912 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 



to increase the aggregate of human knowledge would be tO' 

 diffuse what we have among the masses. This would be 

 the ^'■open sesame!^' the talismanic word which would un- 

 lock the hidden chambers of science. Instead of putting 

 ten men into snug sinecures, the true method would be to 

 put ten millions of men upon the search of truth, when it 

 might happen that the immortal discoverers would come 

 forth from some obscure cabin on the Aroostook, or some 

 remote cottage of the prairie. Discoveries must be left to 

 time, to chance, to the researches of the solitary student, 

 to men whom God shall inspire with the spirit of excellent 

 wisdom. But the seed of scientific discover}/ is diffused knowledge. 

 This should be sown broadcast among the masses. This was 

 the object of Mr. Smithson — " To increase and diffuse knowl- 

 edge among men." 



Of the various plans which have been suggested, that of 

 the Hon. Richard Rush, addressed to President Van Buren, 

 is the most remarkable. He advised the appointment, by 

 the President and beads of Departments, &c., of as many 

 lecturers as the funds would bear, whose duty it should be 

 to "illustrate the democratic principle in elementary dis- 

 quisitions," &c., which were then to be submitted to the 

 President, and if approved by him, published. He preg- 

 nantly remarks: "If knowledge is power, power directing 

 knoivledge may make it efficacious;" and he sagely augurs 

 that "the desire of fame, increased by the hope of their 

 lectures being published, might be expected to stimulate 

 them to exertion; and if incentives so high were wanting, 

 the tenure of their appointments, where the Executive and the 

 public eye would be upon them, would act as a guard against 

 any slackness in their duties." This scheme embraced other 

 and better features, but this was its most prominent one. 

 The adoption of this bad plan would have made the bequest 

 a corruption fund, and its lecturers a corps of Executive 

 sycophants and political hacks. I mention it merely to show 

 what projects politicians are capable of conceiving, and to 

 what base purposes this sacred bequest may be perverted if 

 it be not vigilantly guarded. 



Doctors Cooper, Chapin, and Wayland concur in recom- 

 mending a kind of university. Dr. Cooper would open it 

 only to the graduates of colleges. Dr. Chapin would have 

 a few chairs filled with "professors of the first powers and 

 attainments;" of which few chairs he specifies only ten. 

 Dr. Wayland would have its course of studies commence 

 where the studies of our colleges and West Point school 

 end. To this plan, in all its unimportant varieties, we object 



