7 he Smithsonian Library 273 



Professor Henry submitted this plan of organization in 

 advance to a number of learned societies and individuals 

 throughout the country for their criticism ; and among the re- 

 plies the following, from the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences at Boston, is of unusual interest. This reply was 

 signed by Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, Benjamin Pierce, 

 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Asa Gray. It stated: 



"A library is one of the objects contemplated in the act of 

 Congress establishing 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 character, which are most directly important as the 

 means of advancing and diffusing positive knowledge. It is 

 accordingly in these that the Secretary proposes to lay the 

 foundations of the library; forming, ist, a complete collection 

 of the Transactions and Proceedings of all the learned socie- 

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

 periodical publications, and other works necessary in prepar- 

 ing the contemplated periodical reports. . . . Such a library 

 as the plan proposes may be fairly regarded as an impor- 

 tant instrument for the increase and diffusion of knowledofe." 



It will thus be seen that, with very slight dissent, all the 

 persons concerned in the early conduct of the Institution, — 

 the members of Congress, the Regents, Professor Henry, and 

 Professor Jewett, — concurred in the idea that the library 

 should be, first, a library of science, and second, a collection 

 of catalogues and bibliographical apparatus. While it may 

 be said that portions of the original plan have, by force of 

 circumstance, been somewhat modified, the most important 

 has never been deviated from : 



