PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 839 



for admission rigid. Such, in few words, are my notions 

 on this subject, which I respectfully submit, sir, to your 

 better judgment. 



Accept, I pray you, the assurances of my sincere and high 

 consideration. 



THOMAS COOPER, M. D. 



Hon. JOHN FORSYTH, Secretary of State. 



Letter from Francis Wayland. 



PROVIDENCE, October 2, 1838. 



SIR : In reply to your communication dated July last, 

 requesting my views respecting the Smithsonian Institute, I 

 beg leave to state as follows : 



1. It is, I suppose to be taken for granted, that this Insti- 

 tution is intended for the benefit not of any particular 

 section of the United States, but for the benefit of the whole 

 country ; and, also, that no expense, which may be neces- 

 sary in order to accomplish its object, will be spared. 



2. I think it also evident, that there is no need, in this 

 country, of what may be properly termed collegiate education; 

 that is, of that education which may be given between the 

 ages of fourteen or sixteen, and eighteen or twenty. All 

 the old States, and many of the new ones, have as many 

 institutions of this kind as their circumstances require. 

 And, besides, since persons of the ages specified are too 

 young to be, for a long period, absent from home, it is 

 probably better that a large number of such institutions 

 should be established within convenient distances of each 

 other. The age of the pupils in these institutions would 

 also render it desirable that very large numbers be not asso- 

 ciated together. 



3. It is probable that professional schools that is, schools 

 for divinity, law, and medicine will be established in every 

 section of our country. Divinity must be left to the difter- 

 ent Christian sects ; law will probably be taught in the 

 State, or, at least, the district, in which it is to be practiced. 

 The same will, I think, be true of medicine. 



4. If the above views be correct, it will, I think, follow, 

 that the proper place to be occupied, by such an institution 

 would be the space between the close of a collegiate educa- 

 tion and a professional school. Its object would be to carry 

 forward a classical and philosophical education beyond the 

 point at which a college now leaves it, and to give instruc- 



