H4 The Smithsonian Institution 



not impossible that the uncanny predictions of John Quincy 

 Adams as to the fate of the Smithsonian bequest might have 

 been fulfilled. 



It was much for the Institution to have secured as an or- 

 ganizer a man of such commanding abilities, of such wide 

 and lofty aims, and one whose character was noble beyond 

 the possibility of any tarnish. It was much, on the other 

 hand, for Henry to abandon the life of an investigator, at the 

 very time when the promise of the future was so brilliant. 

 He was fully conscious of his own great powers and that he 

 was sacrificing, as he expressed it, "future fame to present 

 reputation." He understood, however, the opportunities for 

 good which the new position would afford, and, with a full 

 appreciation of what he was doing, cheerfully sacrificed his 

 own scientific career to what he knew would be for all time a 

 powerful aid to the work of investigators without number. 

 By this act he did much toward establishing the profession 

 of scientific administration a profession which in the com- 

 plexity of modern civilization is becoming more and more es- 

 sential to scientific progress. That he himself appreciated 

 this fact is clearly shown in his loving eulogy of his friend 

 Alexander Dallas Bache ; and yet it is not impossible that he 

 was mistaken in supposing that this change of activities had 

 lessened the chance of future fame. For so long as the 

 Smithsonian Institution endures, the name of its first Sec- 

 retary will be remembered with it. 



VI. 



AFTER his election to the Secretaryship, Professor Henry, 

 although by a special resolution of the Board of Regents, 

 January 26, 1847, "requested to continue his researches in 

 physics, and to present such facts and principles as may be 



