8 



of the world. In America, North and South, Europe, Asia, and Africa, 

 it can point to distinguished names and ardent co-operators in the dif- 

 fusion of human knowledge. Its library is swelling rapidly into im- 

 portance; its cabinet is increasing daily in interest, and growing so 

 rapidly as to preclude all possibility as yet of assorting and uniting the 

 articles in one place ; its bulletins, of which two have been published, 

 give promise of great usefulness and increasing value ; the correspon- 

 dence embraced in those bulletins, and that which has found its way 

 to the reading public for a long time through your columns, is becom- 

 ing daily more extensive, interesting, and important. In a word, with 

 but a limited means, and a small share, as yet, of that public confidence 

 and support which it is so well calculated to secure, the Institute has 

 succeeded in gaining an available reputation in this country, and in 

 spreading its name to the four quarters of the habitable globe. 



I find the words used by that distinguished scholar and statesman, 

 the Hon. ABEL P. UPSHUR, our present able Secretary of State, in his 

 circular, whilst head of the Navy Department, under date of June 28, 

 1842, so well suited to the subject that I feel called upon to insert them. 

 Speaking of the National Institute, and recommending to our naval 

 officers an active co-operation with its laudable objects, he says : " The 



* design of the institution is to extend and diffuse all useful knowledge 

 ' among men. In its character, it is national ; in its objects, it embraces 

 ' the whole circle of science and of the arts ; and in its purpose, it looks 

 { to the civilization and improvement, and consequently to the happi- 

 ' ness, of man wherever found. A design at once so comprehensive 



* and liberal entitles it to the respect of the civilized world, and claims 

 ' for it in a particular manner the fostering care and assistance of our 

 1 own people." 



If it be then, as it is in fact, in character, national in its objects ; em- 

 bracing the whole circle of science and of the arts in its scope ; in a 

 word, so vast and extensive, why should not the Institute, in a particu- 

 lar degree, be endeared to every lover of his kind, every true citizen of 

 the Republic? Free from the charge of political bias and control, its 

 members belonging to all the parties dividing the country possessing 

 the advantage of having in its ranks many if not most of the leading 

 statesmen, scholars, and artists of the land connected closely through 

 its non-resident members with many of the first scientific and literary 

 institutions in this country and abroad, and in correspondence with some 

 of the most distinguished and influential men in Europe and Asia, no 



