956 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON's BEQUEST. 



given ill the city in which Smithson has seen fit to direct 

 the establishment of his institution, yet, as a plan of general 

 dift'usion of knowledge, the system of lectures would be en- 

 tirely inadequate; every village in our extended country 

 would have a right to demand a share of the benefit, and 

 the income of the institution would be insufficient to sup- 

 ply a thousandth part of the demand. It is also evident 

 that the knowledge difl'used should, if possible, not only 

 embrace all branches of general interest, so that each reader 

 might find a subject suited to his taste, but also that it 

 should difier in kind and quality from that which can be 

 readily obtained through the cheap publications of the day. 

 These requisites will be fully complied with in the publica- 

 tions of the series of reports proposed in the programme. 

 A series of periodicals of this kind, posting up all the dis- 

 coveries in science from time to time, and giving a well 

 digested account of all the important changes in the differ- 

 en"t branches of knowledge, is a desideratum in the English 

 language. The idea is borrowed from a partial plan of this 

 kind in operation in Sweden and Germany; and for an ex- 

 ample of what the work should be, I would refer to the 

 annual report to the Swedish Academy of its perpetual 

 secretary, Berzelius, on physical science. The reports can 

 be so prepared as to be highly interesting to the general 

 reader, and at the same time of great importance to the 

 exclusive cultivator of a particular branch of knowledge. 

 Full references should be given, in foot-notes, to the page, 

 number, or volume of the work from which the information 

 was obtained, and where a more detailed account can be 

 found. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the prepa- 

 ration of these reports should be intrusted only to persons 

 profoundly acquainted with the subjects to which they re- 

 late — namely, to those who are devoted to particular 

 branches, while they possess a knowledge of general prin- 

 ciples. Sufficient explanations should be introduced to 

 render the report intelligible to the general reader, without 

 destroying its scientific character. Occasionally reports 

 may be obtained from abroad — as, for example, accounts of 

 the progress of certain branches of knowledge in foreign 

 countries, and these may be translated, if necessary, and 

 incorporated into other reports, by some competent person 

 in this country. 



Besides the reports on the progress of knowledge, the 

 programme proposes to publish occasionally brief treatises 

 on particular subjects. There are always subjects of gen- 

 eral interest of which brief expositions would be of much. 



