1 6 The Smithsonian Institution 



names then renowned to science, and he himself contributed 

 in those early days honorably to the enlargement of those 

 "lurid specks in the vast field of darkness," of which he spoke, 

 towards the coming light. 



His industry was the more creditable to him in that he was 

 at this time a man of large means, with every temptation to 

 devote himself to amusement, and this industry will be seen 

 to be still greater when it is remembered that these pub- 

 lished papers are but a small portion of his writings ; for 200 

 manuscripts were forwarded to the United States with his 

 effects, and, besides these, thousands of detached notes and 

 memoranda. 



Unhappily, with the exception of one small volume, of all 

 these nothing remains, the whole of the originals having been 

 destroyed in the disastrous fire at the Institution in 1865, just 

 one hundred years from the date of his birth. We know 

 something of these manuscripts from the paper by Mr. John- 

 son, who had access to them before the formation of the Insti- 

 tution, and from it we learn that they are connected not only 

 with science, but with history, the arts, language, rural pur- 

 suits, gardening, the construction of buildings, and kindred 

 topics, " such as are likely to occupy the thoughts and to 

 constitute the reading of a gentleman of extensive acquire- 

 ments and liberal views derived from a long and intimate 

 acquaintance with the world," while his cabinet, which was 

 also destroyed by the fire, is described as consisting of a 

 choice collection of minerals, comprising probably eight or 

 ten thousand specimens, in exceedingly perfect condition, in- 

 cluding examples of most of the meteorites which had fallen 

 in Europe during several centuries, and forming what was at 

 the time very much the richest and rarest collection in the 

 United States. 



If, then, we ask whether Smithson had such a competent 



