580 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



glad to see the operations of the institution made as plain 

 and practical as the nature of the subjects will admit : but 

 it should not be forgotten that the grand object of the insti- 

 tution is to add to the sum total of the knowledge now exist- 

 ing in the world, and to diffuse it " among men," rather than 

 to scatter that more widely which is already accessible, in a, 

 greater or less degree, to all. 



" Scientific researches," says a committee of the Board of 

 Regents, "are often supposed by the uninformed to be of 

 little or no real importance; and, indeed, are frequently 

 ridiculed as barren of all practical utility; but nothing is 

 more mistaken than this. The most valuable and productive 

 of the arts of life, the most important and wonder-working 

 inventions of modern times, owe their being and value to 

 scientific investigations. By these have been discovered 

 physical truths and laws, the 'intelligent application ot which 

 to practical inventions has given immense benefits to the 

 world. The germs of these valuable improvements and in- 

 ventions have been found and developed by scientific research, 

 the original forms of which have often seemed to the many 

 to be as idle and useless as they were curious. A proposi- 

 tion relating to the pendulum, which for many years re- 

 mained only a curious theoretical relation, ultimately fur- 

 nished a unit for the standard measures of states and nations. 

 The discovery that a magnetic needle could be moved by a 

 galvanic current seemed for a long time more curious than 

 useful, and yet it contained the germ of all that was after- 

 wards developed in the telegraph. It has been well remarked 

 that numerous applications and inventions always result from 

 the discovery of a scientific principle; so that there are many 

 Fultons for every Franklin." 



Besides this, it must be recollected that Smithson restricted 

 his bequest to no particular branch of knowledge. He con- 

 sidered all intimately connected with the improvement and 

 happiness of the human family, and as an answer to what- 

 ever may be said against the character of the publications 

 of the institution, it may be stated that they relate to pre- 

 cisely the same subjects as those which occupied the life of 

 Smithson himself. 



Now, sir, I will proceed to state what I conceive to be the 

 true origin of all the difficulties that have existed in the in- 

 stitution. They have grown out of the question whether 

 the income should be used to build up a library, as the para- 

 mount object, or whether they should be applied not only 

 for a library, but for such other purposes "to increase and 

 diffuse knowledge" as would, in the judgment of the regents,. 



