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132 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



of which departments his lectures excited great interest and admi- 

 ration. He had rare power as a lecturer. With always a full 

 knowledge of his subject, his language was well chosen and exact, 

 his elocution dignified and impressive, and he had in a rare degree, 

 both in conversation and in his public discourses, the faculty charac- 

 teristic of the highest order of minds of presenting the deepest 

 truths with a clearness and simplicity that brought them within the 

 grasp of ordinary minds. In 1837 he for the first time visited 

 Europe, where his valuable contributions to physical science had 

 made him well known to such men as FARADAY, WHEATSTONE, 

 AIRY, and others, who received him with the most flattering 

 attentions. 



By the noble bequest of JAMES SMITHSON, the United States 

 were made the recipients of a fund "to found at Washington, under 

 the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." On the estab- 

 lishment of this institution under an act of Congress in 1 846, the 

 eyes of the leading scientific men in this country and abroad were 

 at once turned to Professor HENRY as the man most eminently 

 qualified to carry out the great objects of this trust in accordance 

 with the spirit of the founder. The trust itself, as prescribed in 

 the will of the founder, was of the grandest and most comprehensive 

 character. It was intended for both the increase and the diffusion 

 of knowledge. It was limited to no particular branch of knowl- 

 edge, and it was for the benefit of all mankind. It was with great 

 hesitation and reluctance that Professor HENRY was induced to 

 give up the line of original research to which he had been devoted, 

 and undertake a work so different from any in which he had been 

 engaged, and involving so great responsibility. But having yielded 

 to the wishes of his friends, he gave himself to the work earnestly 

 and conscientiously, still hoping that after the organization was 

 completed he might be enabled again to resume his former pursuits. 

 Fortunate it was for the honor of the country and for the perma- 

 nent interests of the institution that such a man was brought to 

 preside over its original organization, and afterward to direct and 

 control its administration for nearly a third of a century. How 

 broadly and wisely he laid the foundations of the institution 



