280 WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. [1847 



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 in- 

 corporated into other reports by some competent person in 

 this countr3^ 



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 

 value. The preparation of these however should be in- 

 trusted to none but persons of character and reputation, 

 and should be subjected to a revision by competent and 

 responsible judges before they are given to the public. 

 They may be presented in the form of reports on the exist- 

 ing state of knowledge relative to a given subject, and may 

 sometimes consist of memoirs and expositions of particular 

 branches of literature and science, translated from foreign 

 languages. The reports and treatises of the Institution, sold 

 at a price barely sufficient to pay the expenses of printing, 

 will find their way into every school in our country, and 

 will be used not as first lessons for the pupil, but as sources 

 of reliable information for the teacher. 



The second section of the programme gives, so far as they 

 have been made out, the details of the part of the plan of 

 organization directed by the act of Congress establishing 

 the Institution. The two plans, namely, that of publication 

 and original research, and that of collections of objects of 

 nature and art, are not incompatible, and may be carried on 

 harmoniously with each other. The only effect which they 

 will have on one another is that of limiting the operation of 

 each, on account of the funds given to the other. Still, with a 

 judicious application and an economical expenditure of the 

 income, and particularly b}'' rigidly observing the plan of 

 finance suggested by Dr. Bache, in the construction of the 

 building, much good may be eflPected in each of the two 

 branches of the Institution. To carry on the operations of 

 the first a working library will be required, consisting of the 

 past volumes and the transactions and proceedings of all the 



