532 FOURTH BULLETIN OF [1846. 



growth in our nation in all things, external and pnlpable, that the setting sun of 

 fvny ovcning must beliold it more powerful tlian when it rose. 



But is it that we attend to these material results too exclusively, leaving mind to 

 shift lor itself ?— so that in the cultivation which it proudly seeks it has not fair play, 

 from wanting those auxiliary means and appliances which it olten requires, and with- 

 out which, if mind does not sink, it may pme and fail to reach the towering heights 

 its aspirations are tixed upon ? And is it that little l)oons are withheld from it 

 through that political vehemence and intensity which our admirable institutions, 

 in the miUst of their excellence, primarily heget, and which tend to absorb all else 

 in that one grand heated vortex ? This is to be feared, and is a danger to which 

 the broad forecast of our legislators should look . The topic might become fruitful 

 of bolh facts and reflections, but I confine myself to narrow limits. We can be 

 roused to patriotic iiuiignalion— half tlio nation, all our presses, can be roused by 

 an oLijugatory article in a foreign review, or a paragraph in (he London Times; 

 but we can be cold under the obligations we contracted as a nation in accepting 

 Mr. Smithson's legacy. We can sutfor his half million of dollars to lie dead in our 

 hands for years and years, with his solemn will recorded on our archives. Alas for 

 this fact! It neither stings nor rouses us. There is no political, no party excite- 

 meni in it. But it is the more painful to dwell upon; and in the principle of such 

 ni'glect there is a silent potency of reproach and mischief which not the marvellous 

 increase of our population, nor the prodigious and universal accumulations of our 

 .thrift, nor all the incontestiblo evidences of our power, nor the victories of our gal- 

 lant Taylor, can adequately counteract the workings of upon national character. 

 Is it because that legacy was pledged to the interests of mind that all our sensibil- 

 ities are so dead? And are we going, as a nation, to set ourselves against these 

 precious interests, or bo content with mediocrity in all that relates to them? In 

 other things we are positively ahead at present; but are we in these? If we never 

 desire to be, let us begin by burning poor Smithson in effisry in the rotunda of the 

 capilol, with an ihkhorn round his neck — knocking the National Institute in the 

 head outright, tumbling its collections from the national edifice where they have 

 hitherto been deposited into the street, and above all, by obliterating from its records 

 the names of all those high functionaries of our (Government under whose sanction 

 and auspices it was first ushered into being and introduced to the scientific world 

 of all nations. 



But I earnestly desire to give way to other hopes and expectations. In this 

 spirit, for one I should say, as I think, that the opportunities of making known in 

 other parts of the world the intellectual advancement existing in this country which 

 thi!" Institute, if only moderately aided by the Government, would afford, as well as of 

 augmenting our own intellectual stores at the capital of the Union, tlienco to be 

 disseminated throughout its borders, which the same small help extei.ded to it 

 would also enable it to etfectuato, would do more towards creating and keeping 

 alive just and favorable opinions of ns with the wise, the learned, and the onlight. 

 ened abroad, than -my other national manifestation we could make. Political 

 power, with all the respect which, under some views, it must command, and with 

 the dread which, when formidable, it can inspire, is not necessarily linked to emi- 

 nence in science, I" ters, and the arts, or with that social superiority, their glo.ious 

 product, and humanizing as glorious, which has ever given to nations their highest 

 contemporary splendor, and conferred upon them the most. durable and enviable 

 renown. 



With this truth standing out in history, I iincerely wish that Congress may grant 

 the institute the small relief it seeks, and I will not part from the hope that it will. 

 In which feeling I pray you, my dear sir, to believe me, with great cordiality and 

 respect, vour very faithful servant, 



RICHARD RUSH. 

 Fiancib Markor, Jr., Esq., 



Correipondtng Secretary of the N/itional Jnttitute, Washington. 



