PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 889 



chosen with discretion, would be far better adapted for work- 

 ing purposes than one of thirty indiscriminately selected. 



Probably your views would incline you to an institution 

 of a more literary cast than that which I have indicated. I 

 cannot, however, see any broad distinction that you could 

 draw that should separate it, characteristically, from an 

 University. Even if there were no danger of its collision 

 under that form with the older Universities, I doubt very 

 much the possibility of carrying it into effect. Mr. Smith- 

 son's fund is not enough. We cannot tell whether Congress 

 is munificently disposed, or whether the way would be clear 

 in other respects. A successful University must be of slower 

 growth. It would be impossible to officer at once one in 

 Washington of which all others should tacitly acknowledge 

 the supremacy. The thing itself is not desirable; and yet, 

 under any other condition, it would be a discreditable abor- 

 tion. 



For the same reason that I am not disposed to believe 

 that by the " Smithsonian Institute " its founder meant " The 

 National Astronomical Observatory of the United States," 

 so I do not believe he meant "A National University," 

 planned on the model of yours of Virginia, Yale College, or 

 any other. What he meant hy the term knowledge the history 

 of his whole life will inform us. We are bound to conform 

 to his wishes, so far as we can understand them. One thing 

 is certain, that no plan can ever be got through Congress 

 that is not based upon this principle. There is a pride 

 among us that will not stoop to be indebted for these things 

 to the generosity of strangers. 



Indeed, it is not literature that we need. On all sides we 

 are surrounded with able and learned men whose lives are 

 devoted to its pursuits. They will all tell you that it is not 

 on the machinery of colleges, but on the printing press, that 

 they depend for the diffusion of the information they hold. 

 In this respect, your own Messenger, if it receives the sup- 

 port which I trust it does, may be a more valuable adjunct 

 than half a million of dollars spent in erecting a College in 

 Washington. But in science it is otherwise; the living 

 teacher alone can communicate information, and you must 

 arm him with cabinets and apparatus. 



Whilst, therefore, there is on the one hand no prospect of 

 establishing successfully a Literary Institute, not a suffi- 

 ciency of funds for sustaining one of a mixed character, 

 many doubts as to whether the testator had reference to one 

 of either kind, the danger of causing the whole attempt to 

 miscarry by incorporating Mr. Smithson's Institute with u 



