

9G8 LETTERS ON PROGRAMME OF ORGANIZATION. 



The following enumeration of the proposed subjects of these reports will 

 give the Academy a full conception of this part of the plan. 



"I. PHYSICAL CLASS. 



" 1. Physics, including Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and 

 Meteorology. 



" 2. Natural History, including Botany, Zoology, and Geology. 



" 3. Agriculture. 



" 4. Application of Science to Arts. 



" II. MORAL AND POLITICAL CLASS. 



" 5. Ethnology, including Particular History, Comparative Philology, 

 Antiquities, &c. 



6. Statistics and Political Economy. 



" 7. Mental and Moral Philosophy. 



" 8. A Survey of the Political Events of the World ; Penal Reform, &c. 



" III. LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS. 



" 9. Modern Literature. 



"10. The Fine Arts, and their application to the useful arts. 



"11. Bibliography. 



" 12. Obituary notices of distinguished individuals." 



Another branch of the plan for the diffusion of knowledge contemplates 

 the offer of premiums for the best essays on given subj> 



The publications of the Institution, of whatever form, an- proposed to be 

 presented to all the colleges and to the principal libraries and scientific in- 

 stitutions throughout the country, and to be exchanged for the transactions 

 of all scientific and literary societies throughout the world, thus laying the 

 foundation of a valuable library. An adequate number are to be preserved 

 to supply the future demand of new institutions, and the remainder are to 

 be placed on sale at a price so low as to render them generally accessible. 



For carrying out the plan thus sketched for increasing and diffusing 

 knowledge, the Regents propose to appropriate one-half of the income of 

 their fund. The remainder is to be expended in the formation and main- 

 tenance of a library, a collection of instruments of research in all branches 

 of experimental science, and a museum. This partition of the income of 

 the fund is stated to be " a compromise between the two modes of increas- 

 ing and diffusing knowledge." 



A library is one of the objects contemplated in the act of Congress, estab- 

 lishing the Board for the management of the trust. It is requisite for 

 carrying out the plan above proposed. At the same time it will be observed, 

 that the distribution by exchange of the publications, which that scheme 

 of operations will call into existence, will rapidly provide the Institution, 

 without farther expense, with the class of works, often of a costly charac- 

 ter, which are most directly important as the means of advancing and dif- 

 fusing positive knowledge. It is accordingly in these that the Secretary 

 proposes to lay the foundations of the library ; forming, 1st, a complete 

 collection of the Transactions and Proceedings of all the learned societies 

 in the world; and, 2d, a similar collection of all the current periodical 

 publications, and other works necessary in preparing the contemplated 

 periodical reports. In the next place, it is proposed to procure by prefer- 

 ence those books which are not found in the other public libraries of the 

 United States, regarding the want of them as of more urgency to be sup- 

 plied than that of a symmetrical and proportionate collection of books in 

 all the departments of science. Such a library as the plan proposes may be 

 fairly regarded as an important instrument for the increase and diffusion oi 

 knowledge. 



