PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 927 



people. In this case the Government would have nothing 

 to do but to organize our Board of Regents, and pay our 

 money when it fiills due. For all practical purposes we 

 wish the Smithsonian Institution to be as far beyond its 

 reach as the remotest star. Here is a fund consecrated to 

 the difl'usion of knowledge — a purpose which can be accom- 

 plished only by the agency of the press. The Government 

 has accepted the trust, and we wish them to discharge it by 

 organizing a competent and trust-worthy corporation to 

 employ that agent in our service. More we wish it not to 

 do — less it cannot do in good faith. Let not our rulers think 

 scorn of so humble an expedient as the sending forth of two 

 annual volumes, to teach us how to take care of ourselves 

 and of our country — how to labor with advantage, and how 

 to vote with discretion. It shall cost their honors little 

 trouble and no expense; but the two volumes shall do the 

 nation more good than the two houses of Congress. Our 

 rulers themselves shall have their portion of benefit ; these 

 volumes shall show them the right, and make them afraid 

 to do wrong. And when they come down from their high 

 places, they shall share in common with us the blessings 

 they will have bestowed upon their country. 



In this way Sales may he Indefinitely Extended. — Will it be 

 thought better that the publications of the Institute should 

 be sent out as gratuities? It would cost millions to do any 

 thing to the purpose in this way. The books would become 

 the perquisites of ofiicials, and would be distributed by fa- 

 voritism. But in the method here proposed, the publica- 

 tion might be extended to the utmost limit of the demand, 

 without additional charge to the institution, and without 

 complicating the machinery. The fund would merely edit, 

 stereotype, and engrave ; here its responsibility would end. 

 The publisher would print and sell for his minimum profit, 

 and manage his own machinery with the astuteness of in- 

 terest. All who were willing to pay one-third of their value 

 could have the books. I have supposed the sets to be worth 

 ^8 — to sell for |3 — and the number of sets annually sold to 

 be 100,000. To this operation the fund would contribute 

 $42,000; the purchasers $300,000. The excess of actual 

 value over the cost, amounting to $500,000, would be in 

 effect an annual donation from the generous foreigner to 

 the American people. The annual increase of bibliothecal 

 wealth in the country would be $800,000. Here would be 

 a creative power constantly employed in putting knowledge 

 into men's heads and skill into their fingers, fertilizing 



