858 PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 



acquainted with something better than the learning of the 

 ancient schools, men who have studied profoundly the rela- 

 tion of scientific principles to practical purposes, and who 

 can teach their fellow-men how to apply them in advancing 

 the public welfare. 



The general superintendence of the institution may be 

 committed to a board of commissioners, appointed by Gov- 

 ernment, to hold their offices during good behavior, and 

 with power to perpetuate their existence. In this way, the 

 institution would not only be free from the evils of frequent 

 changes and political agitations, but would secure to itself, 

 111 the highest degree, the benefits of personal obligation. 

 These commissioners would feel a deep sense of their respon- 

 sibility, and that their powers and permanency in place were 

 given to them that they might have the best opportunity to 

 make the institution what it ought to be a distinguished 

 honor to their country, and a blessing to the world. 



Let this board of commissioners procure the best men 

 that can be found to fill the several professorships that may 

 be instituted ; and, in order to secure the services of men 

 of the first powers and attainments, to lecture and conduct 

 investigations in their appropriate departments, let their 

 several means to facilitate their studies be ample, and their 

 stated salaries liberal ; and then its public course of lectur- 

 ing will be most fully attended, numbers being allured both 

 by the fame of the professors and the lightness of the fees. 

 It was in consequence of high salaries that the University 

 of Gottingen, in the 18th century, rose to the first eminence 

 in Germany. 



As the funds are not now, nor are they likely to be for 

 some time to come, sufficient to support professorships in 

 the whole circle of science, it will be necessary to make a 

 selection. The temptation will be to undertake too much. 

 A few chairs, well filled and well sustained, would effect 

 more than a number far greater than there are adequate 

 means to support. In deciding upon the branches of 

 knowledge to be taught, I would select those that would 

 make the institution as much American as a regard for gen- 

 eral science will allow. In addition to the ordinary profes- 

 sorships of law, of medicine, of the exact sciences, and 

 physics, of classical literature, and of modern languages, 

 &c., I would have one of the English literature, one of 

 American history, one of American constitutional law and 

 jurisprudence, one of American institutions, one of civil 

 engineering and architecture, one of the practical applica- 

 tion of the exact sciences to the mechanic arts. 



