26 ‘ REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 
The following extract from his letter of resignation expresses his deep 
interest in the Institution and his views as to its policy: 
In thus severing my official connection with the Smithsonian, I beg 
leave to express to you and your associates my sense of the noble task 
in which you are engaged, and of my earnest prayer that the institution 
under your management will continue to fulfill its magnificent design. 
A knowledge of sc ience, that is, of the laws of nature, iS SO intimately 
connected with the advance of higher civilization that Mr. Smithson 
displayed unusual wisdom in so endowing his institution that it should 
give its principal labor to the increase of knowledge, to accumulating 
and securing new knowledge to be added to the old, which should be a 
special province of the universities of the whole earth. I therefore coin- 
cide with you perfectly in your special construction of the will, and hope 
that the Regents will continue to construe it literally as a legacy sacred 
in its nature and beneficial in the highest degree. 
I beg you will assure your associ iates that among the many causes of 
regret at leaving Washington none impresses me more than that which 
forces me to sever iny relations with the Regents of the Smithsonian 
Institution. 
Upon his return to the capital he was re-elected by Congress a regent 
from the city of Washington, March 25, 1878, and again became a mem- 
ber of the executive committee on May 17 following. He served as 
chairman of a special committee of the Board to make arrangements for 
the funeral ceremonies of Prof. Henry, May 13, 1878, and was elected, 
January 15, 1879, by the Board to make an address at the memorial 
services of Prof. Henry in the United States Capitol. A few extracts 
from his address at the services on January 16, 1879, are eminently 
characteristic, and may be most appropriately quoted here: 
From the beginning the living have paid homage to the virtues of the 
dead; for immortality is the dream of man. From Agra to Washing- 
ton scar ce acity, town, or village but contains some monument designed 
to perpetuate the memory of one who has passed from earth. Moun- 
tains have been excavated, pyramids built, temples have been erected, 
and granite, marble, and bronze shaped into every conceivable form to 
give expression to honor, respect, affection, and love for some dead hero, 
warrior, Statesman, or philosopher. These earthly tributes can be of 
no service to the dead, but they form lasting records of deeds held 
honorable among men; are strong incentives to noble acts in the pres- 
ent, and mark a ‘steady progress towar d that better condition which is 
the ultimate destiny of the human race. 
We are not assembled to-night to shape in marble, or granite, o1 
bronze the human form of our countryman and friend, Prof. Joseph 
Henry, but in order that those who knew him best may, by simple trib- 
utes of thought and feeling, bear public testimony to the merits of one 
who in our day stood forth a most resplendent type of moral and intel- 
lectual manhood, and who, with little thought of self, rendered eminent 
service in the cause of mankind. He needs no monument, for where- 
ever man goes or human thought travels the poles and continuous wires 
will remind him that to Prof. Henry of all men we are most indebted 
for the inestimable blessings of the telegraph. 
* * * * * ¥ * 
