1847] WRITINGS OP JOSEPH HENRY. 273 



express object of some of our scientific societies is the promo- 

 tion of the discovery of new truths. 



The will makes no restriction in favor of any particular 

 kind of knowledge; though propositions have been fre- 

 quently made for devoting the funds exclusively to the pro- 

 motion of certain branches of science having more imme- 

 diate application to the practical arts of life, and the adoption 

 of these propositions has been urged on the ground of the 

 conformity of such objects to the pursuits of Smithson ; but 

 an examination of his writings will show that he excluded 

 from his own studies no branch of general knowledge, and 

 that he was fully impressed with the important philoso- 

 phical fact that all subjects of human thought relate to one 

 great system of truth. To restrict therefore the operations 

 of the Institution to a single science or art, would do injustice 

 to the character of the donor, as well as to the cause of gen- 

 eral knowledge. If preference is to be given to any branches 

 of research, it should be to the higher and apparently more 

 abstract; to the discovery of new principles rather than of 

 isolated facts. And this is true even in a practical point of 

 view. Agriculture would have forever remained an empir- 

 ical art, had it not been for the light shed upon it by the 

 atomic theory of chemistry ; and incomparably more is to 

 be expected as to its future advancement from the perfec- 

 tion of the microscope than from improvements in the 

 ordinary instruments of husbandry. 



The plan of increasing and diffusing knowledge, pre- 

 sented in the first section of the programme, will be found 

 in strict accordance with the several propositions deduced 

 from the will of Smithson, and given in the introduction. 

 It embraces, as a leading feature, the design of interesting 

 the greatest number of individuals in the operations of the 

 Institution, and of spreading its influence as widely as pos- 

 sible. It forms an active organization, exciting all to make 

 original researches who are gifted with the necessary power, 

 and diffusing a kind of knowledge, now only accessible to 

 the few, among all those who are willing to receive it. In 

 this country, though many excel in the application of 

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