sale of 

 literary wares, it were better for it to bring into the market 

 articles which they do not supply. 



Of the four departments of study already indicated as 

 entering into the plan of existing education, the ancient 

 languages and intellectual sciences are generally pursued to 

 a considerable extent. Requiring no great outlay for the 

 purchase of libraries or means of illustration, and there 

 l)eing an abundant suppl}^ of accomplished teachers fur- 

 nished from the ranks of professional life or brought up 

 with these objects in view, a very effective course of instruc- 

 tion can be given, and accordingly w^e find that our classical 

 scholars bear an advantageous comparison with those that 

 graduate in European schools. 



But in the more exact sciences it is not so. The whole 

 routine of instruction in natural and physical science is 

 attended at the beginning with such heavy costs and such 

 a constant drain of expenditure for repairs and consump- 

 tion that all institutions among us find it necessary to restrict 

 themselves here. Their means will not enable them to sus- 

 tain complete courses of instruction, and they are necessa- 

 rily driven to pass over these subjects in a superficial w^a}', 

 and allot to them only a brief space of time. 



There is also another reason which renders their instruc- 

 tion on these points inefi&cient — a difiiculty inherent in their 

 very constitution. Tlie successful study of the higher de- 

 partments of physical science, whether natural philosophy 

 or chemistry, requires a previous knowledge of the higher 

 geometry. Mathematics have now become the porch of 

 physical knowledge. Young men, at the commencement of 

 college life, have commonly but an indifterent acquaintance 

 with mathematics. It is as much as they can do, even in 

 the course of four complete years, to gain a general insight 

 into the principles of the Calculus. The leading institutions 

 among us do not profess to carry them beyond this. It is 

 only then that they are ready to take hold of these subjects 

 in a proper wa}', but it is also then that their term of educa- 

 tion has expired, and instruction fails them. 



Here therefore is the point on which the Smithsonian 

 Institute can act with efficiency in aid of our established 

 seminaries, without interfering with them in anywise. In 

 this character it will fulfill to the letter the wishes of its 

 founder — an institute for men, not boys. It will be operating 



