TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS, 1843-45. 329 



limited source of improvement for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge in its liberal sense. Was there no other in- 

 stitution in Paris than the Jardin des Plantes, which could 

 be taken as a model ? He would refer the honorable Sena- 

 tor to another institution, and one which f would better fulfill 

 the design of the bequest. Look at the wide and compre- 

 hensive body of instruction delivered at the Sorbonrie, (the 

 Faculte des LeMres et Sciences,) under the auspices of the 

 University of France, the great fountain of knowledge to 

 which all enlightened strangers repair, and drink in copious 

 libations of philosophical and practical learning. He was 

 not conversant with Mr. Smithson's peculiar tastes or habits ; 

 but if he (Mr. S.) was the man of liberal and general in- 

 quiry that he believed him to have been, he would venture 

 to assert that his resort was as much to the Sorbonne as to 

 the Jardin des Plantes. And what would he hear there ? 

 Would he not hear lectures on the sciences of history, moral 

 philosophy, arid government, as well as physics, and math- 

 ematics ? The present minister of France, M. Guizot, had 

 been, if he mistook not, a lecturer on history ancient and 

 modern history, comprehending all the phases of human 

 society in this institution. Others had become known 

 there to the world as much as lecturers, as ministers of state, 

 worthy of being entrusted with the destinies of nations and 

 mankind. 



He would beg leave to ask the gentlemen who had charge 

 of this great subject, in looking for a model, to look at such 

 an institution as the Faculte des Lettres et Sciences at the 

 Sorbonne, rather than at a special institution like the Jardin 

 des Plantes. He had no disposition to depreciate the value 

 of the physical sciences; but he insisted upon it, that the 

 moral and political sciences were equally important, and, 

 if any distinction was to be drawn, more important. At a 

 very early period of his life, he was struck with a graphic 

 remark make by the great commentator on English law, in 

 illustrating the fitness of associating a professorship of law 

 with the [Jniversity of Oxford and his honorable friend 

 from Kentucky [Mr. Orittenden] no doubt well recollected 

 the passage that " the sciences are of a sociable disposition, 

 and nourish best in the neighborhood of each other." He 

 would make no distinction. He must be permitted to say, 

 that he thought the Senate had already decided the question 

 in regard to the extension of this library, by striking out 

 the proviso of the first section, and the whole of the eighth 

 section, which provides for professors on the subject of nat- 

 ural sciences only. 



