1853] WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. 309 



these must be men of high moral principle, not only strictly 

 honest, but above suspicion of the contrary. They owe a 

 strict accountability to the members of the Institute for 

 the manner in which the income is expended, and to the 

 world for the mode in which the high duty of acting as 

 judges of the merit of inventions has been discharged. The 

 task of the judges, and of the committee of science and the 

 arts, to whom discoveries and inventions are referred, is one 

 of delicacy and difficulty, and should not be entrusted to 

 those unacquainted with the principles on which the prop- 

 osition to be examined depends, or who do not possess the 

 mental and moral qualifications necessary to the formation 

 of a correct judgment. It is for the benefit of the commu- 

 nity that the truth should prevail, and that the merits and 

 defects of an invention should be rendered distinctly mani- 

 fest. Where merit exists it should receive due credit, but not 

 exaggerated praise. The simple statement of what has been 

 accomplished is all that is needed, though it may not be all 

 which a generous spirit is impatient to bestow. Nobleness 

 of mind springs forward with ardor to meet every indication 

 of a similar kind wherever it appears. The whole duty of 

 the committee however in this case may be expressed in two 

 words — strict justice. This is what every judge ought to give, 

 and more than this no man ought to desire to receive. 



It will often become the duty of the committee of exam- 

 ination of subjects of science and art to repress the prema- 

 ture zeal of visionary inventors. We need only examine 

 the records of the Patent Office to be convinced of the im- 

 mense expense of time and money continually lavished on 

 futile attempts to innovate and improve. We may safely 

 venture to affirm that out of every fifty propositions for im- 

 provements in arts or mechanics forty-nine at least are either 

 useless or old. The object should be to distinguish and to 

 adopt the good and reject the bad. But while pruning the 

 luxuriant fruit of uncultivated invention care must be taken 

 to perform the task with gentleness, and to show that the in- 

 tention is to give additional vigor to the healthful branches 

 and not to injure the parent plant. 



