THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-55. 613 



If he had intended to furnish to the people of the United 

 States, and especially to the citizens of Washington, a great 

 library, comprehending all that was then known in eveiy 

 department of human knowledge and culture, he would 

 have said so in terms not to be misunderstood. The com- 

 mittee cannot doubt that if lie had merely designed to pro- 

 vide for the purchase of books, to become, through the 

 .agency of the United States, the founder of a library, he 

 would' have used the simple language appropriate to such 

 an intention. He would have said: "I bequeath the whole 

 of my property, subject, &c., to the United States of Amer- 

 ica, to found, at Washington, a library, under the name of 

 the Smithsonian Library." 



It is difficult to believe that any man having such an ob- 

 ject in view would have abandoned the plain, simple, intel- 

 ligible language, in which no difference of construction 

 could, by any possibility, have arisen, and have substituted 

 for it the sentence which is found in his will, namely : " To 

 found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men." 



Again, Mr. Smithsou was, as the committee have before 

 said, a man of science, the author of scientific memoirs, a 

 member of the Royal Society, and a contributor to its Trans- 

 actions. What is more natural than that such a man should, 

 when about to pass away from the scene of action, dedicate 

 his property to the continued prosecution of those researches 

 to which his life had been principally devoted. The words 

 of the bequest are strongly corroborative of this view. It 

 is for the " increase of knowledge," not merely for the ac- 

 quirement of that which now exists. A library would sub- 

 serve the latter purpose, but could only indirectly aid in the 

 accomplishment of the former by enabling those who had 

 mastered its contents to do what the board is now doing, 

 namely to prosecute researches for the increase of knowl- 

 edge. But the terms of the bequest require not merely that 

 it should be applied to the increase of knowledge, but also 

 to its diffusion, and to its diffusion AMONG MEN. 



The benevolent purposes of Mr. Smithson were not lim- 

 ited to the citizens of Washington, nor yet to the people of 

 the United States. They had a far wider scope. A man 

 of science belongs exclusively to no particular country. 

 He is in one sense a cosmopolite, at home in all places 

 where the votaries of science dwell, and under every clime 

 .they are the objects of his benevolence. They are men 



