132 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



will of the founder and to the greatness and simplicity of his design 

 as by himself declared, "the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men," it is no extravagance of anticipation to declare that his 

 name will be hereafter enrolled among the eminent benefactors of 

 mankind. 



The attainment of knowledge is the high and exclusive attribute of 

 man, among the numberless myriads of animated beings, inhabitants 

 of the terrestial globe. On him alone is bestowed, by the bounty of 

 the Creator of the universe, the power and the capacity of acquiring 

 knowledge. Knowledge is the attribute of his nature, which at once 

 enables him to improve his condition upon earth and to prepare him 

 for the enjoyment of a happier existence hereafter. It is by this 

 attribute that man discovers his own nature as the link between earth 

 and heaven; as the partaker of an immortal spirit; as created for a 

 higher and more durable end than the countless tribes of beings which 

 people the earth, the ocean, and the air, alternately instinct with life, 

 and melting into vapor or moldering into dust. 



To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is therefore the 

 greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs 

 life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence. The earth was given 

 to man for cultivation, to the improvement of his own condition. 

 Whoever increases his knowledge multiplies the uses to which he is 

 enabled to turn the gift of his Creator to his own benefit and partakes 

 in some degree of that goodness which is the highest attribute of 

 Omnipotence itself. 



If, then, the Smithsonian Institution, under the smile of an approv- 

 ing Providence, and by the faithful and permanent application of the 

 means furnished by its founder, to the purpose for which he has 

 bestowed them, should prove effective to their promotion; if they 

 should contribute essentially to the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among men, to what higher or nobler object could this generous 

 and splendid donation have been devoted? 



The father of the testator, upon forming his alliance with the heiress 

 of the family of the Percys, assumed, by an act of the British Parlia- 

 ment, that name, and under it became Duke of Northumberland. But, 

 renowned as is the name of Percy in the historical annals of England, 

 resounding as it does from the summit of the Cheviot Hills to the ears 

 of our children in the ballad of Chevy Chase, with the classical com- 

 mentary of Addison; freshened and renovated in our memory as it 

 has recently been from the purest fountain of poetical inspiration; in 

 the loftier strain of Alnwick Castle, tuned by a bard of our own 

 native land; 1 doubly immortalized as it is in the deathless dramas of 

 Shakespeare; "confident against the world in arms," as it may have 

 been in ages long past, and may still be in the virtues of its present 



1 Fitz-Greene Halleck. 



