REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35 
of this act Iwas requested by one of the Regents to prepare a sketch 
of such an institution as I deemed that of Smithson ought to be, with 
reference at once to the requirements of Congress, and the brief, 
though comprehensive, phrases of the will. After devoting careful 
attention to the expressions of the bequest, and being acquainted 
with the character of the founder, I could not entertain the slightest 
doubt that it was the intention of the latter to establish a cosmopel- 
itan institution, which should be alike a monument of his own 
fervent love of science, an efficient instrumentality for promoting 
original researches and rendering a knowledge of their results 
accessible to inquiring minds in every part and age of the world. 
I accordingly advised the adoption of the plan set forth in the first 
section of the programme presented to the board in my report for 
1847,* a plan which is principally designed to increase knowledge 
by instituting researches and assisting in various ways men of talents 
and acquirements to make original investigations in all departments 
of scientific inquiry, as well as to diffuse the knowledge thus obtained 
by presenting, free of cost, to all the principal libraries and public 
institutions of the world copies of a series of volumes containing the 
results of the investigations instituted. 
Previous to the presentation of these views, one of the Regents 
had reported in favor of making immediate provision for a library, a 
museum, a gallery of art, and other local objects, in connexion with 
a system of lectures to be delivered in different parts of the country; 
while another Regent had presented an eloquent appeal in favor of a 
great library composed of books in all languages and on all subjects. 
In reviewing these and other plans of organization which had been 
previously advocated, it will scarcely be denied by an unprejudiced 
mind that, for the most part, they were such as to exert a merely local 
influence, and which, if they embraced means for the diffusion of 
popular knowldge, neglected the first and essential condition of the 
bequest, viz.: the increase of knowledge—in other words, the advance- 
ment of science or the discovery and promulgation of new truths. 
On the other hand, the plan of organization presented in the first 
section of the report for 1847 is that of a living, active, progressive 
system, limited in its operations only by the amount of the income; 
calculated to affect the condition of man wherever literature and sci- 
ence are cultivated, while it tends in this country to give an impulse to 
original thought, which, amidst the strife of politics and the inordi- 
nate pursuit of wealth, is, of all things, most desirable. 
* See programme of organization, page 8 of this report. 
